Intervention (TV show)
 

I first saw the TV show Intervention about the time I decided to start trying to quit meth. I am now fascinated with it. I watched an episode of it today about Charles, an alcoholic heroin addict, and it was probably the best episode I have ever seen. You can watch it here if you want. My situation and his are completely different but something about this kid really touched me and inspired me a little bit.

If you have seen the show, or any of its correlatives like Celebrity Rehab, what do you think of them?

I like them all, I get something out of most of them. I cannot really relate to shows on gambling issues though.

I never thought I'd become a Rodney King fan either but I sure am now.

I watch them on TV and on youtube.. I don't agree with how they present the addict though. At one point in every show, they go back to the addicts childhood and pretty much imply that some disastrous event set off the addiction. But a person doesnt need to have a bad childhood or experience to become addicted. My childhood was relatively idyllic and I'm a mess now.

Anyway, I don't watch it because of the recovery aspect.. I watch it for the drama.. the boring episodes have people who really dont have a big problem. I feel bad saying that but its true. lol

I like Intervention a lot. I mostly watch the episodes about alcoholics, because it's what I relate to the most, but they are ALL interesting and heartbreaking to me.

I've not watched any of the other shows so I can't comment on them.

I watched celebrity sober house today for the first time. It concentrates on the aftermath and recovery. It was kinda interesting in a boring sort of way. :)

I get my inspiration f t f. One thing I noticed, I know three people that are/were fascinated by the show, they thought it was great. All practicing addicts. I suspect that they like to compare themselves favorably to the poor wretches on the show, something that we addicts do. In that regard, the show probably does a disservice to addicts that still own televisions.

My favorite is Allison the Huffer girl. Dang, what a train wreck. Wonder what ever happened to her??

Yeah, I wish they had more updates. I'm curious about a lot of the people I've seen on the show.

Updates are on the website.

Oh, thanks.

gneiss ty for that!
 

ty, i have watched the show couple of times, it comes on late here? i never used drugs (but an addict is an addict!) i found it very intense! i book marked this so i can hear more stories! they inspire me, the ones that are doing good!

ty so much!

love in sobreity!

:Val004:

I noticed that too, and it has always been weird for me. I've had some difficult stuff to deal with (that's life, after all), but it was ancient history by the time I started drinking. I just couldn't think of anything better to do. Even when I started taking drugs I did not have an excuse other than being drunk and a little bored and having drugs available. And if I had not had a pretty disastrous event shortly after I started doing meth, I don't think things would have changed much. I would have kept doing drugs out of boredom, basically. The disastrous event in question changed my mental focus from boredom to escapism, but it did not really change anything functionally about the amount of drugs I took.


They have an update about her on the website but I can't remember what they said except that she made it through rehab and I specifically remember her saying she was planning on "working her program" when she was out of the rehab facility. She really was a train wreck.

The general idea when it comes to becoming sober is that some traumatic event happened in the past that makes the person turn to drugs and alcohol.
IMO, it facilitates the continued addiction.
So does the acceptance of "addiction", it becomes a crutch.
They think that the act of accepting the fact that they're addicts is enough, and that everyone else should understand this too.
They get stressed out and relapse, and to justify it they say "Well I am an addict and this is what addicts do".

At least for me, I use drugs and alcohol because I like to be intoxicated and I'm not a very disciplined person.
I also don't see a pressing need to become sober at this particular time.
There's never been a time that I had the idea that I use them to escape something that happened in the past.
I could say that any of a number of events caused/contributed to my using drugs.
But I don't think like that.
To say that its because of an event in my past would be emotional dishonesty.

Also, being sober is just boring.
Sober people are generally very boring.
Seems like chronically sober people have no sense of fun.
With addicts that have become sober, everything revolves around their sobriety.
I understand why.
But naturally, they're not alot of fun to be around if you're not a recovering addict or a chronically sober individual.

I've been watching the show since day one. Its informative to watch the family dynamics. To see the whole picture of an addicts life. Then there's the intervention at the end. That process is informative too. Also I'm just a big fan of reality-TV. Still love to watch 'Cops'. The first show that really caught my attention and has held it over the years.

The majority of clean addicts don't live their lives around their sobriety. I know I don't and the people in my recovery group don't.

I think the reason it appears that way to you is that you are still in denial somewhat. It makes it easier to use if you have a reason not to be sober/clean.

The final thing is this: those who identify themselves as sober are obviously going to speak about this a lot. Clearly this is part of their identity. Those that identify sober as part of their life, like me, are around you all the time. Since we don't speak about it outside of meetings (AA, SMART etc) you wouldn't know that is part of us. All you know is that we are happy people.

Fultang, I don't mean this disrespectfully in any way: Why are you here?

You are on a forum with people who have decided we need some support because our behavior has a negative impact on our lives and we like to have a place to ask for help and vent and whatever else. So if you don't want to stop drinking/drugging, what brings you to SR?