Enoch has spent the last several weeks defiantly trying to prove that nobody can make him do anything. He doesn’t have to go to school, or to church, or to therapy, or do his chores unless he gets the rewards that he defines (obscene quantities of video game time). Yesterday we finally agreed on a deal that he was willing to take that would incentivize him to go to all his classes and do his chores and join us for scripture study to get: the same media he was getting before he decided to prove his independence. The difference is that with the new system if he misses some part of his responsibilities he still has incentive to do the other parts. That’s a huge will for us.
Today we achieved an even larger victory with Isaac. He has become so defiant and nonfunctional that he has not gone to school for over 2 weeks and we have been looking to get him into a residential treatment program for 24/7 monitored care. The reason we felt it necessary to go that far was that he was adamant that he wouldn’t voluntarily participate in a less invasive outpatient program. Today he talked about that program with his therapist—the only adult he trusts—who gave the program his enthusiastic endorsement and said it would be good for Isaac. Isaac left that appointment saying that with his endorsement he was willing to do that program. It think that intensive intervention, with both Isaac and us as parents, could really get him on track to graduate and create an actual life for himself. Maybe he’ll even decide that it isn’t necessary to adopt a new identity and cut off any contact from the family when he turns 18.
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