celebrity rehab - VH1

scottsins

scottsins

1,000+ Posts
great show. the dude from grease and taxi is ******* wrecked. they got the chick from erkel who did pr0n.


*** They got some UFC champ (Ricco something) who jsut told a story of a horrific DWI wreck he had with gf in car. get this:

He said the wreck was bad. he thought she was dead. he had a prior, recent DWI, along with warrants and a suspended license. he casually tells the group that he dragged her supposedly dead body in to the driver's seat before the cop got there.

WTF!
 
Jeff Conaway is a major attention *****, and it's funny to see The Least Successful Baldwin Brother call him out on it.

I have no doubt Conaway is in severe distress, but his antics are over the top. Reminds me of my old man, who was a major drunk and would pull the same **** trying to dry out... mostly trying to get sympathy. The rock singer could be going thru the same withdrawal, but is being pretty chill.

There may have been some editing involved, but the moment when the UFC dude said he felt "caged", and Dr. Drew immediately nailed that he had been molested as a child was pretty impressive.

A rather sleazy concept for a show, but it is dammed compelling.
 
Some people cannot handle even the tiniest amount of discomfort, distress, or God forbid...pain, without going completely off the deep end.

Conaway is one of these people.
 
whatever... it's ******* hilarious. the least famous baldwin brother is the only likable guy on the show. he ain't takin' no guff off no one.
 
watching it right now with mrs. mandingo.

i think it is funny.

it's also sad...to see how these people throw it all away, and still don't even think of themselves as addicts in some cases. in my line of work, i deal with people like this all the time. this show is dead on and packed with truth. i don't see the sleaze factor, really. the only difference between these folks and the everyday addicts that i've responded to for 14 years is that these folks have seen some time in the limelight, and they get to rehab in a nice place. that's it.
 
all of them are there for publicity, not to get sober.

think about it, it's not an intervention. All of them were presented with this idea from their manager. You could see it in the first episode where all of them thought it was a slumber party vs. rehab.

regardless, it's a trainwreck I am enjoying
 
Having worked in several "real" rehab places, and only having seen the first couple of episodes... I have to say, it is hauntingly familiar. Sure, this place has better facilities, but there is very little of what I've seen in those episodes which don't look exactly the same when you take out the camera and the so called celebs.

In fairness to Jeff Conway, the stuff he is getting off of causes quite a bit of real physical pain during detox. In fairness to the rest of the world, he is a protypical rehab attention slut. However, when Dr Drew says it is going to kill him, that isn't lip server, Conway is on some bad stuff. His girl might as well be the angel of death, too. The absolute worst kind of enabler.

As to the Baldwin, he is one of the most frustrating types of people to see in rehab... the guy that been through so many times that he knows exactly what to say at any given point in time. In my opinion he is no more likely to stay sober than Conway. He'll dry out for a while and be right back in. Conway may actually die before coming back.

The musician may have a decent change of getting straight, I'm not sure about the rest of them.
 
I know nothing about rehab facilities, but I think this show is fascinating. Even though he's a celebrity of sorts, the doctor seems to be an extraordinarily gifted practitioner -- he cuts to the chase in anything and everything I've seen him in.

I get the feeling that anyone sent to rehab "against their will" is probably not prepared for the necessary digging into their past to ever truly address their demons. Conaway and Baldwin in particular strike me as lousy candidates for success, because neither one seems to be interested in the root cause of their problems. Sure, Baldwin seems much more put together than Conaway, but I don't think he's getting any more out of the process than Conaway is. Physical detox seems to be the least of their worries.
 
Being a recovered addict and having spent my 31 days in treatment, I'll vouch for the reality of what you're seeing in this show. What makes me want to puke is that they've got all the incentive in the world to let these people keep wallowing in their drama which has absolutely NOTHING to do with why they drink or drug. Hell, it makes great t.v. don't it? If any of them are just hard drinkers or druggers then all this sharing of their external problems and maybe talking about momma with a head shrinker might just work for them. But, if they are the real deal, then they drink and drug to treat an internal condition and all the rehashing of their war stories and drama in their lives will result in nothing more than what this show was built to do, entertain the masses.
 
Cajun, even with only 31 days in treatment, you know how regimented the schedules are. Every minute of the day is accounted for when you are inpatient. Boiling three or four days of treatment into a 30 minute show misses countless hours of treatment. I've seen nothing (in the two episodes I've seen) which drastically deviates from things you would actually see in an inpatient rehab. You are going to see family counseling, you are going to see occupational therapy, you are going to see behavioral therapy. People use as a defense mechanism, many of the mechanisms are defined by or in response to things which happen in childhood... not for everyone, but definately for some. A detox/rehab would be very remiss not to do some family counseling.

Actually, there is one thing which is a bit uncharacteristic... these patients see their doctor FAR more often than most do in rehab. The MD's usually swing through to check med levels, vitals and ideation and leave most everything else to the social workers.
 
i didn't even know this was a show until i saw this thread. i havent seen this show but the thought of it appalls me. i guess pretty soon there will be a reality show that will follow some criminals around as they rape and pillage. unfortunately for me, i have been assimilated and brainwashed as part of our society and will probably watch and laugh my *** off. save your children, don't let them watch TV.
 
Mia, I've got nothing against some good therapy. Heck, I've had my share and I wouldn't give it back. The fact is, however, that the real deal alcoholic/addict caught a genetic bullet when they were born. The thing that sends an alcoholic to a bar who has just been told that his liver is about to leave his body by the seventeenth doctor in a row has nothing to do with how he was potty trained. It is not causal. Can his outside circumstances exacerbate the problem? Hell yes! Are they the cause? Hell no! Treatment centers are wonderful at getting people dry. But, all the talk in the world about momma will not keep a real alcoholic or addict from having the obsession to treat their internal problem with whatever gets them downtown, ie comfortable in their own skin. It stopped being a party for those cats a long time ago. I speak from experience, not observation.
 
Cajun, alcoholics don't get into therapy to cure their alcoholism, alcoholism can't be cured. If you are an alcoholic, then you were born and will die one, and no amount of therapy is going to change that.

Alcoholics get dry when they choose to address the problem themselves. Recovery doesn't come from without, it comes from within. The therapy isn't about "curing" the alcoholism, it is about addressing what is preventing the addict from doing what clearly needs to be done. Sometimes that can be done by addressing the behavior, sometimes that can be done by addressing an individual's fears... in any event, there isn't a single solution for the entire population and a rehab would be remiss if they didn't try to tackle the problems in different ways.
 
You mean like when I figured out that I simply cannot walk into a strip club without spending (a lot) more money than I intended to, no matter what?

I decided to stay away. I have a family now, and they need the money for their college experience more than "Dakota" does. That's been working just fine for me, but it took for freaking ever to let go of that ridiculous nonsense.

I finally just got a grasp on the fact that I'm an addict and that the behavior is destructive in many ways to myself and my family. That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Now I just stay away.
 
Mia, I am so down with what you are saying and the kind of work that it sounds like you do. There are a ton of good people out there who need and can benefit from what you have to offer. I think where we may be getting hung up is on a definition. What you call an alcoholic or addict is not what describes one of my variety. Go read page 21of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. That's the type that I am when untreated. I am now recovered and it has nothing to do with any of my "issues". It has to do with the fact that I do things everyday that gets me out of self. There are about 15% of us born with this ***** of a genetic difference than the rest of the population. For that 15%, like me, we must be rid of the mental obsession to put something into our bodies so that we don't feel like we're coming out of our skins. Once we put one pill in us or one drink or one snort, the physical craving begins and we're off to the races. No doctor can help me. No clergyman can help me. No Indian sweat box can help me. But, another alcoholic of my variety who has RECOVERED sure can. And guess how I stay recovered? I pull other hopeless drunks out of that same ditch. It's the coolest way of life ever and it has nothing to do with my outside world. Now, the minute I stop practicing these principals....RUN!!
 
Mandingo, I can totally relate to what you're saying. I used to be a tata bar fiend until I realized what a waste of money it was. Given sufficient force of reason I was able to stop. Just like the guy that has three DWI's or is having some alcohol related medical problems or whatever puts the drink down and says "No more!" and like you, he stays stopped. That guy IS NOT an alcoholic. He's a hard drinker and definitely has some problems around it, but he just isn't the page 21 description of the true blue hopeless variety drunk. That dude couldn't stop and stay stopped even if you had a gun to his child's head 24/7 with the threat that you were gonna pull the trigger on the next Coors Light. If you don't understand what that is like, then congratulatios, you're not one of us.
 
I'm a layman, but it sounds to me like we're just talking about the difference between psychological addiction and physical (or genetic ?) addiction, which to me sounds much more severe.

Congratulations and good luck on your continued progress!
 
Thanks Mandingo, I appreciate that kind of mojo. Just don't fall into the trap that alcoholics/addicts will always be recovering. That's bs and sure doesn't sound like any kind of life I'd sign up for. Man, today I go anywhere I want to. I live ten steps from Bourbon Street and I can stroll down it without a worry in the world. If I were still sitting around stewing in my own drama and trying to figure out if my mom caused me to drink because she sat me on the potty backwards I guarantee you that I'd be dead.
 
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