One of my favorite television shows on TV is "Intervention" where the families of drug addicts confront their sons, daughters, mothers, brothers, fathers, etc, about their addiction and urge them to get the help they need. I love the show because, like most people, I like seeing the under dog win. I love it when Hank, troubled by the abuse of his childhood and coping with it using heroin, gets the help he needs in treatment and begins cycling competitively like he did before he ruined his life with drugs. I feel good when I watch people beat the odds and win with their personal battles. Like most people, I also am fascinated with addiction. It horrifies me, and interests me at the same time. I am transfixed as if I were watching a train wreck. I'm fortunate not to have known anyone with an addiction. I watched an episode tonight, and as usual it was great, but it wasn't like the other episodes I'd seen.
It was about a guy who owned several successful tanning salons in Las Vegas. He was beaten heavily as a child along with his mother and brothers, and eventually left to be on his own. By the age 21 he owned three businesses. He took in his mother and brothers and took care of them financially. And he started body building. Back in the 90's a lot of muscle-building aids (powders, pills, whatever) used GHB, and he used that for when he slept to build muscle. It gave him a sedated feeling that he felt comforting. But the US Government made GHB an illegal substance in 1999, and so he had to find another substance to give him the same effect. He turned to alcohol, and was soon drinking steadily through the day, drinking out of plastic cups and mugs to conceal his behavior. He drank so heavily that he developed deep bruising all over his body due to liver function. After a short while, he was diagnosed with Testicular cancer. He immediately had the tumor removed, but refused to follow up with chemotherapy and a visit to the oncologist and urologist. His employees took care of him like a baby because he was too drunk to do anything. This whole time he is convinced that he has no problem.
On "intervention" the way that addicts are brought onto the show is that they are told they are in a documentary about addiction. But this man was in such a denial that he thought he was perfectly fine. He lied about what he was drinking, and how much. The intervention with his family came, and he refused their begging him to get help. It wasn't until much convincing that he agreed to go.
He spent 30 days in a treatment facility and was kicked out because he wasn't committed to his recovery. He went back home and was sober for 3 weeks before relapsing. All the while he said that he didn't have a problem with alcohol.
At the end of the episode, where there are usually shots of the recovered addict playing basket ball, or hugging family, there was an In Memoriam. He suffered esophageal bleeding and died of alcoholism.
It was depressing. It put me in a down kind of mood. I don't know why I decided to write about it. I guess it just scared me.
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