Intervention Series Shows the Many Faces of Addiction

Think you know what an addict looks like? Many of us have preconceived notions of just what an addict is, and many of us are very surprised to learn that our ideas are totally off the mark. The truth is that addicts could look like you or me, the neighbor, your doctor, your son or daughter or parent or sibling. Addiction touches every strata of society: rich and poor, educated and illiterate, young and old, male and female. It also cuts across race, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, and political affiliation. Intervention, the 2009 Emmy award-winning series on A&E, captures them succinctly and poignantly in a well-researched and compelling format.

Basic Stories, Real People

These are real-life stories, you see. They’re not actors and they’re not getting paid to lay out their addictions for the world to see. They agree to participate in a documentary on addiction. They don’t know they will soon face an intervention. If they accept the offer of treatment, the costs are picked up for them.

This is the basic format for each of the stories: first the interviews, shot on camera, with the addict, family members and close friends participating. Then comes the intervention, facilitated by a trained interventionist. The goal: get the addict to accept treatment. If the person agrees, he or she is immediately whisked off to the treatment facility – whether that involves going by car, taking a plane ride or other transportation. They are accompanied by the interventionist or staff from the treatment facility. There’s no turning back once the commitment has been secured. It’s off to treatment, period.

Of course, no one likes it once they get to treatment. Addicts, as we come to know through the course of each of the programs, are fierce in their denial of their own problems. Even when they grudgingly come to admit that they might just have a little problem – but nothing they can’t lick – it comes with a series of caveats. Most of them just want to go home. Some of them leave before treatment is complete. They do so against recommendations and many of those that leave will relapse. Such is the addiction cycle. Without firmly committing to treatment and going through it with a genuine intent to get clean, addicts will simply revert back to their old habits and continue their downward slide.

The interventionist, along with the statements of family members and close friends, helps the addict to realize how deeply the addiction has hurt all concerned. There are a lot of tears shed, or bursts of anger. Some addicts walk out and refuse to come back. Others come back but still put up a fight. And so it goes.

While the format is consistent week to week, the stories are all different. These are, after all, individuals – each with unique backgrounds, each with their own addiction to overcome.

Here are a few of their stories, in brief.

Full Story