EMPTY STOCKING: Treatment program helps family find peace

Amanda’s family had long struggled with their adopted son Nick’s anger issues.

When Nick became a teenager, the situation only deteriorated. He threw the family dog down the stairs, threatened to kill his parents, became addicted to pornography and broke into a school.

His sister would wake up at night and find that Nick had snuck into her room and was staring at her.

“All of those things were leading us to feel like something was going to happen to our daughter or son,” Amanda said.

Amanda and Nick’s names have been changed to protect their privacy.
Their story might have had a much different ending had it not been for the Griffith Centers for Children, one of 15 area charities receiving grants from The Gazette/El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund.

The Griffith Centers is home to the only residential treatment program that would accept Nick last year when doctors at a local psychiatric hospital said they no longer felt their facility was a good fit for him.

After 14 months at Griffith Centers, Nick returned to his family.

Amanda says their house is much more peaceful than it used to be.

“He’s doing well now,” she said. “He’s not being aggressive toward the kids or toward the dog. He’s doing really well at school.”

Nick says that the Griffith Centers equipped him with a multitude of tools to cope with his anger — everything from reading a book to talking to a friend or volunteering.

“Before the Griffith Centers, I was a very violent kid,” said Nick, who would like to be a mechanic or work at a residential treatment facility when he finishes school. “But now it’s like I can put those anger issues aside and look at the big picture and figure out things aren’t so bad.

“If I really want to change and keep changing, I’m going to have to keep doing what I’m doing.”