Teen Trouble (2012) s01e08 Episode Script
Brandi
Oh, my God.
I'm Josh Shipp.
When a teen is out of control So every three days, I either get high or drunk.
And the parents are out of options I get the call.
Tonight on "Teen Trouble" That's scary.
I've got one shot to save 15-year-old Brandi.
Huffing is frighteningly dangerous.
You have a 15 year old in your house with no rules.
You're in for a wake-up call.
Gina is a working prostitute.
Oh, my God.
I'm done.
He put me through hell this week.
Lock the keys, lock the cash Anything that she could use to get out of here.
They're trying to get me off of the drugs.
Ow! I'm in pain.
I am dying.
I know what it means to be a teen in trouble.
I was one Abandoned, abused, addicted but I beat the odds.
I'm a teen behavior specialist.
My approach is gritty, gutsy You can lie to everyone else, you will not lie to me.
And in your face.
You're acting like a spoiled brat.
It's ridiculous.
My mission is to wake these teens and their parents up There's was a condom.
Here we have a beer can.
Before it's too late.
I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you throw away your life.
This week, I'm in Logan, Utah, where 15-year-old Brandi is hell-bent on getting high.
I have to do a lot to get high.
Her mother Wendy is desperate.
I can't do this.
She knows her daughter's in trouble.
You're out there bragging about how big and bad you are.
But she doesn't really have a clue just how bad Brandi really is.
Oh, my God.
Oh! I want to so bad.
Shot.
I think I'm gonna puke.
I started doing drugs in the sixth grade, when I was 11.
Oh! Ohh.
I love to get high.
The high is amazing on any drug.
Mmm.
I like snorting pills not eating them.
I like popping 'em and snorting 'em.
This is my pipe, and as you can see, it's really dirty.
I've been smoking all day.
I love doing the drug.
Can't stay away from meth.
It's 6:33 in the morning.
I've been up all night, smoking heroin.
So every three days, I either get high or drunk.
I'm not as drunk as I want to be right now.
I want to be really, really, really drunk.
That's the only thing that's fun around here is drugs Drugs and alcohol.
If I really need to get high and I don't have money, I will go steal air duster and huff it.
Yes.
Done.
I so excited.
Ahh.
When I huff it, my whole body goes numb And tingly, and I just sit there.
Sometimes I black out.
It's like I'm not even alive and I'm just flying.
It's amazing.
Brandi is my 15-year-old daughter.
And even though I worked in probation, I don't know what to do to help her.
She refuses to be disciplined.
I have attempted to punish.
I've done everything you're supposed to do, and nothing really works.
You can take her phone, you can take her door, you can take her bed she just doesn't care.
She'll just take off and leave for days on end, and have no communication with anyone.
Nobody knows where she's at.
I don't think this is the way she's meant to be.
And I don't understand where it went wrong.
It was extremely special to have Brandi.
My mom died when I was pregnant with her.
So I guess I really craved that mother-daughter relationship.
I was just happy to have a little girl.
We would sit in the bed and do her hair and take her out to the park, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes just everything that you do with little girls.
She loved dress up.
She's always been very into dress up.
For a while, Brandi wanted to open a clothing store.
She made up a business plan.
She actually tried to get ahold of khloe Kardashian to ask her about how she got into business.
It was just a normal, normal, normal childhood.
We used to travel a lot as a family.
We lived in a boat together.
We've lived in an r.
V.
, traveling around the country together.
We used to be very, very close.
Um, Brandi was my best friend.
There was never any issues with her, ever, until three years ago.
That's when we moved back to Utah.
And then Brandi started hooking up with people that she didn't know and calling them her friends.
Dude, if I had money right now, I could go get some weed.
She didn't want to be with her family anymore.
And that is when everything changed.
He took my virginity, so, I mean He was special to me.
And I felt responsible and also because everybody hated me, all my friends.
Uh, Brandi was ostracized horribly.
And she just kind of sunk into herself.
It was tough.
It was really tough.
Everybody just (bleep) be over.
They didn't care about me.
I was alone in the world.
I just had myself.
I don't care.
It's just another reason to get high.
She definitely has a wall around her, and I can't get through to her.
The last time I tried to get out of her what's wrong was around Christmas when I found out that she was huffing.
Um, that was terrifying.
She claims she's only done it once, but I don't believe that.
Ohh.
You do it once, you're dead.
And and that scares me.
Ow! I'm in pain.
I am dying, man.
My lungs are freezing 'cause of the air duster.
I have fears that she will die on some crappy couch in some crappy apartment.
She won't ever come home.
That's my biggest, biggest fear.
I don't know what to do to help her.
I have no idea.
That's why I'm hoping maybe somebody else can get through to her.
I can't get through to Brandi.
I'm on my way to meet with Wendy and Brandi face-to-face for the first time.
And I have my work cut out for me.
Any one of these things that she's involved in could seriously kill her, could seriously end her life.
Brandi's mom is expecting me to just come in, wave the magic wand boom child's fixed.
The truth is, she needs to take responsibility and she needs to change as well.
Brandi rules that home.
There are no consequences.
There are no boundaries.
And so she has complete freedom and she's absolutely drowning in it.
If this doesn't wake her up, I guarantee you, nothing will.
Nothing will.
I want you to hear it from me legitimately.
Okay.
- I'm not here to exploit your situation.
- Okay.
I'm not here to make you look bad.
I'm here to help your family.
- Right.
- So this week is gonna be a great week.
This week, your family can change.
Okay.
But from this moment forward, for the next four days - Yeah.
- I'm in charge.
Okay.
So before we move forward, can I have your commitment on that? Totally.
100%.
- Okay.
- Totally, yeah.
- Brandi? - Uh-huh.
Look me look at me.
I want to be able to believe you.
Huh.
You're good with that? Uh-huh.
All right.
Here's what I'd like to do right now.
I'd like to spend some time with Brandi, - get to know her.
- Enjoy.
All right.
Shall we? It was a little weird, having someone coming into my life and trying to fix me.
I don't know him.
I didn't know what he was gonna do.
I just had to get over it and go with whatever.
What do we got here? You have no idea how bad this situation is.
You have a lot to think about.
I thought about it yesterday! I thought about everything! Do you come to this mall? I've been kicked out a lot.
You've been kicked out of this one? Yeah, a lot.
After you.
One of the first things I do is, I get the kid out of the house and somewhere they feel comfortable.
Hopefully, then they'll be more likely to open up to me.
I've only got a few days with her, and she needs to trust me right away, otherwise none of this will work.
Answer this question for me, - and all I want is you to be honest.
- Mm-hmm.
Do you want to change? Probably.
Hold on.
No, no, no, no, no.
Let me show you how you responded to me.
Ask me the question.
Do you want to change? Yes.
I don't know.
Let me tell you something, I think you're scared.
Probably.
And I think you check out because you're scared.
Look in my eyes.
There was a point in my life where I didn't think I could change.
I grew up in the foster care system.
I was kicked out of a bunch of different homes.
I had a couple of foster parents that were alcoholics.
One of those homes, I was raped by, like, a 20-year-old man As an 8-year-old boy.
It was disgusting.
It was embarrassing.
I was mortified.
And I thought, all this crap is happening to me, it's my fault, and this is just how my life is gonna be.
I did not think I could change.
But I have.
And I want to help put you through that process that I went through.
This process will be difficult.
There will be times you are mad at me.
There will be times that you hate me.
There will be times that you you think I've lost it and you wonder why on earth I'm doing what I'm doing.
But I am in your corner.
Now you've probably heard that bullcrap line from other adults, but I am not other adults.
I am a man of my word.
When Josh told me he was gonna help me, I didn't believe him because no one's ever told me they were gonna do it and then actually do it.
So I just said what he wanted me to say.
So let me hear you say it.
I am 100% committed.
I am 100% committed to change my life.
Look at me.
I'm 100% committed to change my life.
All right.
Deal.
Okay.
Let's get out of here.
You know, she's saying the right things to me, but I don't think she understands how painful the process is gonna be.
One of the first things I do when I'm working with parents is to excavate their teen's room.
I am shocked at the number of parents that have not gone through their teen's room, ever.
And I warned Brandi I'd be all up in her business.
- Okay.
- And by the way, you as her parent, You never need to apologize for searching through her room.
Oh, right.
See, now I wouldn't have thought to go that far.
In the future, look out for little things like this, where they're no longer in their original condition, where things could be sort of easily tucked away.
What is this? That's to smoke weed.
- What do we got here? - This is what scares me the worst.
So tell me what she's doing with this.
- She's huffing it.
- Yeah.
And I confronted her with it, and she told me, "I only did it that one time and I'll never do it again," and there's the second one, so - Huffing is frighteningly dangerous.
- Right.
Wendy is allowing this to happen under her own roof.
10 feet from where she sleeps, her daughter's in there huffing.
She needs to wake up.
Talk to me about the house rules.
- Right now there really - Are there rules? Not right now, no.
We I-I'm at a loss.
- Everything I think of - So you have a 15 year old in your house with no rules? - Yes or no? - Yes.
I have no control.
You have control.
You're just not using it.
May I help you and give you a little advice? Yes, please.
The best thing my foster parents did, who were the folks that got through to me and turned me around, was that there were rules and there were consequences, and they followed through 100% of the time.
Brandi needs to know that you are serious and that you will follow through.
You need to be your daughter's parent, not her friend.
Okay.
My greatest concern for your family is that you don't understand how bad this situation is.
- I do.
I do.
- I don't believe you.
But I'm well, maybe I don't.
Let me put it to you like this You have two options.
Either you discipline Brandi in this home Mm-hmm.
Or life will discipline her when she's an adult.
I believe the solution to Brandi changing - Mm-hmm.
- Is you.
Win or lose, this is on you.
Okay.
Own that.
Gina is a prostitute.
- Take her, and I'll pay you.
- I'll I'll watch her.
Oh, my God.
So how you feeling? Yesterday was a little challenging.
- Which is totally understandable, right? - Right.
You're you are taking on a new style of parenting.
Right.
And she's not used to that sort of interaction.
So I want to help you with that.
Okay.
- And I want you to take notes.
- Okay.
When things get escalated, and they will, you don't have to participate.
- Write this down.
- Okay.
"We can talk about this when you're calm.
" Right.
That is your default strategy when things get out of control.
"We can talk about this when you're calm.
" The ball is in her court.
You're ready to have a-a conversation, but we're gonna have an adult conversation.
Okay.
"We can talk about this when you're ready to.
" Wendy's really been struggling, so I wanted to give her some basic parenting tools to get started, especially because she and Brandi are about to get their first wake-up call.
So we're going today.
The experience is designed intentionally to scare Brandi.
- Okay.
- Let me tell you why.
Teenagers' brains don't understand long-term consequences.
That part of their brain is just not developed.
It's not that they're, like, idiots and don't want to.
- Their brain doesn't do that.
- Okay.
Rather, I need to show her what could happen if she does not change.
That's what the next couple days are going to be.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna scare her, But she will always be 100% safe.
You have my word.
Okay.
I want you to go home, pack a bag.
I will meet you guys in salt lake city.
And let me just say this Prepare yourself.
Okay.
You're in for a wake-up call.
So what do you think About all this? What are we - I don't know, but - Huh? Well, tell me your thoughts.
I don't have any thoughts.
- Hey, Gina.
- Hey.
Gina, this is Brandi.
Hey, Brandi.
I found Gina through my network.
Your life and Gina's life parallels each other.
A lot of the choices that you're making today, Gina was making a few years ago.
And today Gina is a working prostitute.
This may seem far-fetched to you, but if you keep making the same choices you're making, you will have her life.
So tonight you are going to work the streets with Gina.
I was so confused, why I was meeting a prostitute.
I was shocked that they would do this.
I was thinking, like, why would she be able to help me? So that's the plan.
Wendy, you're coming with me.
Take it away, Gina.
Okay.
If a kid is making a laundry list of stupid decisions, no little pep talk you can give them is going to change that.
That is why my method is to bring them face-to-face with the reality of the choices they're making and where that's taking them.
I've had them pull guns on me.
I've had them keep me in a room for hours and hours and hours while their friends changed partners on me.
And what could I do? I still wanted to get high because I was fiending so bad that as long as they gave me a 2-minute break to go in the bathroom and do a shot, then I was okay with that.
I wanted Wendy to see where not having rules and not following through with those rules, where that led.
Josh brought you kind of late, but late's good.
So just so you know, I have an off-duty cop who is watching for her safety, okay? I do not feel comfortable, but this is part of the process, and I am willing to trust that this process will work and that Brandi will be safe.
I have a lot of tickets from stealing a car.
Yeah? Was that a felony? Oh, yeah.
She's bragging.
She's she's trying to be bad.
She just seems at home out there.
Yep.
Depends on what you want.
I ain't on north temple, and the girls on north temple don't look like me.
What y'all ladies doing tonight? Trying to make a little bit of money.
Hey.
Promise me you'll stand right here by the ashtray so I can go make a quick little bit of money.
- That's fine.
- and stuff, okay? - Don't leave.
- I-I - You'll take her, and I'll pay you? - I'll I'll watch her.
I'll watch her.
Okay.
All right.
600,000 kids under the age of 18 that are prostituting themselves, and the research says the number one reason they do it - is drug abuse.
- Yeah.
That could be Brandi.
Yeah.
Let go.
I'm done with this.
No.
No.
I'm all right.
It's all good.
What's y'all - That's scary.
- Yep.
Oh, God.
There he is again.
Hey, easy, easy, easy.
Easy.
Come on over here.
Let me see your hands.
Over here.
Come on.
Now.
7-8-2-8-5, Code 6, 105 North Avenue 52.
I just she borrowed some money from me, so I Come on.
Let's start walking.
Wonder if he has money in his car.
I'm tempted to go to his car.
- She's gonna go burglarize the guy's car.
- I know.
Hello.
Gina, it's Josh.
Hey.
We'll come pick you guys up.
Brandi, how you doing? Good.
I mean, I'm worried because you seem like you weren't bothered being out there.
Oh, I was.
Wendy, what do you I mean, what do you say? I don't know what to say.
I'm not surprised that she was at home out there.
I wasn't.
You're ready to go commit a crime.
You saw an opportunity.
Bull (bleep).
I wasn't.
Bull (bleep).
I was concerned that you sort of seemed like you liked it.
And do you look at me.
Do you realize that I wanted to put you out there to show you, that is where you will be if you don't change.
That's not a stretch.
It's not an exaggeration.
Even though I didn't have any emotion on my face, inside I was scared.
I have emotions, but when I'm stuck, I just don't know what to do.
Hey.
Look at me.
Please believe in yourself.
Gina hit me hard.
Um, it really got to me.
It was scary because I thought, if this didn't work, that I would end up as a prostitute.
Gina, what could your mother have done to prevent this The life you went through? She could've possibly talked to me more.
Um And listened to how I felt about things.
She should've been my mom and not my friend.
Everything Gina said was everything that I do.
Thank you.
Right.
Well, then you'll help me find those boundaries.
It's gonna be extremely tough not to fall back into the same patterns, but I have to draw a strong line.
Thank you.
And that's gonna take some time, to learn to do that.
I think we're at the very beginning.
I think we've got a long ways to go.
My first time huffing gas pretty much killed me.
I think you're afraid of sharing your emotions.
I'm not afraid of anything.
I'm done.
He put me through hell this week.
All right, well, last night was intense, but only the beginning of it.
Brandi, this next thing I have lined up is another very, very important lesson for you.
Josh has taken me out with a prostitute.
What else is he gonna do to me? I didn't know what else could be worse.
- Hi.
- Follow me.
My mission this week is to bring both Brandi and Wendy face-to-face with the reality of how bad their situation is.
Because until you get a taste of what's at risk, what will happen if you do not change, nothing's going to change.
- Hey, Jordan.
- Josh.
Good to see you, man.
Let's get right into it.
Tell Brandi your story.
Well, my first time huffing gas pretty much killed me.
Me and my friends, we had no marijuana, so we were like, "oh, we want to get high," so we went out and huffed gas.
I picked up the gasoline, and it splashed on me, I was still wobbly from being high.
And my friend saw the gasoline puddle, and he lit up the lighter.
And it trailed up and blew about 10 gallons of gas on me.
Just my first time huffing.
What do you think about what he's saying? Uh, it's scary.
Jordan, would you mind showing Brandi what happened? I look like this 'cause of that.
These where you can see all the waffles is where I got my third-degrees and my bad burns.
These were really just my second-degree burns.
So my infection was from here, my side, to about right here and down.
I still it's hard for me to look into a mirror and see myself.
I mean, I look like a freak.
And it's just because I tried inhaling gas once.
And this was a mrsa infection I had on my back.
You could scrape this off, and an hour later, this would grow back.
And this was one of the pictures of my stomach after they went in, removed my intestine after it erupted from a complication from one of my surgeries.
And this is when the infection set back in and my skin just started falling off like it was just paper, wet paper.
When they were doing my wound care, you could hear me screaming through the hospital Bawling, just begging for 'em to kill me because of how much pain it was causing me.
What do you think, looking at these images? I don't know.
Here's my question How can you sit there when this guy is pouring his heart out, look at these images, and my concern is, I see no, like, emotion at all.
When he first showed me those images, I wanted to vomit.
What is it that you're afraid of? Why are you afraid to I'm not afraid of anything.
I'm not.
I think you're afraid of sharing your emotions.
I think that is the one thing you are afraid of.
Right now your mind is telling you, "stop.
You're showing vulnerability.
You shouldn't be doing this.
" This right now is a cycle you have to break.
Tell me what you're feeling right now.
Just be honest with me.
- There is no right answer.
- Just tell me what you're feeling.
I don't get why I understand what you're doing, like, but you don't know me.
I don't show my feelings.
That's how I am.
I'm terrified.
Like It's sad, and I don't want it to happen to me.
Like and it shouldn't have happened to him.
It's not helping me, putting me down.
Josh made me look like (bleep).
It's not.
He pretty much said that I didn't care about Jordan, that I didn't care about his story, and I did.
I cared a lot about Jordan.
I promise you, I have a method to my madness.
And, Brandi, I honestly believe that you do want to change.
And as a matter of fact, I think what just happened here is a part of that change.
I am begging you to not shut this down when we are making so much progress.
We've still got a long ways to go.
I just want to go home, mom! I don't want to give up, but I don't want to do this anymore.
We made Josh a promise we would trust in his process.
And that's what we're gonna keep.
You have a lot to think about and you don't need any distractions.
I thought about it back there! I thought about it yesterday! I thought about everything! Brandi, I am not gonna argue with you.
Oh, my God! Why can't we do this tomorrow? I just want to go home tonight.
The method to my madness is pressure stacking.
One experience after another experience after another experience.
You know, number one, I want to break Brandi down.
I want her to be exhausted, because when her defenses are down, the message can begin to sink in.
Tracy has come all the way from Washington.
You know, I really wanted both of you to hear her story.
So we'll get started.
So, um, I just kind of wanted to talk to you a bit about my own daughter Sydney.
And I've got pictures of her.
Yeah.
As big as she was, she'd still crawl in my lap.
Right.
- I know you said you brought some video.
- Yeah.
Just of Sydney being silly.
All the way down to the curb.
Who's filming this? Her best friend.
They did all kinds of silly things like that.
Unfortunately She's not with us anymore because she started huffing.
And I really hope That you're open to hearing about this, because I did tell her that any one time could be her last time.
She thought that she could get away with it.
But nobody gets away with it.
There was no warning.
There was nothing leading up to it.
Everything was just so normal the night before.
She came in and she hugged me good night after her shower, and she went to bed.
And in between the hours of her going to bed and getting up the next day, she had died.
It was just a normal, everyday thing.
The alarm was going off.
I was mad at her, even, because she had missed her bus.
And so I went into her room.
I went over and I touched her.
And she was cold.
And I thought she must have left the window open.
I walked to the window, and it was closed.
And then everything started to sink in.
Because she was face down, I didn't see that she had an aerosol can in her hand.
She won't get a license.
She won't go to prom.
She won't get married and have children.
You have all of those things to look forward to.
Just don't throw it away.
It makes me speechless.
I'm sorry.
Tracy is my worst fear.
I saw Brandi's room, the whole nine yards.
I-I saw myself standing there the moment that Tracy felt what had really happened.
Thank you for coming here So much.
I have a lot of responsibility, and it's kinda scary, so It's terrible To lose someone that you care about so much.
I was so sorry that she had to go through this.
I was thinking about my mother and having her find me cold and dead.
I don't want my mom to go through that.
Thank you very much.
Mm-hmm.
You're welcome.
Let me move out of your way.
Brandi was very, very emotionally exhausted.
I knew she would be likely to go home and get high.
And I was not going to allow that to derail the progress that we were making.
So I've made a decision.
You two are not going home tonight.
Tomorrow we're gonna get started bright and early.
I don't want to do that.
I want to go home.
I want to go home.
- Give her a minute.
- What do I do if she comes at me? I-I just don't know what to say - and I don't want to yell.
- Yep.
But I don't want to say the wrong thing, and I don't want to just ignore her.
- We can we can - So I don't know what to do.
"We can talk when you're calm.
" All right? Okay.
It's what we've been talking about.
"We can talk about this when you're calm.
" Okay.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
Where's my van? I'm done.
I don't want anything else.
He put me through hell this week.
I don't give a (bleep) if he's saying I promised him.
Please, mom.
Nope.
I'm not gonna let you leave.
If you want to go to the room and be by yourself, I will totally respect that.
What Oh, my God.
This is bull (bleep).
I'm not staying one more night.
She's asking to leave - No.
- By herself.
Right.
That's obviously a no.
Why are you following me? This is bull (bleep).
Lock the keys, lock the cash Anything that she could use to get out of here.
- You want to go up to the room? - No, mom! They're trying to get me off of the drugs! She's asking to leave by herself.
Right.
And you know that's obviously a no.
Why are you following me? This is bull (bleep).
I just wanted to go home and just start over.
Let's just drive somewhere.
You want to go up to the room? - No, mom! - Okay.
I want to go - Well, you're not gonna sit out here in the cold.
- Somewhere.
Come on.
Let's grab our stuff, okay? I don't do drugs anymore.
I'm done with (bleep) fighting and drugs and drinking and stealing.
I don't want it.
I know the cost.
Oh, my God.
I'm so pissed.
I (bleep) hate this.
They're making me stay another night.
They're trying to get me off of the drugs, and I'm done! - There is gonna be a little safe in your hotel room.
- Okay.
- I want you to lock your keys.
- Okay.
I tried to get away, but I have people on my tail.
Lock the keys, lock the cash Anything that she could use to get out of here.
Okay.
Because she's so emotionally raw, - I refuse to jeopardize this process.
- Yeah.
Yay.
Some (bleep) peace.
Last night Wendy held her ground.
She was cool, she was calm.
Brandi spiraled all over emotionally, but then eventually calmed down, fell asleep.
Victory Wendy.
So before my piece of this is over, I have one more crucial step for both Brandi and Wendy to go through.
It's something I call the summit.
The next step here is, I just want us to have a clean slate.
Uh, once and finally say, "here are the poor choices I've made, I apologize, let's move on.
" And, Wendy, please don't get angry.
Please don't hold this against her.
- It's not about the past.
- Okay.
Um, you know, I want you to see her for who she could be, no longer who she was.
Brandi, I know a lot of the things we're pretty sure that your mother's aware of.
But just so we can air it once and for all, I'd like you to tell your mother the things you've done.
Mm, meth And heroin, and weed, and ecstasy, Adderall, alcohol and liquor, pills Any type 'shrooms, acid, air duster, and gas.
I want to thank you for doing this, 'cause this is really good for me, too.
Now let me say, this is a step a lot of the kids that I work with can't get past.
Coming clean with their parents, confessing, because What she is doing when she does this is, she's, in her own way, inviting you in.
She's inviting you to be her parent.
And as adults, as parents, it's important for us to be leaders.
And so maybe if you don't mind, as a mother, what's something you feel that you've done that's maybe unintentionally hurt Brandi? Just look at Brandi.
Um, when When spice came Into the picture I thought, oh, why not? I don't drink, so 'Cause I knew about the spice, you were a hypocrite about getting high - Yeah.
- With weed.
You'd get mad at me when I was high on weed, but then you were always high on spice, and I knew it, and I found it.
Yeah.
And that's when I started getting high off spice, is because I found it in your guys' room.
Sure.
Well, and then yet, you justify it by saying, "well, you were" - no, no, no, hold on.
- Yeah.
I mean, this is an important lesson, is that Well, and and I knew it, and, yeah.
- Well, let me talk.
- Okay.
- You're a little vulnerable right now.
- Sure.
- You're feeling the need to go grab a blankie.
- Oh, yeah.
Probably.
- So just give me a little space here.
- Okay.
Um, I think our kids can learn so much from us when they see us make a mistake and then deal with it like an adult.
And as an adult, when you apologize, it's not a "yes, and.
" "Oh, I'm sorry, but here's why I did it.
" It's a "I'm sorry," period.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
So here's my confession.
- Uh, Gina - Mm-hmm.
- The prostitute - Mm-hmm.
- That you met.
- Mm-hmm.
She's actually a former prostitute.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
That's good to know.
And the guy that came up and kept harassing you guys.
That's actually her husband.
They have a great life.
They're really passionate about just making sure that other girls don't go down that road.
Now everything she told you 100% true.
Wow.
For Gina to do something like that for somebody she doesn't know is just unbelievable.
She went out there in 5-degree weather like that.
I'm so grateful for her, and everybody.
They all had to reach deep down into their soul and, um, they did that for us.
So I don't want to let any of 'em down.
I don't want to let any of 'em down.
Here's the next part most important part of this process.
This is about long-term change.
A person can make a decision to change In a moment.
But true, lasting change is a process.
It takes a little bit of time.
What I'm going to propose to you right now is a 90-day follow-up program that I have designed and that I have secured 100% funding for.
Oh.
That's just Awesome.
Absolutely awesome.
We can do this.
We're strong people.
We are.
We just lost our way.
This is amazing, this this plan, this program.
I'm really excited to start going to counseling.
It's gonna really help, um, get my emotions out.
Oh, 90 days.
I see a lot of hard work, but this time we're moving up rather than moving down.
So That's huge.
That's huge.
Awesome.
That was.
My responsibility now is to realize that she's not going to like everything I do, and that's okay.
Um, I'm not there to be liked.
I'm there to be her mother.
So what else are you looking forward to? I have learned that kids really do like boundaries.
Uh, they really do, no matter how much they say they don't.
I'm excited for you to explore that.
Um, I gained a lot of respect for my mother.
I feel a lot safer and a lot better just because me and my mom, I mean Are loving again towards each other.
Yeah.
That's funny.
This is probably the first time I've seen hope for my future.
Everything has changed, and It's gonna stay this way for good.
Um, I feel it, I know it, and I can see it.
And the opportunity's there, so I'm going for it.
I'm Josh Shipp.
When a teen is out of control So every three days, I either get high or drunk.
And the parents are out of options I get the call.
Tonight on "Teen Trouble" That's scary.
I've got one shot to save 15-year-old Brandi.
Huffing is frighteningly dangerous.
You have a 15 year old in your house with no rules.
You're in for a wake-up call.
Gina is a working prostitute.
Oh, my God.
I'm done.
He put me through hell this week.
Lock the keys, lock the cash Anything that she could use to get out of here.
They're trying to get me off of the drugs.
Ow! I'm in pain.
I am dying.
I know what it means to be a teen in trouble.
I was one Abandoned, abused, addicted but I beat the odds.
I'm a teen behavior specialist.
My approach is gritty, gutsy You can lie to everyone else, you will not lie to me.
And in your face.
You're acting like a spoiled brat.
It's ridiculous.
My mission is to wake these teens and their parents up There's was a condom.
Here we have a beer can.
Before it's too late.
I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you throw away your life.
This week, I'm in Logan, Utah, where 15-year-old Brandi is hell-bent on getting high.
I have to do a lot to get high.
Her mother Wendy is desperate.
I can't do this.
She knows her daughter's in trouble.
You're out there bragging about how big and bad you are.
But she doesn't really have a clue just how bad Brandi really is.
Oh, my God.
Oh! I want to so bad.
Shot.
I think I'm gonna puke.
I started doing drugs in the sixth grade, when I was 11.
Oh! Ohh.
I love to get high.
The high is amazing on any drug.
Mmm.
I like snorting pills not eating them.
I like popping 'em and snorting 'em.
This is my pipe, and as you can see, it's really dirty.
I've been smoking all day.
I love doing the drug.
Can't stay away from meth.
It's 6:33 in the morning.
I've been up all night, smoking heroin.
So every three days, I either get high or drunk.
I'm not as drunk as I want to be right now.
I want to be really, really, really drunk.
That's the only thing that's fun around here is drugs Drugs and alcohol.
If I really need to get high and I don't have money, I will go steal air duster and huff it.
Yes.
Done.
I so excited.
Ahh.
When I huff it, my whole body goes numb And tingly, and I just sit there.
Sometimes I black out.
It's like I'm not even alive and I'm just flying.
It's amazing.
Brandi is my 15-year-old daughter.
And even though I worked in probation, I don't know what to do to help her.
She refuses to be disciplined.
I have attempted to punish.
I've done everything you're supposed to do, and nothing really works.
You can take her phone, you can take her door, you can take her bed she just doesn't care.
She'll just take off and leave for days on end, and have no communication with anyone.
Nobody knows where she's at.
I don't think this is the way she's meant to be.
And I don't understand where it went wrong.
It was extremely special to have Brandi.
My mom died when I was pregnant with her.
So I guess I really craved that mother-daughter relationship.
I was just happy to have a little girl.
We would sit in the bed and do her hair and take her out to the park, jump on the trampoline, ride bikes just everything that you do with little girls.
She loved dress up.
She's always been very into dress up.
For a while, Brandi wanted to open a clothing store.
She made up a business plan.
She actually tried to get ahold of khloe Kardashian to ask her about how she got into business.
It was just a normal, normal, normal childhood.
We used to travel a lot as a family.
We lived in a boat together.
We've lived in an r.
V.
, traveling around the country together.
We used to be very, very close.
Um, Brandi was my best friend.
There was never any issues with her, ever, until three years ago.
That's when we moved back to Utah.
And then Brandi started hooking up with people that she didn't know and calling them her friends.
Dude, if I had money right now, I could go get some weed.
She didn't want to be with her family anymore.
And that is when everything changed.
He took my virginity, so, I mean He was special to me.
And I felt responsible and also because everybody hated me, all my friends.
Uh, Brandi was ostracized horribly.
And she just kind of sunk into herself.
It was tough.
It was really tough.
Everybody just (bleep) be over.
They didn't care about me.
I was alone in the world.
I just had myself.
I don't care.
It's just another reason to get high.
She definitely has a wall around her, and I can't get through to her.
The last time I tried to get out of her what's wrong was around Christmas when I found out that she was huffing.
Um, that was terrifying.
She claims she's only done it once, but I don't believe that.
Ohh.
You do it once, you're dead.
And and that scares me.
Ow! I'm in pain.
I am dying, man.
My lungs are freezing 'cause of the air duster.
I have fears that she will die on some crappy couch in some crappy apartment.
She won't ever come home.
That's my biggest, biggest fear.
I don't know what to do to help her.
I have no idea.
That's why I'm hoping maybe somebody else can get through to her.
I can't get through to Brandi.
I'm on my way to meet with Wendy and Brandi face-to-face for the first time.
And I have my work cut out for me.
Any one of these things that she's involved in could seriously kill her, could seriously end her life.
Brandi's mom is expecting me to just come in, wave the magic wand boom child's fixed.
The truth is, she needs to take responsibility and she needs to change as well.
Brandi rules that home.
There are no consequences.
There are no boundaries.
And so she has complete freedom and she's absolutely drowning in it.
If this doesn't wake her up, I guarantee you, nothing will.
Nothing will.
I want you to hear it from me legitimately.
Okay.
- I'm not here to exploit your situation.
- Okay.
I'm not here to make you look bad.
I'm here to help your family.
- Right.
- So this week is gonna be a great week.
This week, your family can change.
Okay.
But from this moment forward, for the next four days - Yeah.
- I'm in charge.
Okay.
So before we move forward, can I have your commitment on that? Totally.
100%.
- Okay.
- Totally, yeah.
- Brandi? - Uh-huh.
Look me look at me.
I want to be able to believe you.
Huh.
You're good with that? Uh-huh.
All right.
Here's what I'd like to do right now.
I'd like to spend some time with Brandi, - get to know her.
- Enjoy.
All right.
Shall we? It was a little weird, having someone coming into my life and trying to fix me.
I don't know him.
I didn't know what he was gonna do.
I just had to get over it and go with whatever.
What do we got here? You have no idea how bad this situation is.
You have a lot to think about.
I thought about it yesterday! I thought about everything! Do you come to this mall? I've been kicked out a lot.
You've been kicked out of this one? Yeah, a lot.
After you.
One of the first things I do is, I get the kid out of the house and somewhere they feel comfortable.
Hopefully, then they'll be more likely to open up to me.
I've only got a few days with her, and she needs to trust me right away, otherwise none of this will work.
Answer this question for me, - and all I want is you to be honest.
- Mm-hmm.
Do you want to change? Probably.
Hold on.
No, no, no, no, no.
Let me show you how you responded to me.
Ask me the question.
Do you want to change? Yes.
I don't know.
Let me tell you something, I think you're scared.
Probably.
And I think you check out because you're scared.
Look in my eyes.
There was a point in my life where I didn't think I could change.
I grew up in the foster care system.
I was kicked out of a bunch of different homes.
I had a couple of foster parents that were alcoholics.
One of those homes, I was raped by, like, a 20-year-old man As an 8-year-old boy.
It was disgusting.
It was embarrassing.
I was mortified.
And I thought, all this crap is happening to me, it's my fault, and this is just how my life is gonna be.
I did not think I could change.
But I have.
And I want to help put you through that process that I went through.
This process will be difficult.
There will be times you are mad at me.
There will be times that you hate me.
There will be times that you you think I've lost it and you wonder why on earth I'm doing what I'm doing.
But I am in your corner.
Now you've probably heard that bullcrap line from other adults, but I am not other adults.
I am a man of my word.
When Josh told me he was gonna help me, I didn't believe him because no one's ever told me they were gonna do it and then actually do it.
So I just said what he wanted me to say.
So let me hear you say it.
I am 100% committed.
I am 100% committed to change my life.
Look at me.
I'm 100% committed to change my life.
All right.
Deal.
Okay.
Let's get out of here.
You know, she's saying the right things to me, but I don't think she understands how painful the process is gonna be.
One of the first things I do when I'm working with parents is to excavate their teen's room.
I am shocked at the number of parents that have not gone through their teen's room, ever.
And I warned Brandi I'd be all up in her business.
- Okay.
- And by the way, you as her parent, You never need to apologize for searching through her room.
Oh, right.
See, now I wouldn't have thought to go that far.
In the future, look out for little things like this, where they're no longer in their original condition, where things could be sort of easily tucked away.
What is this? That's to smoke weed.
- What do we got here? - This is what scares me the worst.
So tell me what she's doing with this.
- She's huffing it.
- Yeah.
And I confronted her with it, and she told me, "I only did it that one time and I'll never do it again," and there's the second one, so - Huffing is frighteningly dangerous.
- Right.
Wendy is allowing this to happen under her own roof.
10 feet from where she sleeps, her daughter's in there huffing.
She needs to wake up.
Talk to me about the house rules.
- Right now there really - Are there rules? Not right now, no.
We I-I'm at a loss.
- Everything I think of - So you have a 15 year old in your house with no rules? - Yes or no? - Yes.
I have no control.
You have control.
You're just not using it.
May I help you and give you a little advice? Yes, please.
The best thing my foster parents did, who were the folks that got through to me and turned me around, was that there were rules and there were consequences, and they followed through 100% of the time.
Brandi needs to know that you are serious and that you will follow through.
You need to be your daughter's parent, not her friend.
Okay.
My greatest concern for your family is that you don't understand how bad this situation is.
- I do.
I do.
- I don't believe you.
But I'm well, maybe I don't.
Let me put it to you like this You have two options.
Either you discipline Brandi in this home Mm-hmm.
Or life will discipline her when she's an adult.
I believe the solution to Brandi changing - Mm-hmm.
- Is you.
Win or lose, this is on you.
Okay.
Own that.
Gina is a prostitute.
- Take her, and I'll pay you.
- I'll I'll watch her.
Oh, my God.
So how you feeling? Yesterday was a little challenging.
- Which is totally understandable, right? - Right.
You're you are taking on a new style of parenting.
Right.
And she's not used to that sort of interaction.
So I want to help you with that.
Okay.
- And I want you to take notes.
- Okay.
When things get escalated, and they will, you don't have to participate.
- Write this down.
- Okay.
"We can talk about this when you're calm.
" Right.
That is your default strategy when things get out of control.
"We can talk about this when you're calm.
" The ball is in her court.
You're ready to have a-a conversation, but we're gonna have an adult conversation.
Okay.
"We can talk about this when you're ready to.
" Wendy's really been struggling, so I wanted to give her some basic parenting tools to get started, especially because she and Brandi are about to get their first wake-up call.
So we're going today.
The experience is designed intentionally to scare Brandi.
- Okay.
- Let me tell you why.
Teenagers' brains don't understand long-term consequences.
That part of their brain is just not developed.
It's not that they're, like, idiots and don't want to.
- Their brain doesn't do that.
- Okay.
Rather, I need to show her what could happen if she does not change.
That's what the next couple days are going to be.
- Okay.
- I'm gonna scare her, But she will always be 100% safe.
You have my word.
Okay.
I want you to go home, pack a bag.
I will meet you guys in salt lake city.
And let me just say this Prepare yourself.
Okay.
You're in for a wake-up call.
So what do you think About all this? What are we - I don't know, but - Huh? Well, tell me your thoughts.
I don't have any thoughts.
- Hey, Gina.
- Hey.
Gina, this is Brandi.
Hey, Brandi.
I found Gina through my network.
Your life and Gina's life parallels each other.
A lot of the choices that you're making today, Gina was making a few years ago.
And today Gina is a working prostitute.
This may seem far-fetched to you, but if you keep making the same choices you're making, you will have her life.
So tonight you are going to work the streets with Gina.
I was so confused, why I was meeting a prostitute.
I was shocked that they would do this.
I was thinking, like, why would she be able to help me? So that's the plan.
Wendy, you're coming with me.
Take it away, Gina.
Okay.
If a kid is making a laundry list of stupid decisions, no little pep talk you can give them is going to change that.
That is why my method is to bring them face-to-face with the reality of the choices they're making and where that's taking them.
I've had them pull guns on me.
I've had them keep me in a room for hours and hours and hours while their friends changed partners on me.
And what could I do? I still wanted to get high because I was fiending so bad that as long as they gave me a 2-minute break to go in the bathroom and do a shot, then I was okay with that.
I wanted Wendy to see where not having rules and not following through with those rules, where that led.
Josh brought you kind of late, but late's good.
So just so you know, I have an off-duty cop who is watching for her safety, okay? I do not feel comfortable, but this is part of the process, and I am willing to trust that this process will work and that Brandi will be safe.
I have a lot of tickets from stealing a car.
Yeah? Was that a felony? Oh, yeah.
She's bragging.
She's she's trying to be bad.
She just seems at home out there.
Yep.
Depends on what you want.
I ain't on north temple, and the girls on north temple don't look like me.
What y'all ladies doing tonight? Trying to make a little bit of money.
Hey.
Promise me you'll stand right here by the ashtray so I can go make a quick little bit of money.
- That's fine.
- and stuff, okay? - Don't leave.
- I-I - You'll take her, and I'll pay you? - I'll I'll watch her.
I'll watch her.
Okay.
All right.
600,000 kids under the age of 18 that are prostituting themselves, and the research says the number one reason they do it - is drug abuse.
- Yeah.
That could be Brandi.
Yeah.
Let go.
I'm done with this.
No.
No.
I'm all right.
It's all good.
What's y'all - That's scary.
- Yep.
Oh, God.
There he is again.
Hey, easy, easy, easy.
Easy.
Come on over here.
Let me see your hands.
Over here.
Come on.
Now.
7-8-2-8-5, Code 6, 105 North Avenue 52.
I just she borrowed some money from me, so I Come on.
Let's start walking.
Wonder if he has money in his car.
I'm tempted to go to his car.
- She's gonna go burglarize the guy's car.
- I know.
Hello.
Gina, it's Josh.
Hey.
We'll come pick you guys up.
Brandi, how you doing? Good.
I mean, I'm worried because you seem like you weren't bothered being out there.
Oh, I was.
Wendy, what do you I mean, what do you say? I don't know what to say.
I'm not surprised that she was at home out there.
I wasn't.
You're ready to go commit a crime.
You saw an opportunity.
Bull (bleep).
I wasn't.
Bull (bleep).
I was concerned that you sort of seemed like you liked it.
And do you look at me.
Do you realize that I wanted to put you out there to show you, that is where you will be if you don't change.
That's not a stretch.
It's not an exaggeration.
Even though I didn't have any emotion on my face, inside I was scared.
I have emotions, but when I'm stuck, I just don't know what to do.
Hey.
Look at me.
Please believe in yourself.
Gina hit me hard.
Um, it really got to me.
It was scary because I thought, if this didn't work, that I would end up as a prostitute.
Gina, what could your mother have done to prevent this The life you went through? She could've possibly talked to me more.
Um And listened to how I felt about things.
She should've been my mom and not my friend.
Everything Gina said was everything that I do.
Thank you.
Right.
Well, then you'll help me find those boundaries.
It's gonna be extremely tough not to fall back into the same patterns, but I have to draw a strong line.
Thank you.
And that's gonna take some time, to learn to do that.
I think we're at the very beginning.
I think we've got a long ways to go.
My first time huffing gas pretty much killed me.
I think you're afraid of sharing your emotions.
I'm not afraid of anything.
I'm done.
He put me through hell this week.
All right, well, last night was intense, but only the beginning of it.
Brandi, this next thing I have lined up is another very, very important lesson for you.
Josh has taken me out with a prostitute.
What else is he gonna do to me? I didn't know what else could be worse.
- Hi.
- Follow me.
My mission this week is to bring both Brandi and Wendy face-to-face with the reality of how bad their situation is.
Because until you get a taste of what's at risk, what will happen if you do not change, nothing's going to change.
- Hey, Jordan.
- Josh.
Good to see you, man.
Let's get right into it.
Tell Brandi your story.
Well, my first time huffing gas pretty much killed me.
Me and my friends, we had no marijuana, so we were like, "oh, we want to get high," so we went out and huffed gas.
I picked up the gasoline, and it splashed on me, I was still wobbly from being high.
And my friend saw the gasoline puddle, and he lit up the lighter.
And it trailed up and blew about 10 gallons of gas on me.
Just my first time huffing.
What do you think about what he's saying? Uh, it's scary.
Jordan, would you mind showing Brandi what happened? I look like this 'cause of that.
These where you can see all the waffles is where I got my third-degrees and my bad burns.
These were really just my second-degree burns.
So my infection was from here, my side, to about right here and down.
I still it's hard for me to look into a mirror and see myself.
I mean, I look like a freak.
And it's just because I tried inhaling gas once.
And this was a mrsa infection I had on my back.
You could scrape this off, and an hour later, this would grow back.
And this was one of the pictures of my stomach after they went in, removed my intestine after it erupted from a complication from one of my surgeries.
And this is when the infection set back in and my skin just started falling off like it was just paper, wet paper.
When they were doing my wound care, you could hear me screaming through the hospital Bawling, just begging for 'em to kill me because of how much pain it was causing me.
What do you think, looking at these images? I don't know.
Here's my question How can you sit there when this guy is pouring his heart out, look at these images, and my concern is, I see no, like, emotion at all.
When he first showed me those images, I wanted to vomit.
What is it that you're afraid of? Why are you afraid to I'm not afraid of anything.
I'm not.
I think you're afraid of sharing your emotions.
I think that is the one thing you are afraid of.
Right now your mind is telling you, "stop.
You're showing vulnerability.
You shouldn't be doing this.
" This right now is a cycle you have to break.
Tell me what you're feeling right now.
Just be honest with me.
- There is no right answer.
- Just tell me what you're feeling.
I don't get why I understand what you're doing, like, but you don't know me.
I don't show my feelings.
That's how I am.
I'm terrified.
Like It's sad, and I don't want it to happen to me.
Like and it shouldn't have happened to him.
It's not helping me, putting me down.
Josh made me look like (bleep).
It's not.
He pretty much said that I didn't care about Jordan, that I didn't care about his story, and I did.
I cared a lot about Jordan.
I promise you, I have a method to my madness.
And, Brandi, I honestly believe that you do want to change.
And as a matter of fact, I think what just happened here is a part of that change.
I am begging you to not shut this down when we are making so much progress.
We've still got a long ways to go.
I just want to go home, mom! I don't want to give up, but I don't want to do this anymore.
We made Josh a promise we would trust in his process.
And that's what we're gonna keep.
You have a lot to think about and you don't need any distractions.
I thought about it back there! I thought about it yesterday! I thought about everything! Brandi, I am not gonna argue with you.
Oh, my God! Why can't we do this tomorrow? I just want to go home tonight.
The method to my madness is pressure stacking.
One experience after another experience after another experience.
You know, number one, I want to break Brandi down.
I want her to be exhausted, because when her defenses are down, the message can begin to sink in.
Tracy has come all the way from Washington.
You know, I really wanted both of you to hear her story.
So we'll get started.
So, um, I just kind of wanted to talk to you a bit about my own daughter Sydney.
And I've got pictures of her.
Yeah.
As big as she was, she'd still crawl in my lap.
Right.
- I know you said you brought some video.
- Yeah.
Just of Sydney being silly.
All the way down to the curb.
Who's filming this? Her best friend.
They did all kinds of silly things like that.
Unfortunately She's not with us anymore because she started huffing.
And I really hope That you're open to hearing about this, because I did tell her that any one time could be her last time.
She thought that she could get away with it.
But nobody gets away with it.
There was no warning.
There was nothing leading up to it.
Everything was just so normal the night before.
She came in and she hugged me good night after her shower, and she went to bed.
And in between the hours of her going to bed and getting up the next day, she had died.
It was just a normal, everyday thing.
The alarm was going off.
I was mad at her, even, because she had missed her bus.
And so I went into her room.
I went over and I touched her.
And she was cold.
And I thought she must have left the window open.
I walked to the window, and it was closed.
And then everything started to sink in.
Because she was face down, I didn't see that she had an aerosol can in her hand.
She won't get a license.
She won't go to prom.
She won't get married and have children.
You have all of those things to look forward to.
Just don't throw it away.
It makes me speechless.
I'm sorry.
Tracy is my worst fear.
I saw Brandi's room, the whole nine yards.
I-I saw myself standing there the moment that Tracy felt what had really happened.
Thank you for coming here So much.
I have a lot of responsibility, and it's kinda scary, so It's terrible To lose someone that you care about so much.
I was so sorry that she had to go through this.
I was thinking about my mother and having her find me cold and dead.
I don't want my mom to go through that.
Thank you very much.
Mm-hmm.
You're welcome.
Let me move out of your way.
Brandi was very, very emotionally exhausted.
I knew she would be likely to go home and get high.
And I was not going to allow that to derail the progress that we were making.
So I've made a decision.
You two are not going home tonight.
Tomorrow we're gonna get started bright and early.
I don't want to do that.
I want to go home.
I want to go home.
- Give her a minute.
- What do I do if she comes at me? I-I just don't know what to say - and I don't want to yell.
- Yep.
But I don't want to say the wrong thing, and I don't want to just ignore her.
- We can we can - So I don't know what to do.
"We can talk when you're calm.
" All right? Okay.
It's what we've been talking about.
"We can talk about this when you're calm.
" Okay.
Okay.
Oh, my God.
Where's my van? I'm done.
I don't want anything else.
He put me through hell this week.
I don't give a (bleep) if he's saying I promised him.
Please, mom.
Nope.
I'm not gonna let you leave.
If you want to go to the room and be by yourself, I will totally respect that.
What Oh, my God.
This is bull (bleep).
I'm not staying one more night.
She's asking to leave - No.
- By herself.
Right.
That's obviously a no.
Why are you following me? This is bull (bleep).
Lock the keys, lock the cash Anything that she could use to get out of here.
- You want to go up to the room? - No, mom! They're trying to get me off of the drugs! She's asking to leave by herself.
Right.
And you know that's obviously a no.
Why are you following me? This is bull (bleep).
I just wanted to go home and just start over.
Let's just drive somewhere.
You want to go up to the room? - No, mom! - Okay.
I want to go - Well, you're not gonna sit out here in the cold.
- Somewhere.
Come on.
Let's grab our stuff, okay? I don't do drugs anymore.
I'm done with (bleep) fighting and drugs and drinking and stealing.
I don't want it.
I know the cost.
Oh, my God.
I'm so pissed.
I (bleep) hate this.
They're making me stay another night.
They're trying to get me off of the drugs, and I'm done! - There is gonna be a little safe in your hotel room.
- Okay.
- I want you to lock your keys.
- Okay.
I tried to get away, but I have people on my tail.
Lock the keys, lock the cash Anything that she could use to get out of here.
Okay.
Because she's so emotionally raw, - I refuse to jeopardize this process.
- Yeah.
Yay.
Some (bleep) peace.
Last night Wendy held her ground.
She was cool, she was calm.
Brandi spiraled all over emotionally, but then eventually calmed down, fell asleep.
Victory Wendy.
So before my piece of this is over, I have one more crucial step for both Brandi and Wendy to go through.
It's something I call the summit.
The next step here is, I just want us to have a clean slate.
Uh, once and finally say, "here are the poor choices I've made, I apologize, let's move on.
" And, Wendy, please don't get angry.
Please don't hold this against her.
- It's not about the past.
- Okay.
Um, you know, I want you to see her for who she could be, no longer who she was.
Brandi, I know a lot of the things we're pretty sure that your mother's aware of.
But just so we can air it once and for all, I'd like you to tell your mother the things you've done.
Mm, meth And heroin, and weed, and ecstasy, Adderall, alcohol and liquor, pills Any type 'shrooms, acid, air duster, and gas.
I want to thank you for doing this, 'cause this is really good for me, too.
Now let me say, this is a step a lot of the kids that I work with can't get past.
Coming clean with their parents, confessing, because What she is doing when she does this is, she's, in her own way, inviting you in.
She's inviting you to be her parent.
And as adults, as parents, it's important for us to be leaders.
And so maybe if you don't mind, as a mother, what's something you feel that you've done that's maybe unintentionally hurt Brandi? Just look at Brandi.
Um, when When spice came Into the picture I thought, oh, why not? I don't drink, so 'Cause I knew about the spice, you were a hypocrite about getting high - Yeah.
- With weed.
You'd get mad at me when I was high on weed, but then you were always high on spice, and I knew it, and I found it.
Yeah.
And that's when I started getting high off spice, is because I found it in your guys' room.
Sure.
Well, and then yet, you justify it by saying, "well, you were" - no, no, no, hold on.
- Yeah.
I mean, this is an important lesson, is that Well, and and I knew it, and, yeah.
- Well, let me talk.
- Okay.
- You're a little vulnerable right now.
- Sure.
- You're feeling the need to go grab a blankie.
- Oh, yeah.
Probably.
- So just give me a little space here.
- Okay.
Um, I think our kids can learn so much from us when they see us make a mistake and then deal with it like an adult.
And as an adult, when you apologize, it's not a "yes, and.
" "Oh, I'm sorry, but here's why I did it.
" It's a "I'm sorry," period.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
So here's my confession.
- Uh, Gina - Mm-hmm.
- The prostitute - Mm-hmm.
- That you met.
- Mm-hmm.
She's actually a former prostitute.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
That's good to know.
And the guy that came up and kept harassing you guys.
That's actually her husband.
They have a great life.
They're really passionate about just making sure that other girls don't go down that road.
Now everything she told you 100% true.
Wow.
For Gina to do something like that for somebody she doesn't know is just unbelievable.
She went out there in 5-degree weather like that.
I'm so grateful for her, and everybody.
They all had to reach deep down into their soul and, um, they did that for us.
So I don't want to let any of 'em down.
I don't want to let any of 'em down.
Here's the next part most important part of this process.
This is about long-term change.
A person can make a decision to change In a moment.
But true, lasting change is a process.
It takes a little bit of time.
What I'm going to propose to you right now is a 90-day follow-up program that I have designed and that I have secured 100% funding for.
Oh.
That's just Awesome.
Absolutely awesome.
We can do this.
We're strong people.
We are.
We just lost our way.
This is amazing, this this plan, this program.
I'm really excited to start going to counseling.
It's gonna really help, um, get my emotions out.
Oh, 90 days.
I see a lot of hard work, but this time we're moving up rather than moving down.
So That's huge.
That's huge.
Awesome.
That was.
My responsibility now is to realize that she's not going to like everything I do, and that's okay.
Um, I'm not there to be liked.
I'm there to be her mother.
So what else are you looking forward to? I have learned that kids really do like boundaries.
Uh, they really do, no matter how much they say they don't.
I'm excited for you to explore that.
Um, I gained a lot of respect for my mother.
I feel a lot safer and a lot better just because me and my mom, I mean Are loving again towards each other.
Yeah.
That's funny.
This is probably the first time I've seen hope for my future.
Everything has changed, and It's gonna stay this way for good.
Um, I feel it, I know it, and I can see it.
And the opportunity's there, so I'm going for it.