Trails Carolina Experience terrible

This testimony was found on Reddit.

Trails traumatized me. The staff force you to do everything and even when your hiking up a huge mountain with huge heavy pack on they yell at you for stopping and force you to keep moving.

The first week your there the first letter you get is a letter from your parents saying what you did and why your there. The letters you parents try to send basically gets edited by them to make it different so you cant hear what your parents actually wanted to say. The letters are not even sent through the mail they take a picture of you letter and send it through email. The staff don't care if your crying and you only see your therapist once a week and the therapist barely even listens to you and tells your parents the wrong things about you. Mine told my parents I was self harming for attention.

They make you hike in pouring rain and snow no matter what. The food is disgusting and have the same stuff every week and you have clean the pot and scrub and you have very little time to do it. We only shower once or twice a month and on the website it said warm showers and comfy beds which is a lie. Everything is dirty and you sleep in tiny tents with 4 or 5 people which is meant for less and if it is raining you get soaked in the tents. The clothes are very dirty and very low quality and never get washed. People run away all the time and try to self harm with shoe laces and stuff. PEOPLE HAVE DIED HERE!! its so messed up nobody cares about you there. You learn stupid extremely hard wilderness skills and have top learn all of them to leave.

The people try to force your parents to send you to a boarding school and lie that your child is doing bad. I was lucky and got to go home but now I have a very poor relationship with my family and only have a few friends. Trails made it worse. I cry every time i just think about Trails it was the most hardest traumatizing thing that has ever happened to me. I feel so bad for everybody who has to go through this like i did. It made me so depressed and wanted to die while I was there because of how bad it was. I felt more hopeless than ever I thought I would never be going home. trails is torture. you have to carry your food around and your heavy sleeping bad and group gear which the water is from a creek that's not cleaned. The staff don't care and dont help or carry any of it. I was always crying on the hikes because it was hurting me and they yelled at me for being slow. the "school" there is not school there is no activities at trails you just work on your wilderness skills. Many things happen there thats against the law and lie. DONT COME HERE and btw my group was fox trot.

Source:
Trails Carolina Experience terrible (Reddit)

Fred at Second Nature Wilderness program

This testimony was found on Yelp. All rights go the original author Fred

They took off my pictures like many other people here I got PTSD from going there along with acute intermittent porphyria. A 1:100 disease for life. I throw up blood regularly I go to the bathroom and see blood in the toilet im now on 10 pills just for anxiety and sleep and 15mg a day of oxy.

This place gave me nightmares and health problems for the rest of my life. I moved out never spoke to my parents again. I had pictures that were taken down part of porphyria is you get sun blisters my face back and chest have scars from the sun sores that will never be healed or covered up. I experience pain everyday I've had seizures as a result of the PTSD my last seizure dislocated my shoulder and tore my rotatir cuff.

I came out worse than I went in. They refused to bring me to the hospital and I was told if I didn't stop throwing up i couldn't go home. I was so sick there from the salmonella I was throwing up daily one night I was so dehydrated I passed out half way to my tent and passed myself. Sending your kid here could kill them my doctors told me im lucky to be alive and what I have (porphyria) could be passed onto my kids. It mutated my gene. Screw them if you send your kid they will hate you. Im not the only one who came out worse than when they went in. If I got sick I was supposed to carry extra weight while hiking to metaphorically reflect the weight the group had to carry from dragging me by my backpack while I was unconscious on hikes. Luckily the staff although they were told not to bring me to the hospital they atleast didn't force me to carry extra weight after they found me unconscious when I passed out and passed myself. They knew I want faking but the therapist believed I was.

I was also mocked because I read the bible cause I knew I was dying. I debated hanging myself while there because I knew I was dying I wanted to go out on my own terms. I had my will written inside my boots telling my parents to get an @autopsy done. I also told my friends in my group to tell my parents what REALLY happened to me and why I died. I HOPE THIS PLACE BURNS TO THE GROUND. Therapist lu vaughn was my therapist. The staff I had knew something was wrong but they were helpless because of her orders. I been to jail and jail was better than that place. Imagine sending ur child somewhere worse than jail they will never be the same. I don't trust anyone and cut off my entire family because of this place. Look at the other reviews more ppl left with PTSD I wouldn't wish PTSD on my worst enemy

Sources:

• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
• 327. Second Nature Wilderness program (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)