Intervention: Rachel Is Addicted to Heroin, Coke and Artistic Expression
By Thoughtis
Last night, the season premiere of Intervention-an A & E reality series that documents addiction and subsequently makes everyone else feel better about their own drug use-premiered for another round of tears, fights and recovery. This week, we were introduced to Rachel, a 21 year-old heroin addict who’s been living on the streets of NYC for almost a year. Despite being a junkie, Rachel claims to have a passion for art, which is further demonstrated in one scene when she takes stickers and puts them in a notebook to make a pretty collage.
Even though her upbringing was pretty unremarkable, Rachel blames her father-a competitive bodybuilder- for giving her a body complex. She originally used heroin at 16 as a way to lose weight (whatever happened to good old-fashioned starvation?) and to appease her superficial father but whoops, she got addicted to it along the way. Her family seems worried about Rachel dying and they also seem freaked out about her boyfriend, Joie (nice spelling), a homeless junkie who looks like he might kill you but Rachel defends him and is all “No, I love him!” I guess love is blind and/or on heroin.
At this point in the episode, things start to get really convoluted and strange. Rachel’s boyfriend, Joie, is arrested and within a day, she starts sleeping with a new guy named Ryan. Rachel and Ryan first met at Starbucks and according to her, Ryan “has a pad. He deals pot. He has a lot of things going for him.” Their romance is short-lived though because two days later, Ryan is also arrested on possession and sent to jail. At first, Rachel is super sad about two of her boyfriends being in jail but then miraculously, Joie is released and the two reunite. Rachel immediately comes clean about sleeping with Ryan and Joie calls her a whore and tells her the relationship is over. Five minutes later, he admits that he ratted Ryan out to the cops in order to get released early from jail (haha?) and that he still loves Rachel. Jesus Christ. Drug addicts’ lives move at the speed of light. I seriously can’t keep up with their drama. So then they walk off together in the cruel harsh sunlight and go to sleep in front of a church. The next morning, Joie proposes to Rachel (presumably with a ring-pop) and she accepts. EEEEEK.
At the pre-intervention, interventionist, (is that what they’re called?) Candy, pinpoints the blame on Rachel’s parents divorce and says that when a child goes through divorce from ages 2-6, they’re at a higher risk for being insane. Ugh. This show always blames divorce. My parents split up when I was 8 and you don’t see me shooting cocaine into my neck in a McDonald’s bathroom. I really feel like they give divorce too much power on this show.
Anyways, Rachel goes to her final interview AKA the intervention and the producers distract Joie so he won’t come and ruin her chance at recovery. Rachel walks into the room and flips her shit. It went sort of like this:
Rachel: Fuck, this is Intervention! (Screams hysterically and runs down the stairs. Her father chases after her.)
Rachel’s Dad: Babe, please go back in there. You’re addicted to drugs and it’s scary.
Rachel: But Daaaaaaaaaaad. You’re an asshole. You ruined my life!
Rachel’s Dad: I know. I’m sorry.
Rachel: Oh, you apologized? Sweet. I’ll go to rehab then. Smooch!
It was actually a longer process than that but that was basically the gist of it. Joie ended up crashing and told Rachel, “I love you but if you quit drugs, we’re over.” So that was that.
She ended up going to a rehab in Malibu (which is a city comprised of rehab centers and coke dealers but whatevs!) and has been sober since July 24, 2010. They showed footage of her in rehab and she looked super healthy and happy. She was eating, drawing, and eating some more. She relapsed once but immediately asked for help afterwards. Everything was going to be okay.