“I vividly remember every single horrible experience I have had and witnessed over the years in a troubled teen home or also known as an out-patient facility.
Sagamore Children’s Center was the dirty little secret of Dix Hills, Long Island. Everyone in the town knew of it but never knew exactly what went down there.
I remember the countless “intakes” my abusive mother had made me endure. I was a regular teenage girl, who was too much for my addict mother to handle. She manipulated me into thinking I was the one with mental health issues, when really it was her. I spent countless years in “centers” that are supposed to help, when in reality, inside the doors of these places is hell on earth.
When I was brought in for Sagamore Children’s Center intake, I remember nothing besides the ties around my wrists feeling so tight. The staff explained it was for my own protection.
I was immediately put on a slew of new antidepressants and antipsychotics. My psychiatrist did not ask anything about me or how I was doing. My doctor was an older woman whom I can not remember the name of. After a two-minute conversation, she prescribed me the medications I would be forced to take daily. Every single day after that I was so drugged up that I could not even keep my eyes open during the day.
Little, to no, food was given. Food/snacks were considered rewards. We spent 8/9 hours in this facility per day. When I would fall asleep from the extensive drug intake during school at Sagamore, they would simply leave me there to sleep even once school was done. I would wake up at 5 PM, on my desk and nobody would be near.
I knew that the only way to get out of there faster was to obey their rules. Take my drugs, be silent, and conform to their rules.
Kids who did not comply would get a shot of “Booty Juice,” which is known as the sedative they give you without consent.
I remember they would give shots of “Booty Juice” so easily to anyone who did not obey their ridiculous rules. If you really pushed back, you would be admitted into in-patient.
Inpatient facilities, such as Mather Inpatient Treatment, had isolation rooms which were the worst trauma I have received to date.
On the day of my intake, I was around 15/16. I remember being very scared, and felt hopeless after my intake with the nurse. They put me in the self-isolation room for the night because I could not stop crying. They said I was not allowed to cry that loud. Even though my mother was abusive, the best thing for me at that moment would be a familiar face.
I kept screaming, “Please, just let me talk to my mom!”
They shut and locked the door, and left me with a sleeping bag on the floor to sleep on. I felt like a dog in a cage. Lights were off and it was the worst night of my entire life. I woke up the next morning and the nurses opened the lock. They acted like this was normal and nothing had happened. From then on I knew, to get out of this place I needed to stay silent and follow their tyrant rules.
There are a lot of other scary experiences I have had in facilities, however, those two are the most popular destinations on Long Island and nobody talks about them. I would like for these two institutions to be held accountable.”