I completed their one-year program in 2002-03 at the Shafter and Riverside locations. It was so off the wall there that I put together a tell-all web site (it was a somewhat therapeutic task) to let others know what it is really like. One woman saw my site, and everything that she read was exactly what her son had told her was going on there. She hired a lawyer and got him a program transfer, but not before his first-phase instructor promised to "send him back to prison."

If Teen Challenge grads don't sign up for the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute (TCMI is their own version of a seminary), then to show their appreciation for what Teen Challenge "had done for them," they are to sign over their very first paychecks to Teen Challenge. Students are told that once they enter Teen Challenge, they should not even consider leaving early, because seven times the demons of addiction would come back and get them, and after they do their prison time - if they live - God will call them back to Teen Challenge. They are told that one "can never run from Teen Challenge."

[www.teenchallengeexposed.com]

interesting! i almost went to a female TC in CA! Instead i ended up in a worse cult! I heard they have an excellent success rate for recovery. I heard 85%? N.A And A.A claim a 25% success rate.

I was also told that 7 demons wore than the first. Scare tactics, more than reality i surmise. Ill check your link.

I cover these wild "cure" rates on my site. Teen Challenge CA claims an 86-87% "cure" rate every single year, and they have since 1975. It's preposterous. This is done primarily through an honor system over five years using questionnaires! Ask an alcoholic or addict to tell you the truth about drinking or using! But then, this bunch promotes the patently absurd theory that the "student," after falling under their spell, is no longer an alcoholic or addict, but a "new creation." They claim that through prayer, you can turn a pickle back into a cucumber.

Actually, AA doesn't keep track of success rates, anything like that would be done by an outside agency. Their primary purpose is to help the alcoholic/addict stop using the particular substance for one more day. "God" in AA/NA is a God of your own choosing - a power greater than yourself - whether it's the Biblical God, or in my case, Group Of Drunks (we can accomplish as a group what we cannot accomplish by ourselves. Think of a group pushing a car to the gas station as opposed to a lone person). I knew one man in San Diego who had been clean and sober for five years, and his "higher power" was Mother Earth. Hey, it worked for him!

Good luck to you,

Michael :)

Well, Rick has rules about preaching here, so i wont get on a pulpit, but i can say that without the Biblical God Id be drunk as a skunk right now! LOL...

A friend just got back from TC and hes using again. He went there to avoid jail time! He didnt have anything bad to say about TC. He really thought it was good. Its not the same state tho. Yeah, I cant imagine drunks and druggies telling the truth about staying sober...lol, addiction and lies go hand in hand.

Best of luck