The current joke of choice is all about celebs and rehab, what with our out of control Lindsey, Brittney and countless others having too good a time. I am personally of the opinion that neither of the aforementioned actually want to quit the drinking and drugs yet, it's really about the panic certain people are feeling when they sense that their cash cows are headed for slaughter. You know something isn't right when your lawyer is the one driving you to rehab. A year ago I would not have felt at all sorry for them and chalked it up to their being spoiled, having too much money and not enough responsibilities. But last year I started watching the show Intervention, and something strange happened. I began feeling something called empathy. Dammit.
Intervention is not a funny show, it's actually really sad and sometimes (hopefully) uplifting. What's funny is my realization that I am completely oblivious to who why where and how people abuse drugs. Up until a few years ago I thought freebasing was when a DJ scratches a record. I'm not kidding. I've always been that way, my parents educated me well enough at a young age for me to know that I wanted nothing to do with drugs, and my various circles of friends have always more interested in actually doing fun and interesting things rather than drinking, doing drugs and rotting our brains. I've heard lots of people talk about wild parties in high school but it honestly never even occurred to me and my friends to do anything other than make funny videos, watch movies and drive around places that we thought were creepy and scare ourselves silly. I realize how lame that may sound, but I just had no interest in doing anything else. My friends and I didn't really have anything to rebel against, and neither did most kids in my high school. We lived in a fairly affluent area where everyone seemed to live in a nice house, drive a nice car and have a nice family. That's triple nice. My high school seemed to be the opposite of a lot of schools I hear about. In my school the popular kids were the smartest, not nerds, but kids who had an A average and played sports like soccer, track and tennis were the most popular. I guess I went to a school of over achievers, no wonder I didn't really fit in. Anyway, drugs and alcohol were never a problem at my high school and it wasn't until kids went to college (as 98% of them did) that many of them were really exposed to that world.
More OCD TV after the jump.
I have learned a hell of a lot from watching Intervention. It's very sad to see the amount of people who turn to drugs and alcohol because of tragic events in their lives. There is often a theme of people going through something terrible at a young age and the parents not dealing with it properly. Therefore the kids grow up with guilt, anger and resentment which they internalize and either try to drown out the pain, or destroy themselves because they feel unworthy of a good life. I get totally sucked into that part of the show, like I'm waiting to for the reveal to see what awful thing happened to them and how it wasn't dealt with. Then there's the middle of the show which shows the addict while high or drunk and doing things that I imagine will embarrass the hell out of them if they get sober and watch the show. Then comes the actual intervention, at this point I get nervous, will the person get mad and storm out, or will they be relieved that help is finally being handed to them? It always amazes me how the simple formula of the intervention seems to work so well, usually the person says yes and off they go to treatment. Then I get really nervous because next either the happy "I've changed my life" acoustic guitar music will start, or the screen will go black and the words will come up that tell you that the person left treatment or got kicked out and is using again. I get so sad when I see that! Like I was part of the process and they disappointed me personally. But when it's the happy acoustic guitar music, I'm like, pheeeeeeeeeeew!
I think most of us know that this is not the end of the substance abuse ride for our Lindseys and Brits, it's the old adage of you can't help someone who doesn't want to help themselves. You can throw every cliché in the book at them, but at the end of the day it's their lives and we're just watching. In the meantime we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope they don't become another River Phoenix or Anna Nicole.
Man, I've depressed myself with this column, if you'll excuse me I'm going to go and listen to some happy acoustic guitar music.
Intervention is on A&E, Friday nights at 10/9c
Holly says:
You are so f*cking clueless.
T-Bone says:
You have also depressed me with your wind-bag column. There was no real reason to go on and on and on and on about something your perfectly white shoes has never stepped in. You are too clueless to write for this site.
Jeanie says:
I thought that was a nice column. Frankly, I'm with the columnist. I don't get substance abuse and really don't feel sorry for people who are struggling with it. Maybe I would if I watched Intervention.