CASE STUDY #11: RACHELLE (Hormone Imbalance)
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Here’s one that will blow your mind; at least it shocked me as much as any other event in my 51 years of working with kids who function three standard deviations below the mean (real outliers). Rachelle was just about everyone’s definition of a perfect kid. She was a star in all aspects of school; academic, social, extra curricular activities, community service, and in general just a great all-around kid. You name it and she excelled. She was the kind of child every parent wishes for. So imagine everyone’s shock to learn that Rachelle and her boyfriend were arrested for holding up a 7-11 store!
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“This just can’t be. It must be another Rachelle. She was an unwilling accomplice right?” This is what we all said when we heard the news account of the crime. But no…it was her all right. The police determined that she and her boyfriend needed money to pay off a drug dealer. Fortunately her parents had excellent health insurance and, with our help, they were able to convince the juvenile justice system that she needed psychiatric examination (at their own expense) and would post an exorbitant bond to assure her court appearance in a month’s time. She was immediately admitted to a 30 day residential psychiatric facility (at a cost of about two years tuition at the most expensive Ivy League University).
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The examination and testing was the best available anywhere. Starting with a basic toxicology screen (remember she needed the money to pay off a drug dealer) and working up to all the systemic analysis money can buy. Sure enough, there was an explanation we could all live with: Rachelle’s hormonal functioning was totally out of whack.
Emotionally speaking she was a ticking time bomb! It would be fair to say that the person who held up the convenience store was in Rachelle’s body but it most certainly wasn’t the Rachelle we all knew and loved. Psychologically, physiologically, emotionally or socially this was not our Rachelle. She was a behaviorally emotional train wreck.
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After double the normal stay (two more years at Harvard’s worth) including pharmacology, continual psychiatric evaluation, counseling (both individual and group) she appeared before a juvenile court judge with a flock of medical personnel to explain her diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. As luck would have it, the judge was a fan of “I CARE” and made attending our group a contingency of her probation. Within weeks Rachelle was back and serving as the assistant group leader in her small group setting. (Often post treatment kids become natural leaders in our program. They are one of our most valuable resources!)
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Analysis: There are many lessons to be learned from Rachelle. I’ll present them in order of importance from the
“I CARE” perspective.
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1. Always consider the possibility that radical behavior changes can have physiological
underpinnings.
2. Insist upon testing for everything.
3. Refuse to stereotype.
4. Nagging thoughts:
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What if her parents didn’t have the money for this kind of treatment and attention?
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How many kids with similar circumstances are languishing in prison right now?
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Excercise #7 Learning Style Inventory
Exercise #33 Owning What I Say
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Exercise #37 Alter Ego​ Exercise
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