Laughing Star: A Story of Tough Love

The story begins on the night that two security guards arrive at a house in Los Angeles, USA, to take the author's fourteen-year-old daughter Emily away to a ‘Brat Camp' in Utah. Emily had become so out of control that this was a last resort in trying to help her lead a better life. She had been expelled from two schools in three months, was binge drinking, doing recreational drugs, and was sexually promiscuous and very oppositional. She was putting herself increasingly at risk, not coming home and being scooped up on a Saturday night by the police.

The narrative then backtracks to the events that led up to this night: the difficulties with Emily as a baby; the family’s move to Washington, DC; Emily’s first expulsion from school at the age of six and her diagnosis with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The strain on the family started to take its toll when, at age twelve, Emily became increasingly Oppositional Defiant. Her father worked away from home and she was becoming impossible to control. At age fourteen, she was expelled from school and went off the rails. The family had little support from Social Services and gradually began to disintegrate – no one in the family could cope with the chaos that was generated in the home. The author had a breakdown and her marriage came apart as her husband took his frustrations out on the family. Emily lasted three weeks at a boarding school. After watching a programme on Channel 4, ‘Brat Camp’, the family felt that this resort was the only thing left that they could do to help her turn her life around.