Intervention - Over the top?

[JustaChippa]

Honestly, i think some of those people are just pseudo-wanna-be druggies. Like the people wo claim to be opiate addicts, in the proper sense mind you, as in addicted so bad, but are just omnoming hydros. .

Well, my addiction consisted pretty much entirely of "nomnoming hydros", and it's interesting that you consider that to be a "pseudo-addiction", because it pretty much consumed and controlled my LIFE for over five years. And, going through cold turkey withdrawal was both a horrendous, agonizing BITCH of an experience and also life-changing. I suppose an argument could be made that there are different levels/degrees of addiction, up to a point, but do we agree that anything that takes over one's life and jeopardizes one's health/family/livelihood/freedom ought to be taken seriously and dealt with? I was unable to function without my DOC, and dopesick is dopesick regardless of the particular substance, route of admin, or lifestyle of the addict.

(That said, I am smiling sardonically at Lacey's description of "Nicole from the suburbs" ; that was pretty spot-on!)

I appreciate that Intervention is at least calling attention to a segment of society that some people never see, and has blown the roof off some of the myths and popular assumptions that are accepted as gospel truth about drug use and addiction. My problem with the show's concept, as others have already pointed out above, is that you really can't force anyone into sobriety by any means, including making threats. As Lacey stated, it has to come from within, something has to "click", and then and only then is the person ready to do something about it. And, it doesn't have to happen in any fancy-schmancy high-end rehab by the ocean. I did it locked in my bedroom with my laptop and some immodium, because I was ready. Sending me to "Palm Partners By The Sea" a year prior to that would have been a huge waste of time and money for all involved, because I would have been biding my time, playing their game and scehming and waiting to get out so I could get more pills and feel good again.

I wish the producers would do a show on someone with the level of addiction/lifestyle described by Lacey, as opposed to all the "Nicoles From The Suburbs". That would be an interesting departure!

I'm such a sap that I always sit there at the end, rooting for the addict to stick with his program and stay clean. I have a difficult time believeing the show's participants have a very high long-term success rate, unfortunately.

 

[Hendrix Haze15]

I'll agree with what some of Lacey said and I disagree with what some of she said. There are some truely outlandish, over the top, for entertainment purposes episodes. And yea the thing about some of the people being "young in the game", not having the experiences I have had or Lacey has had or a lot of people on the forums have had. How bad do these people have it? Is it over the top? Some episodes that come to mind for me like HendrixHaze mentioned was Chucky, the son of the lead singer of Three Dog Night who was a heroin addict living in a motel in LA enabled by his mom. He was fucked up and lucky he came from a wealthy family. His mom gave him money and drove him to Skid Row and he bought dope (all on film) and then he convinced her to fix in her car. When the intervention ended, and we all thought it turned out happy go lucky and things got better and he got clean like his parents, he's sitting in LA County Jail for stealing a car and selling it or some shit. Another one was the heroin addict, former 5 star chef living in Denver. He practically hustled all day on the streets of Denver waiting like 12 hours for his ex girlfriend to pick him up so he had a place to sleep and eat. (She did just for the intervention) other than that, that was his lost chance. He was an amazing chef who came into a large settlement after an accident and partied hard and became addicted to heroin over the years, then at his lowest. He recovered and seemed much better after staying at the treatment center. This was like the first season. A real good episode. There's also an episode about a champion speed bike rider who is addicted to crack. That's a good one. A lot of them are over the top, like that Asian fent addict with the mental issues.

But if you want real shit check out "Dope Sick Love". It's a documentary and follows two couples in NYC through addiction and some crazy shit. And also another one is "High on Crack St: Lowell, MA" or something. It's about a group of crackheads in Lowell, MA, one of them used to be a professional boxer and fought some big name (Muhammad Ali or Larry Holmes or somebody) on live TV HBO. Crazy stuff. That kind of shit hits home. Watch hit and see what happens to these people at the ends and especially that boxer, I think his name is Mickey. Watch the real documentaries over the made for TV shit.

Black tar heroin: Dark End of the Street is another good one.

 

[8L4YN3]

lol lacey your a crack up girl.

 

[Moral Decay]

I really enjoy getting high while watching that show, and I enjoy teh show. I dont really enjoy teh interventions though. I feel they exploit the addicts and their families and leave desctruction in their wake. 9 out of 10 of those interventions fail and they leave the families in shambles. It is a ratehr good feeling when someone on taht show gets clean and the lil message at teh end says they are still clean.

So far my favorites have been Rob Cypher, the fentanyl chick, the twins who smoked H and sold it from their parents house, the dude that smoked crack then shook and jolted and hallucinated spiders every where and last but not least the cute lil brunette that was huffing dustoff and singing "im walking on sunshine". Maybe I'm sick but when i saw her laying in the graveyard zonked out on dustoff I thought "yeah I'd hit it", then they showed her all clean on the followup episode and i was like DAAAAAAMMMMNNNN she is fucking cute! Also the old man that was a millionaire and addicted to morphine but he gave like 600,000 dollars away trying to "get rich" when he was already rich but he squandered all his money away. On the show he confronted the scammers and then realized he was being taken for all his cash. that one was sad, he was all delusional and gave away all his money.

 

[beatology]

Yeah, but one of them died of an OD in April 2013, so...(Google "sebastian intervention" for more info). Sad

 

[beatology]

One of them actually died in 2013 from an OD. If you're talking about Marcel and Sebastian, then yeah.

 

[cj]

my man van vonderen will fuck you up

He was the head counselor at the detox i went to in Miami last year. Actually came across as a really nice guy in person.

 

[belfort]

what i find ridiculous and misleading about the show is they take these supposed hardcore opiate addicts and put them in rehab, show them 6-7 daays later and the addict is like "ive never felt this good ever in my life!"...umm what, it took me months of clean time before i even started to feel close to normal after getting off opiates..

 

[Screaming_Skull]

I use to like this show but now can't stand it..some of them really are bad, really the worst ones who really do have a problem it seems are the drunks...didn't know that sebation dude died(i feel so bad for his parents=(. But if I remember reading correctly the only other ones that have died on Intervention have been the alcoholics...can't watch it now cuz it just makes me want to go out and fix. But, god some of them are just annoying little brats, that guy Ryan to begin with who was on OC, then this brat on the canaidian version who was also on OC and would bum them off his GF, they were young though, so it was just like high school bullshit going on between them...And the intervention people are just ASSHOLES, I do not agree with type of treatment for an addict...tough love does not work, it makes it worse, IMO. And that one intervention guy Jeff Von whatever with the bald head, most HORRIBLE interventionist out of all of them(only one I liked was that Ken guy, the kinda cute one) he did seem to actually care. And hell, that Jeff Von Shithead got kicked off of the show for a while because he was drunk all the time during the interventions,lmao...

Edit: But speaking of Intervention, have anymore people from bluelight been on there??? The only one I know of is the guy that was addicted to DXM, now that was a good one, almost got beat up by a pimp and everything. Hope he is doing good now, don't know his username, but is he still around on the bluelight???

 

[xstayfadedx]

A girl who was on intervention lives in my apartment complex. Literally she lives across from me. I always think how weird it is to know that she was a prostitute, ect. She was doing good and went to my college too, but she left her husband and went with a new guy… deff back on drugs. This show was over the top, but some people needed it sadly the show didn't really do much for a lot of people.

 

[ihearthemoose]

I remember watching this show when it first started when I was a full blown raging drunk and it never did anything for me. Like someone above said they take people's worst moments in a few months and pack them in to an hour. But that show drugged with the alcoholic, now that made me think

 

[pill_billy]

lol my faviort one was when they were in KY, i think, and the dude was doing pills i believe and one of his friends googles the producers name and told him he was on intervention and the dude jumped out his back window and split... i think they eventully got him to go to rehab... but the biggest problem with this show is that they make it seem like these 30k$ places are the only way someone can get and tought love is the only thing that works and after they go away everything will be fixed... but its not that easy and if my mom would have shown me the door instead of riding it out with me idk where the fuck id be right now... all in all its a pretty dumb fucking show.... dope sick love, as someone pointed out earlier tho, is a pretty gritty honest look at addiction

 

[cj]

lol my faviort one was when they were in KY, i think, and the dude was doing pills i believe and one of his friends googles the producers name and told him he was on intervention and the dude jumped out his back window and split... i think they eventully got him to go to rehab... but the biggest problem with this show is that they make it seem like these 30k$ places are the only way someone can get and tought love is the only thing that works and after they go away everything will be fixed... but its not that easy and if my mom would have shown me the door instead of riding it out with me idk where the fuck id be right now... all in all its a pretty dumb fucking show.... dope sick love, as someone pointed out earlier tho, is a pretty gritty honest look at addiction

I agree with you on the tough love aspect being very dangerous. Especially when it's a done by a bunch of amateur's with no real training other than "I was a drug addict for 10 years now I am not" type people. Being a recovered drug addict doesn't give you the training or experience to be a mental health professional.