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The latest Brat Camp has turned my life around
The latest Brat Camp has turned my life around
1 Xanthe Laird changed from a pretty
and polite 14-year-old into a parent’s worst
nightmare. At 17, she drank, smoked, swore
and took drugs, and often lashed out. She was
the despair of her mother, Sorrel Conquest,
but, now 18, she has been home from Brat
Camp for more than two months, has a job as
a trainee stewardess on a boat and a new
boyfriend.2 Sorrel says: I would have done almost anything to help Xanthe. Half the time I didn’t know where she was and I had visions of her lying dead in a gutter. She was out of control and I thought if she didn’t end up dead, she’d be locked up. 3 I tried not to have high expectations of Brat Camp, but her letters showed she was changing. She sounded loving and affectionate again. It’s reward-based so they know they can only move forwards if they behave. It was brilliant for me, too, because the staff told me not to feel guilty about Xanthe’s behaviour. I had taught her about the dangers of drugs but she made her own choices. Now we get on really well. She’s stopped taking drugs and turned her life around. 4 Xanthe says: At Brat Camp I had to sleep on wooden boards with no pillows, eat only porridge or rice and sit in a stone circle for four days without speaking to anyone. But I lasted the full 85 days. I was very self-destructive before I went and I wouldn’t let anyone help me. 5 When I arrived, I missed my mum for the first time in years and a lot of emotions hit me. The staff seemed evil and sitting in the circle was unbearable but after a while I realised everything they said made sense. We were made to work out why we’d got in such a state, and I got to know myself again. 6 Now I get a buzz from saying no to drugs and cigarettes. Before, I couldn’t give anything up because I had no faith in myself, but I feel great that I’ve managed to do it. I have so much to look forward to thanks to Brat Camp helping me to help myself. |