Was that the woman who was cradling a bottle of mouthwash because she ran out of booze? Then when her husband took it away from her so she could sleep through the night before her court hearing, she flipped out on him. That was sad.
I don’t think so. Sylvia was a former soap actress who later had a very successful interior design business, which she lost. She was married but her husband divorced her. At one point, she made lunch for her kids and went to the ex-husband’s house to give it to them. When he wouldn’t let her in to see the kids she left it on the front steps.
She did freak out when her mom stole her booze from her house. So she drove to a bar and downed numerous extra, extra, dry martinis and then tried to drive home. The cameramen had to step in to stop her from driving.
oh yeah! You really do know your Sylvia trivia. Wasn’t the story she was going to go to the school and have lunch with the kids but the ex-husband caught wind of her having a camera crew filming a story about addiction and pulled the kids out of school that day? I remember Syl going fucking ballistic about that one.
I liked Sylvia too. Everyone loved her and she was just ridiculous with all those mini bottles of vodka. Isn’t that the episode where she tried to drive drunk and the camera crew had to take the wheel because they couldn’t convince her to call a cab?
Honestly, Intervention is one of the few television shows I really like. We don’t have TV, but once in a hotel I caught a marathon and it was exciting.
I don’t root for them to fail. I always hope they get help. Their family members seem so overwhelmed and sad. It’s easy to vilify someone for enabling a family member, but so many addicts are experts at emotional manipulation… sometimes it does take an intervention for the enablers to realize what they have been duped into.
Oh man, thats the best compliment I’ve ever gotten. I can’t help it, she was hilarious.
Thanks - I’ll probably take a look.
I was just thinking yesterday about the addict with the old man friend, and he would give her money to hold her naked body… she was like 20. ::shudder:: What an asshole he was, to use her addiction for his dirty old man benefit. Disgusting.
This show premiered shortly after I found out my husband was a drug addict. I’ve had to stop watching it, even though I was unaware of his addiction until he decided to get clean, seeing what those people go through every day to get their fix just scares the hell out of me. Knowing the stories my husband told me about how he fought/lied to hide it/feed it and seeing those people doing it…ugh.
When I asked my husband why he even tried it in the first place, it was quite similar to upthread, he had dabbled with drugs in his past, nothing major, it was just one pill, shrug no big deal. Except 4 pills later, he considered himself addicted. I’d venture to guess most people think they will be the exception, then they find out they aren’t.
My husband celebrated 2 years clean Nov. 2. Kudos to everyone still sober. Keep up the good fight.
I’m glad your husband got help.
I wonder what their success rate is? It seems more often than not, the people accept the help, I just wonder if it sticks.
It does seem that quite often the rehabilitation doesn’t last. Or if it does, the time period that has elapsed is too small to really know.
If it’s anything like I’ve witnessed first hand, near never. I think my BiL has been to rehab 4 or 5 times. I doubt it will ever take.
But if someone truly wants to change…
I guess I’m an optimist at heart.
I was looking for something interesting via On Demand and found freebie episodes of Intervention. I remembered Ivylass’s thread and thought it was worth a view.
Wow.
It was absolutely fascinating, but now I’m profoundly sad. Antwahn (ep 21) especially haunts me - I wasn’t going to bother watching that one, since I didn’t figure I’d be able to relate to a former professional basketball player. What a smart and fascinating man; I wish he’d been able to heal.
I was trying to figure out what it is these people have in common, why are they addicted to things that are so harmful? It seemed like most of them had some kind of really painful emotional experience that they couldn’t cope with, something out of the ordinary (molestation, rape, suicide of a parent) they had to block out. Or else parents who were neglectful/distant/abusive.
But still, lots of people who aren’t addicted (including the siblings of some of the subjects) suffered those events.
Do people gain something via rehab that approximates whatever their healthy siblings had (some skill or knowledge?) to begin with?
It’s just mesmerizing.
Off to find Sylvia, I could use a lighthearted story…
I think you nailed it. Usually it is some sort of combination of self hatred due to a traumatic past and a complete lack of coping skill. You really notice how bad the people are at coping with any kind of adversity when they completely melt down as soon as the intervention happens and they have to confront their problems instead of coping in their usual dysfunctional way.
There was one girl who was a White House intern. Not once, but three times, which is practically unheard of.
Sometimes people from good homes fall into this mess too. It’s on now, on A&E…will check back later.
I don’t know about the effectiveness of the rehab in Intervention, but the overall effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous is around 5%.
I’m not a regular viewer, but does the show ever present alternatives to 12-step rehab?
Robin
It doesn’t really show the rehab…more of getting the person to rehab. Then there’s a brief follow up of how the rehab worked out.
I don’t recall that they’ve ever really specified the treatment philosophy of the various rehab facilities. They have someone with the facility mouth some platitudes about hitting rock bottom and people needing to want change or whatever and leave it at that.
Last night, with the two preacher kids, they mentioned that in addition to treating the addiction, there would be therapy involved to resolve their childhood issues.
I’m glad Jason and Joy stayed apart, one in CA and the other in Atlanta. Jason started drinking again, but Joy stayed clean. They were not good for each other.
They do. Being a prior addict on a variety of things I love and hate the show. Some of the stories I literally love the people trying for it, goes both ways. That said, I wish I knew that a bulk of them turned out alright. Both most relapse and die or are waiting to. It’s sad, I don’t agree with the people that claim all are bad people. Did you not see how some of their families are. My past has mirrored one of them in particular with everyone leaning on me but it was always one sided. Guess the difference is I would always disappear more or less so I wasn’t hurting anyone but myself. Some of them have to fix underlying issues or their addiction will never go away, at times the drugs are just a way to bury everything else.