Answer Addiction

Tag: Celebrity Rehab

  • Jason Wahler Reflects on Making Amends to Lauren Conrad in Recovery: "It's Freeing"

    Jason Wahler Reflects on Making Amends to Lauren Conrad in Recovery: "It's Freeing"

    Jason Wahler reconciled with his ex-girlfriend and former The Hills co-star Lauren Conrad as part of his recovery.

    Jason Wahler, along with his girlfriend Lauren Conrad, became reality TV stars on Laguna Beach and then The Hills. Wahler also had a major downward spiral from drinking and drugs, but he finally turned himself around and even opened up his own sober living home.

    As Wahler explained on the E! show Just the Sip, he used to be a “sad lost individual” who “got to a really, really dark place.” In fact, he even tried to take his own life. “The depths of my addiction took me to not contemplation, but attempting suicide.” 

    From The Hills to Recovery

    Wahler felt his downfall began about ten years ago when The Hills first hit MTV. “I’m not proud of it, but 10 to 12 years ago I was the drunk, womanizing alcoholic,” he says. “I was very lost. After we shot Laguna Beach going into season one of The Hills is when my addiction took full force. Drugs and alcohol were my solution.”

    Wahler got sober after hitting bottom, and he did the standard 12-step process of making amends to people you hurt in your addiction. He of course reached out to former girlfriend Lauren Conrad, and back in 2011 he confessed, “There’s stuff that happened in the past with my drunken ways that I need to address.”

    Now he says, “Part of the process of recovery and living your life sober is making amends and I made amends to Lauren. It’s freeing. When you can take ownership of your actions and let people know you truly want to make things right and you apologize and you take the actions to fix what you did, it feels good.”

    In the past, Wahler said that Conrad was “a big part of my life,” and that “she’s an incredible person and so supportive of anything I do to stay clean.”

    Wahler added that he’s “definitely transformed. I’m happy to be able to say that. I’m content in my own skin. I can sit here and look you in the eye and I’m comfortable, I’m confident, I’m happy. I have a great group of people around me.”

    Celebrity Rehab

    After starring on The Hills, Wahler did a stint on Celebrity Rehab, and he told The Fix, “I think Dr. Drew kind of nailed it on the head. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I’ve been to a lot of rehabs and seen a lot of doctors, and he’s definitely up there with the best. He said that being young, and being on the TV and limelight and stuff kind of ignited [my alcohol use disorder]. It’s going to come up at some point if you have it, but this lifestyle kind of set fire to it and made it come up a hundred times faster.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Heidi Fleiss Talks Sex, Drugs, and Saving Macaws

    Heidi Fleiss Talks Sex, Drugs, and Saving Macaws

    I’ll get high to hide my pain and as an excuse. It’s stupid, just plain stupid. I’ve never known drugs to help anyone. It’s so crazy to hate it so much but to do it still. I don’t understand that insanity.

    The “Hollywood Madam” lives today with scores of noisy exotic birds in the small town of Pahrump, Nevada. Remembering her prison days, she now dedicates herself to freeing macaws from their cages.

    When Fleiss was arrested in 1993 for charges including attempted pandering, her escort service employed 500 beautiful girls-next-door who were like porn stars in the bedroom. They charged clients what today would be almost $3,000 a night, and Fleiss grew rich by keeping 40 percent of those earnings. Partying hard and living in the fast lane led to struggles with addiction.

    Although she never served time for her work in the sex industry, a federal tax evasion case led to 20 months in prison in Dublin, California. While incarcerated, she longed for her freedom; this longing served as the genesis of her efforts with macaw rescue.

    We recently got the inside scoop from Heidi on prison, reality TV, addiction, and her mission to free birds.

    The Fix: Today, your passion is providing freedom to dozens of macaws, beautiful parrot-like exotic birds that you live with on the outskirts of Pahrump, Nevada. You describe how seeing a caged bird reminded you of your experience in prison. Is being of service to these birds who once were forced to live in boxes a reflection of personal redemption?

    Heidi Fleiss: You pretty much got it. After prison, I did see the world differently. I saw a beautiful macaw in a cage, and it really bothered me. I asked the owner when was the last time it was out of its cage. She said, “I don’t know. Maybe 20 or 30 years.” The bird actually had dust on it. I realized I could not go on with my life, knowing that bird was still in that cage. It seemed so awful to have wings and be stuck in a cage, of all things. Imagine 45 years in a basement with another 45 years to go.

    It has never been properly addressed. We are a civilized society. How can we do this? The subjugation of this species is selfish and self-absorbed. It’s a tortuous, bleak existence. It’s so painful for them because their bodies aren’t meant for sedentary lives. They struggle with this lonely, painful existence. Do you really think these animals with wings are on this earth to say bad words and to dance for us? It’s disgusting, and everybody should find it offensive. Are we really that selfish?

    Before prison, I never paid attention to or cared about a bird in a cage. I lived with this one rich boyfriend, and we had lots of birds in cages. I’d walk by them every day, and I looked at them like I looked at pictures on the wall. It didn’t matter. Now that I’m aware, I can’t ignore it. I have to be proactive. I rescue them from parrot prison and give them a life outside of a cage. (In the background, macaws screech loudly.) They need to have some other option beyond living and dying in a cage. Today, I am that option. I did not want to do this with my life. I still do not want to do this, but somebody has to do it.

    In terms of your attempts to maintain your sobriety, you say, “I struggle. I struggle with my addiction. And it’s tough because I’ll be doing so well. And I don’t know what will make me flip.” When you have fallen off the proverbial wagon in the past, what triggered you? What tools do you use today to avoid such triggers?

    I am just coming off of a slip right now. I’m barely off of one. Obviously, there are some personal demons that I can’t confront. Sometimes I cannot accept the mistakes that I’ve made. Dealing with a relapse seems easier than continuing to deal with the pain. I’ll get high to hide my pain and as an excuse. It’s stupid, just plain stupid. I’ve never known drugs to help anyone. It’s so crazy to hate it so much but to do it still. I don’t understand that insanity.

    Was the business a pure money-making venture for you? How many of the women involved in the sex business view it purely as a money-making business, and how many of the women struggle with substance use or behavioral disorders like love addiction and sex addiction? Do you think a madam is to a sex addict what a dealer is to a drug addict?

    Absolutely not. In any professional field, whether it’s the medical industry or the legal industry or education or the sex industry, you’re going to find the same amount of problems: sex addiction, drug addiction, hang-ups from being molested, or this and that. You’re going to find just about the same ratio that I went through in the sex industry with just about any of these other professions. You really will.

    As for the sex addiction question, that’s the man’s point of view. They think the women do it because they love it. They don’t do it because they love it. They do it for money. And they are introduced to a world they would never have experienced otherwise. Who else gets to spend a summer yachting on the French Riviera? The people that worked for me traveled the world, and many had incredible, unique experiences. It’s very hard for people to understand the world that I was in. When you are dealing with the wealthiest people in the world, what happens is rare and beyond expectation. A million dollars is nothing to a billionaire. It’s hard to fathom that kind of life when it’s combined with having a good time.

    You don’t have to have a golden pussy to get a hundred thousand dollars. It has nothing to do with that. Rather, it’s about the circles you travel in, and I was able to access the people with that kind of money. That’s what it’s all about, and it’s really hard to understand the way money works at that level. All that stuff was a long time ago, it was a lot of fun, but it seems silly now to me, particularly in light of what I do today.

    Speaking to Vice, you said that the public humiliation you experienced on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew was actually therapeutic. Can you help us understand how it was therapeutic to have dirty laundry aired on national television? 

    When I was asked to do that show, I was like no way. I’m not going to be humiliated on television. You have to be a real idiot to do that show. There’s no way on earth. I turned it down, and then they contacted me again. I changed my mind. I don’t know why I decided to do it, but it was probably the five hundred thousand dollars. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life, and I wish they would start doing that show again.

    Really?

    Yes.

    Why?

    I think it’s really helpful to people both on and off the show. Yes, you’re watching someone else’s train wreck, but that’s what we always do. I don’t think it’s any more exploitive than anything else. You learn when you watch other people that you’re not alone whatever you’re going through and that there might be a way out.

    Dr. Drew is a genuine person and a great guy. He truly cares, and I found him to be one hundred percent sincere. He’s the real deal. He’s not a fraud or a phony. Ever since I first met him when I was 27 and sent to my first rehab, he’s been a consistently wonderful guy.

    You are famously quoted as saying, “I was too lazy in bed to be a prostitute.” Did this laziness change when crystal meth entered the picture? Was your sexual relationship with Tom Sizemore as charged and powerful as Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew made it out to be?

    I hate crystal meth. It still plagues me. I don’t see it as a sex drug. I think if you connect with someone, you connect with someone. I did crystal meth before and after I was with Tom, and I didn’t have these freakily intense sexual relationships. If you do not want to sleep with someone, drugs certainly do help. They really help.

    Personally, when it comes to sex, I don’t want to see anyone disrobe in front of me again. When it comes to sex, I’m done. I don’t want to have sex ever again. And this is from someone who’s slept with everything and everyone. I slept with a guy who rode on the Queen Mary when it was a ship, and I’ve only known it to be a tourist attraction. I’m not saying that I’m a new virgin or anything, but I don’t even want to have sex ever again. It doesn’t matter to me at all.

    Do you think people can be addicted to sex? What about addicted to love? Do you believe that you have suffered from sex addiction or love addiction?

    I definitely have never had a sex addiction. I’ve had a sex drive, and I’ve had lots of sex, it’s never dominated my life. I’ve felt that I’ve got to get laid or I got to have sex or my life will fall apart. That’s not me. Mind you, I’ve had mornings where I’ve woken up and looked over to find someone in my bed, and I have to ask myself, “Is that a boy or a girl?” Never ever has sex been the driving force in my life. I think the word “addiction” can mean a lot of things. People always talk about moderation, but I don’t believe in any of that. If you want to ruin your life, just do drugs.

    Love addiction can be co-dependency. I know women who do not feel complete unless they have a man in their life. I also know girls who go out at night with one purpose in mind. If they don’t get laid, then no matter what happens, it’s not a good night. It’s only good if they get laid. Father complexes and mother complexes drive those behaviors. They feed off of abandonment issues and get even complex.

    Also, my girls were not sex addicts or love addicts. They were prostitutes, and they were professionals. I went for the best. I wanted the cover of Seventeen magazine. None of them were underage, but I wanted the girls that looked like cheerleaders. I wanted the girls that knew how to fuck like a porn star but looked like the girl next door. (The squawking of the macaws intensifies.)

    You once lived a life that most people cannot even imagine. You told Vice about the parties at your house in the Hollywood Hills, saying, “They didn’t have sex for money at my house, but they would come to hang out. It was social… You’ve got people like Jack Nicholson and Mick Jagger partying at your house… I remember coming home, and Prince was dancing in my living room.” Do you miss those days?

    I remember walking out of my bedroom to see Prince dancing in my living room. I thought it was way cool, and I couldn’t even stick around to enjoy it. I had to go to a Beverly Hills Hotel bungalow to check in so I could manage my business. It was too loud at my house to get anything done. There were a lot of good times, but I also worked hard.

    Do I miss it? (There is a pause as a macaw screeches in the background.) Look, when you’re young and a girl in Los Angeles, it’s hard to do any better than I did. For a long time, I had the best of everything: food, sex, drugs, people, clubs, hotels, and more. I was having a good time, and it seemed like the party never ends.

    As a woman gets older, it’s harder and different. When those things don’t work anymore, it changes you. The only thing I miss about Los Angeles today is there’s a lot of opportunity there. I don’t miss that life even when these birds are driving me crazy. I’ve had a great life and good times, but saving these birds right now is the only thing that matters to me.

    (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How It Feels to Be the Reality Show Villain: An Interview with Kari Ann Peniche

    How It Feels to Be the Reality Show Villain: An Interview with Kari Ann Peniche

    Those shows continue to haunt me and do me damage in my personal life. I was portrayed as this crazy person, and that portrayal is something I find myself having to fight against on a regular basis.

    Kari Ann Peniche was thrust into more scandals before the age of 30 than most fictional Hollywood starlets. She was crowned Miss Teen USA 2002 before her 17th birthday, then in 2004 the title was taken from her after she appeared nude in a celebrity pictorial for Playboy magazine. Then, from 2009 to 2010, Kari Ann appeared in succession on the reality shows Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and Sober House. Set up as the troubled bad girl by the producers, Kari Ann received little help and lots of negative press. She was also the subject of tabloid celebrity stories covering her volatile engagement to Aaron Carter in 2006, a nasty public quarrel with the late singer Mindy McCready in 2009, and the leak of a controversial nude home video that included married actors Eric “McSteamy” Dane and Rebecca Gayheart in 2009.

    With hard work, Kari Ann moved on from that chapter and today she is happily married with two children. She found her true calling as an interior designer and creative director, and in 2017 she launched DAF House, a “luxury design, fashion and art firm.” 

    The Fix recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kari Ann about her journey. 

    After appearing nude in the November 2004 issue of Playboy magazine, you were stripped of your crown. Why did you decide to appear in Playboy? Since Hugh Hefner was still alive at this point, I imagine you spent time at the Playboy mansion.

    When Playboy was introduced to me, I didn’t really know how I felt about the idea. All I knew was that it was a nude magazine that my Dad had kept hidden in a drawer when I was growing up. I thought it was weird to even consider the idea at first. Then, the agent went on to tell me about all these iconic women who had posed for the magazine in the past: Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Farrah Fawcett, Sharon Stone, Shannen Doherty, Drew Barrymore, and many more. I thought, “If they posed for the magazine, then I definitely want to pose for the magazine and do a celebrity pictorial because I will be in such good company.”

    So, I agreed to do it, and I did spend time at the mansion. I lived there for a couple of months, and Hef was always very nice. He taught me how to play backgammon, and he let me stay in the guest house. I don’t think it was too much for me, but it definitely opened my eyes to a world that I hadn’t been exposed to before.

    In an interview with Steppin’ Out magazine, you revealed that you had been raped twice before you turned 18, first by a neighbor when you were 13 and later by a U.S. military officer when you were modeling in South Korea. You also had a series of abusive boyfriends that took advantage of you and introduced you to hard drugs. How difficult was it to be in the national spotlight while dealing with such extreme trauma?

    I know now that being busy with modeling and Playboy and all the attention that I was getting at that time really helped to distract me from that trauma. At the same time, I never really dealt with what happened. I just pushed everything aside because I was too busy to stop and really think about it. I would tell myself that I was fine, I’m not a victim, and those things aren’t about me. The ones that did those things to me, they’re the ones that need help and they’re the sick ones. They should deal with it, and I don’t need to deal with it because I’m just fine. That was my attitude about all that back then.

    When I did the Steppin’ Out interview, I was starting to kind of crumble, and I was reaching out for help. Everything had slowed down, and suddenly I had a lot of time to myself. Finally, being with myself allowed me to reflect on what had happened. I realize now that I shared stuff that they didn’t even really ask me questions about. The interview really captured where I was emotionally and mentally. I was breaking down, and it felt like everything was falling apart. It happened to be the same time that I got the calls to do the reality shows. I knew I needed something so I thought it made sense: I would help my career and help myself at the same time, but that’s not what ended up happening.

    You went on Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew because your manager thought it was a good idea. Today, you say that you were never a sex addict. Instead, would you describe yourself back then as a love addict or a relationship addict?

    I like to say that I had more of a shopping problem, I mean, I didn’t even know what sex addiction was and I didn’t know why I was going on that show. I was the first person cast for that show, and I had only been intimate with a handful of people. Never had I ever had a one-night stand or hooked up with people I didn’t know. I was never promiscuous in that way, but I knew how to play that part in a weird sense.

    I do know that I used sex as a kind of protection. I would use sex as a way to ward off guys that I thought were trying to make moves on me. I thought that being graphic or explicit would intimidate my guy friends and keep them in line. I always had people over at my apartments and my houses. I would buy sex toys and bondage stuff that I would have in my bedroom and on my bed, but I had never even used these things before. It was all like some kind of strange decoration, and it was my way of protecting myself. I don’t know if that makes sense, and I know it sounds kind of confusing, but it actually worked really well. Rather than use sex toys and bondage equipment, I really just shopped for them and displayed them, and that’s why I like to refer to it as more of a shopping problem. My goal was to make guys think, “I’m not even going to try to hit on her because I am inadequate. I won’t be able to keep up with a girl like her.” In truth, it was all one big illusion. I had been through so many bad things in the past, and I needed to have a way to protect myself.

    When you were on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew and Sober House, it seemed like the producers cast you as “the villainess.” Did you feel unfairly portrayed on these shows?

    When I did those shows, I had really bad management, and I was coached to be a certain way by the producers. I was told that VH1 was looking for a new starlet to come out of these reality shows, and the cast was going to include Tom Sizemore and Dennis Rodman. We had big names on the show, so I thought it made sense to be a part of that group; I thought it would help my career.

    I do feel unfairly portrayed because the producers did a lot of things to provoke negative behaviors. I could have behaved differently, but so much of what happened wasn’t shown. You saw the reactions but never the provocations. We’re being filmed 24 hours a day for 21 days, and all that’s aired is 47 minutes once a week for ten weeks. Obviously, a lot of the story is edited out. They never showed the full story of what led to my outbursts on the show.

    I also felt like they were digging things up and putting words into my mouth that weren’t true about my drug use and past trauma. At first, I would just say whatever they wanted me to say. I didn’t really know the answers to the questions they were asking.

    As time passed, I knew I wasn’t being true to myself. It really started to bother me, and I started regretting a lot of the things we had filmed earlier. I didn’t want to be there anymore, and I knew that doing the show wasn’t right for me. At the same time, I also knew that I needed some kind of intervention because I was going down a bad path in my life. I really wanted to be helped, and it was a struggle to try to get something positive out of the experience when I also felt manipulated and not properly cared for.

    At the end of the day, we were just a cast, and our pain didn’t matter. All that mattered was them getting the material that they wanted. They were creating characters, and I hated the character that they created for me. Rather than help me get well, it felt like it was designed to do just the opposite.

    If you could sit down and talk to the producers of those reality shows today, what would you say? Should behavioral addictions like love addiction, relationship addiction, and sex addiction be used as fuel for the engine of the entertainment machine?

    I would first thank them for the experience because I did learn a lot. However, I don’t think they were fair or considerate. Rather than manipulate those experiences, they should have let things unfold naturally. If they had done it naturally, I believe they would have had great content anyways. There already are enough things that unfold in rehab anyhow. I don’t understand why their focus wasn’t helping the patients as opposed to doing things to provoke the drama.

    The producers and people on the show used our addictions and our traumas in these therapy sessions as entertainment, but they didn’t provide any follow-up care. It was a bad idea, and it caused a lot of hurt for my family and for me because they opened wounds without trying to heal them. It was like pulling off psychic scabs, and they would be blaming my mom or my dad for what had happened to me when I wasn’t even blaming them. I have never blamed them for anything. I was an adult, and I made those choices on my own. I knew better, and I knew I shouldn’t have put myself in those situations or done those things. Rather than help, they made me more confused.

    After those shows, I left each one of them feeling worse than I had before I went on them. They had ripped off those scabs, and I left filming with all these open wounds and no one to help heal them. Even today, those shows continue to haunt me and do me damage in my personal life. I was portrayed as this crazy person, and that portrayal is something I find myself having to fight against on a regular basis.

    I don’t think those settings should be televised. Everyone comes off poorly, and it’s not a good message. It does more harm than good.

    On the DAF House team page, you are quoted as saying, “Change is possible no matter who you are, what you’ve done or where you’ve been. It starts with creativity.” How did your creativity help you overcome the trauma you experienced as a girl and young woman? When did you realize that it was time to change and how did you change?

    I believe we are all artists in our own way, and we are all here to create, whether we are creating art or music, writing or designing, building or financing, marketing or selling. It all depends on our identity, but everything can be done creatively. For me, the quote on the DAF House website refers to that chapter in my life. There has been so much said about me that’s honestly not true, and I had spent four or five years honestly embarrassed about who I was or even who I am. I was afraid of anyone Googling me and finding out about what had happened because the reality had been so twisted. I was scared about what was going to happen.

    I recently went through a tough time in my marriage where my husband and I spent almost two years divorcing. It was really ugly and crazy in retrospect because we never got divorced, and we are still together. During that time, everything from my past before I was even married and before I was ever a mom was being brought up in court. I was being portrayed as a bad mother because I was an addict, and I had been on those celebrity rehab shows. It was all in the past and completely irrelevant to my being a mother or being married at that point in time. It was so in the past, but still, the judge ordered me to do random drug testing where they go in the bathroom with you and watch you pee three times a week. It was awful, and during that period, I did over 80 drug tests in a six-month period, and every one of them came back negative.

    Look, I was happy to do those drug tests because I knew I had nothing to hide, but never did any of that get publicized. Only the negative headlines are focused on by the eyes of the world. My husband’s lawyer brought forth a torrent of allegations against me, all this bad stuff that had happened long before we were married and all this bad stuff that was untrue. What was so disturbing is that the false picture that lawyer tried to paint of me kept coming out in the press and being published as truth. I cannot tell you how hard it was to go through something so awful.

    My husband and I did manage to reconcile, and we have done our best to repair our marriage. He was going through his own crisis mentally at the time, and the divorce had little to do with me and our relationship. However, given my celebrity and the scandals in my past, I became the punching bag of that process. He was influenced by a lot of outside people, and he let those people dominate his perspective. For a long time, all I could do was love him from far away and do my best to let him know that I wasn’t playing games. I wouldn’t say anything mean about him because I knew it was all going to be public record. I didn’t say anything about him being a bad father because it wasn’t true. He’s always been a good father, and I would never say such things about the man I love.

    We have been married for nine years, and we have put that behind us. For me, that quote is about focusing on the present and the future, leaving the past behind. I am trying to create a new picture of who I am for the public so I can be seen for who I really am.

    This interview was edited for length and clarity.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Real Housewives of Recovery: Reality TV and Addiction

    Real Housewives of Recovery: Reality TV and Addiction

    It is no secret that alcohol is readily available on set while filming these shows to grease the wheels of conflict, and not everyone who drinks alcohol misuses it.

    When I got sober, I started watching reality television like it was my job. The mindless escapism helped me fill the stretch of evening hours that I would have otherwise spent at a bar or at home with bottles of wine. I had my go-tos: Real Housewives, Southern Charm, Teen Mom. I was content to enjoy the alcohol-fueled drama, the table-flipping, and the manufactured cat fights from the sober safety of my couch.

    But as drunken fights frequently become the central conflict between cast members—like the cake throwing incident on last season’s Real Housewives of New Jersey—I noticed a new storyline making its way into the shows: recovery. And lately, I’ve been able to find the whole life cycle of addiction and recovery on reality TV.

    But are these accurate and helpful portrayals of addiction and recovery?

    Dorinda Medley from Real Housewives of New York City slurs her way through dinners and ends the night in ashamed and guilty tears. Luann de Lesseps returned to the show this season fresh from rehab after a drunken arrest, but still keeps wine in her fridge. Kathryn Dennis of Southern Charm is most evolved: back from rehab, she lovingly mothers her young children, keeps her cool when faced with typical reality show-style attacks, and, most inspiringly, speaks honestly about her struggles with anxiety and depression.

    The appearance of these storylines in this kind of reality show is a new phenomenon. When Sonja Morgan of the Real Housewives of New York City quietly cut back on drinking, she casually mentioned that she was “trying something new,” in a blink-and-you-missed-it moment during a confessional. The drama factor in her storyline went down to nothing. She was calm, reasonable, collected; it all went mostly uncommented on by her castmates. As a recovering alcoholic, I was disappointed this wasn’t a point of discussion on the show, especially because taking a step back from alcohol was having such a positive effect on Morgan. Here was an opportunity to talk about the very real and negative effects of alcohol use disorder and emphasize the positives Morgan was experiencing as a result of abstaining, even if not entirely. 

    Jenelle Evans’ drug use in Teen Mom 2 was impossible to ignore because it was documented on camera for the show in 2013. But any recovery or treatment Evans may have had never made its way to the small screen. In recent seasons, her past drug use is never even acknowledged. Susanna, who asked that we only use her first name, is a 32-year-old public health and substance abuse professional in Denver, Colorado. Based on her knowledge of people in recovery from opioid addiction, she thinks it is “highly unlikely” Evans’ use disorder could go untreated. By not acknowledging her possible treatment, MTV paints an unrealistic picture of addiction and recovery. Susanna says that “as the viewer, we have no insight into [whether or not Evans is in recovery] since it is excluded from the story line. We therefore assume she is not addressing her substance use disorder.”

    Susanna also finds fault with how the ancillary characters dealing with addiction are represented on the franchise. Adam Lind, the father to former teen mom Chelsea DeBoer’s daughter Aubree, is never filmed. But the negative talk from on-air cast members surrounding his drug disorder, Susanna says, “only further stigmatizes addiction…and does little to raise awareness about substance use disorders.”

    Are shows like Celebrity Rehab and Intervention, where addiction and recovery is the focus, doing any better? Not according to Molly Smith, 24, in long-term recovery for alcohol use disorder. Smith used to watch the show Intervention but says that it had little impact on her getting help because she feels it presented a “narrow view of what addiction looks like.” It was so narrow, she said, that “Years later, when I began struggling with substance use, I had a hard time recognizing that I had a problem because I didn’t fit the narrative I witnessed on that show.”

    The homogeneous representation of addiction Smith saw is likely due to the selection process of shows like Intervention. People familiar with the casting (who have asked to remain anonymous) speak of a thorough vetting process to ensure that the treatment the show is offering is the right fit for the individual, and that being filmed (and other show-related variables) won’t interfere with their ability to successfully participate in that treatment. The storylines appear to have a lot in common because the people involved all meet the same specific criteria. Other viewers have reported seeking help after recognizing themselves in the people featured in these shows. And, unlike a lot of other reality television vehicles, the behind-the-scenes goal of these shows is successful treatment, not drunk drama. 

    When Kathryn Dennis of Southern Charm met the much older Thomas Ravenel, there was plenty of drunken drama between the two of them as well as between Dennis and her other castmates. She is now the mother of two and has completed multiple stints in rehab. In the recently-completed fifth season of the show, Dennis is sober and drama-free. In fact, Dennis was doing so well that she felt like she didn’t need her depression-treating medication anymore. But when she stopped taking her meds for a week, she ended up missing in action, to her castmates’ great concern. After resurfacing, she opened up to them about her struggles with depression. 

    Dianna Jaynes, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Eagle Rock, California, whose patients include people in recovery from drug and alcohol use disorder says that there is “evidence of [Dennis’s] recovery through her behavior.” This is unlike Luann de Lesseps, where real recovery “is not being portrayed at all.” 

    The arrest and widely-viewed police video last year of a combative and intoxicated de Lesseps forced the conversation about sobriety into her storyline as she returned to the show from rehab. As she told People magazine last month: “This was a warning….I’m grateful to the universe for making me change my life.”

    But her recent return to rehab suggests that Jaynes may have been right: perhaps de Lesseps wasn’t fully committed to recovery. Unlike with Kathryn Dennis, “we haven’t had the gift of time with Luann.”

    This season of Real Housewives of New York City ended with a very poignant argument between Medley and de Lesseps that perfectly encapsulates the bizarreness of this pseudo-reality world, where a sober de Lesseps suggests to a drunk Medley that she is “turning,” as in, having too much to drink and going to the dark side. Medley explodes and the rift between them continues for the remaining four episodes. Medley continues to dig in her heels to the point of ridiculousness. She has even claimed on the recently aired reunion episode of the show, which de Lesseps could not attend because had re-entered rehab, that she wasn’t drunk on the night of the fight with de Lesseps. The other castmates float in and out, at times willing to call Medley on her problem but in the next breath saying that no one on the show has an issue and they all drink a little too much sometimes.

    It is no secret that alcohol is readily available on set while filming these shows to grease the wheels of conflict, and not everyone who drinks alcohol misuses it. But in cases like Medley’s, where there clearly is a problem that she’s unwilling to face, these programs have as much opportunity to direct the narrative towards reducing the stigma as they do to incite drama. As one viewer in Denver, Colorado points out, the cast members on these shows have huge social media followings with “influential platforms that could be used for good to promote recovery.”

    Dorri Olds, 56, is a writer who began using at age 11 and whose idols included Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both stars who died of drug overdoses. She has been in recovery for 30 years, and thinks that recovery in reality television is a good thing. A former viewer of Celebrity Rehab, Olds has wondered, “what if somebody back then that I looked up to…had gone into recovery?” Olds also points out that “when you’re really that low, and you want to get high, I don’t think anybody’s going to stop you.”

    I agree with Molly Smith, who thinks “it is crucial to see more people in recovery on television, but their stories need to be shared in a multidimensional way to break stigma.” The more the stories are shown, in all of their various stages and forms of recovery, the more recognizable they will become to those who need it the most.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Celebrity Rehab" Treatment Center Shut Down By Health Department

    "Celebrity Rehab" Treatment Center Shut Down By Health Department

    The founders of the recovery center say they’re working with the state agency to resolve the concerns.

    The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) suspended the license of a drug rehabilitation center that earned exposure as the setting for the VH1 reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.

    An investigation into the death of a patient at the Pasadena Recovery Center (PRC), along with other alleged violations, caused the department to temporarily suspend the facility’s license in June 2018, and DHCS is seeking to make that suspension permanent while it addresses concerns about its patients.

    The founders of the recovery center, which currently operates as a sober living facility, hope to work with the agency to resolve the many concerns.

    According to the Pasadena Star-News, an unnamed patient died at PRC in 2017 after being admitted to its recovery program. Investigators found that while the staff determined that the individual was under the influence of an unnamed substance, he or she allegedly did not undergo detoxification.

    DHCS also claimed that PRC employees failed to check on the client every 30 minutes or carry out orders from a doctor regarding the individual. 

    A former client who spoke to the Star-News on condition of anonymity also alleged that PRC continued to conduct detox for clients after the June 2018 temporary suspension.

    The Star-News coverage noted that these clients learned about the suspension in late June and were subsequently discharged.

    The death—one of 84 at non-medical rehab facilities investigated by the state between 2012 and 2017—was just one of several inquiries conducted by DHCS into alleged activities at the PRC.

    The Star-News cited a May 2018 investigation where the facility was reportedly found to have improperly monitored detox for clients; other alleged issues ranged from missing files and lack of counseling sessions to disrepair in bedrooms and bathrooms.

    PRC was also cited for reportedly claiming that it was a 98-bed facility, despite being licensed for 88 beds, though the company has adjusted that number on its website.

    In a statement, attorney Alison Triessl, who co-founded PRC with her father, psychiatrist Dr. Lee Bloom, wrote that the facility “has been operating continuously for nearly two decades, and during that time, it has served thousands of patients in need. It was recently notified by the DHCS of certain alleged deficiencies. We are participating in settlement negotiations with the department and hope to have the matter resolved in the near future.”

    From 2008 to 2012, PRC was featured on the controversial Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, where it served as the treatment facility for an array of famous patients with alleged substance dependency issues.

    Six “cast members” died after appearing on the series, including country singer Mindy McCready, Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr, Rodney King, wrestler/actor Joanie Laurer and actor Jeff Conaway. As the Star-News noted, not all of these deaths were attributed to their dependency issues.

    View the original article at thefix.com