Season 10, Episode 7
Shantel
Age: 18
Location: Dunnville, Ontario
Addiction: Oxycontin
What’s memorable: I wonder how many kids with ADHD and get put on Ritalin end up being drug addicts. There’s been a couple of them on this show. I’ll bet it happens a lot as a way to calm their brains. Anyway, Shantel. So young, so on the wrong path. Too bad the intervention didn’t take, she had potential.
Official Synopsis: Shantel uses OxyContin to cope with learning and mood disorders and to find friends in the drug culture. An overprotective mother provides her with money, and now Shantel, who faces potential jail time for a robbery, spends her days feeding her addiction in a motel.
Original Air Date: August 2011
Interventionist: Jeff
The boyfriend of this woman’s mother is either a masochist–or a saint. I can’t imagine stepping into this family’s chaos by choice!
i dont know how many adhd kids who are treated with ritalin end up addicts,
but im an adhd single mom with 3 adhd kids,(grown now) one of whom ended up addicted to various substances(doing well now thank god)
and my BIGGEST regret in life is not educating myself about adhd, and not medicating my son.
had he been treated with meds and therapy i think his schooling, social skills/life, and self-esteem would have been much better and possibly he would not have felt the need to self-medicate and develop addictions.
however i cannot absolutely know that is true, but my advice is educate yourself, find a therapist who treats adhd clients, and find a medication that works for your kid.
It’s actually far less likely that some one medicated for ADHD will end up an addict. I left a comment below talking about it but I highly recommend reading the book “healing ADD – the breakthrough program that allows you to see and heal the 7 types of ADD” by Daniel Amen.
I have ADHD and have done a lot of research on the subject. Daniel Amen, one of the worlds top brain experts has identified 7 different types of ADHD by looking at brain scans. Certain types of ADHD need more than just Ritalin (or adderall, vyvanse, etc) to have positive effects and certain types are worse with just Ritalin. There have also been studies done and it’s far more likely for a child with ADHD to become an addict if they are medicated on the right meds. Therapy helps as well. If you or a loved one have ADHD I recommend reading the book “healing ADD – the breakthrough program that allows you to see and heal the 7 types of add” by Daniel Amen. Chantel provably has type 4/ temporal lobe ADHD from what they explained due to her violent and angry nature when unmedicated. That type of ADHD usually requires more than just a stimulant like Ritalin to heal.
She has a kid now and looks to be clean. I’m not sure though. I found her facebook. It doesn’t have much.
What is her Facebook?
She has a kid now and looks to be clean. I’m not sure though. I found her facebook.She also seems to be talking to her family
In response to the many comments I have read on this forum about ADHD drugs leading to addiction,that is not true. Especially when your addiction is to something that makes you sleepy. Just another excuse.
I have read this directory for every episode of Intervention through this one yet this is my first comment. Just in case someone finds themselves reading the comment I’m replying to, it’s important to understand that substance use disorder is not limited by a given drugs effect (‘sleepy’, for example). Some in recovery are able to abstain from their drug of choice, but find themselves using something else in the same, destructive way.
Although there are far too many reasons to get into for the purpose of this reply, it’s important to note that, just like an alcoholic or addict that is abstaining from their drug of choice, untreated ADHD sufferers experience a sense of irritability, discontentment, etc. Those diagnosed with ADHD experience the symptoms they do because of a lack of dopamine and serotonin. Those not only affect focus but also mood, and so the reasoning that ADHD sufferers are more prone to substance abuse / addiction is very sound. There are more and more stuides looking into this correlation. Of course everyone is different, and not all of those with ADHD will become addicts, but the connection is still there.
Additionally, consuming psychoactive, mood/mind-altering substances like ADHD drugs can certainly lead to addiction. If this weren’t the case, acquiring a prescription for one wouldn’t require the level of scrutiny it does, filling a prescription wouldn’t involve special procedures every month to do so, etc. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory but still worth mentioning.
Adderall and other ADHD medications have the ability to destroy people’s lives just like other substances, so I would hate for someone to see that comment and get it in their head that it’s okay to use/abuse depending on their specific circumstances and addiction history.
I am grateful I live in the Uk, where doping kids is extremely rare. I she friends with kids that these type of behaviours. Thankfully they have never allowed their kids to have access to addictive dangerous substances like Ritalin.
If you have a predisposition to addiction, it can happen.
I’ve took Oxy for lengthy periods to recover from major surgeries, weaned off the physical addiction, but never abused it.
Kids brains are still formulating, and I suspect could become easier to get addicted, as don’t have jobs, houses, bills and minimal responsibility.
When you look at what’s in these meds, I’d never let my kid pop even one of these pills. It shocks me when you see documentaries about 6 year olds taking what is in effect a Crystal meth type substance, it’s insane.
Agreed. I have ADHD and my meds never made me addicted, and the idea of calling it “doping kids” is very dangerous. thanks so much, but we deserve to be medicated for our disorder and y’all can just relax cause none of you are doctors.
How do you know none of us are doctors?
Anyone have an update on Shantel?
I think people who are dependent on drugs now would be in the same boat, if not worse off from being untreated as children. It’s far more likely that people take drugs because they have a biological disorder — then and now. In this case, they are diagnosed and prescribed medication as children because their lack of brain chemicals (mostly dopamine). When they get older, either their brain no longer needs the help or it does and they are untreated. As an older child and adult, most of us gain access to illegal and harmful drugs, which work for them and become a temporary solution. I do not believe ADHD medications bring about addiction later in life. Rather, they happen in parallel.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult six years ago during my Master’s degree program in Social Work, and I have wondered and read about this topic a lot. My father was an alcoholic, and my brother is, too, now and has recently been addicted to stimulants. While they share the genes, they also share the same gender, household, history, family members, and experiences. I think it’s far more likely that addicts have a similar lack of neurotransmitters in the brain and unknowingly seek out ways to increase them, especially dopamine. I know because I have the same problem. Alcohol does that, as do many drugs, high-risk activities, staying up late, exorcising, eating, medication, etc. Some of us also have been taught to think about ourselves as inferior and less worthy than others. Many of us have been hurt, humiliated, and violated.
The experiences we’ve had leave us unable to tolerate our feelings, stress, pressure and disappointments. We have trouble and need help coping, or we escape it altogether from a sense of helplessness. The outside sources of brain chemicals I listed, like what we see on Invervention, help people deal with life and pain — albeit, very ineffectively and by harming them/ourselves.
all i have to say is that poooooor, poor sister. so sad.
i’m pretty sure this is her, but i could be wrong. her and her sister (stephanie walker, she’s commented on some of her pics) look different now, but if you scroll through both of their pics, you can see the resemblance. and they’re from dunnville (one of stephanie’s pictures mentions dunnville, on)
https://www.facebook.com/shantel.kohler/timeline?lst=100016943071921%3A518540542%3A1561627547
It looks like the link is broken or the page was taken down.
hmmm it worked for me, but try this: https://www.facebook.com/shantel.kohler
She is still an addict on the streets. She has 3 children now but doesn’t have custody of any. Her mom adopted her first born, her ex has her second born and her little sister adopted her third.
Wow, that’s horrible to hear. I’m glad people stepped in so the kids don’t have to go to foster care, but none of them should be in that position. I’ve never been an addict but I think once you have kids, they become your priority and you have to fight like hell.
A few profiles, shame to see that’s she’s brought kids into the world, then dumped them on others to raise. Hope the kids don’t suffer….. https://m.facebook.com/public/Shantel-Kohler
People talk about the connection between people that have ADD later becoming addicts don’t see the simple answer. They often end up making friends with other kids in school with behavior and emotional problems. These kids don’t fit in with other kids and want to stick together. These kids might expose the ADD kids to drugs. It can be a peer group/peer pressure thing.
Okay, I’m really tired of reading these anti-adhd medication comments. You realize that a lot of kids with learning disabilities can’t even learn to read without their medication, right? We have a learning disability and we deserve to take meds that help, just like someone in chronic pain deserves to take medicine to alleviate that pain even if it may turn them into an addict. The lack of empathy and understanding in these comments is honestly kind of gross.
I totally understand both sides of the medication thing. but here is why many people are up in arms about it. take my example, i was started on focalin in 2nd grade, 10 or 20mg (cant exactly remeber), by the time i was in 3rd/4th grade, i was on nearly triple that amount. but while some people need higher amounts, they also need to have behavioral treatments, none of which was discussed when i was a kid, even though it was highly regarded back then. then onto my middle/high school years, i got neuropsychological testing to see if the adhd needed medication management, which it did not and therefore stopped the focalin, but even before this, i was tried on by that time 3-5 non adhd psych meds over the course of 5+ months prior to this testing. by the time i was 14-15 i was on nearly 3,000mg of psych meds, which i was told by the psych ward people that they “dont even see 500lb full blown paranoid schizophrenics on half as much meds as i was on”, so this is telling coming from people who have been psych ward techs damn near their whole career (5+ years). So the problem with all of this is that doctors would rather push meds because we live in a society (at least in the US) where a pill is the fix for everything, and in my personal opinion, non medication treatment should be pushed heavily and then meds are there to back it up, whereas its not even the reverse, especially with children, behavioral management and treatment is not usually discussed or heavily encouraged until years after heavy meds have been doled out for months to even years. while meds are effective, doctors and parents are going about it in the wrong way and not being proactive on both sides, because for both sides its easier to drug a kid rather than teach them how to function in society, manage their behaviors, and use minimal instead of maximum meds. another problem that is not discussed at all with heavy dosed psych/adhd meds and kids in particular, is the permanent side effects. for example, i have tardive dyskenesia although not officially diagnosed, and serious brain fog and memory lapses, yes i was a boozer and drugger myself, but i had these issues before i boozed and drugged. and of course i brought it up to a psychologist i saw way back and she literally giggled about it, because she thought i was nuts for saying that. also the shrink never brought up any talk of serious side effects, only weight gain, drowsiness, and slowed metabolism. so meds are good and bad, but parents and doctors need to be proactive about it, and parents especially, need to step up when nutzo doctors start over prescribing
I am an individual with ADHD and also have a degree in Psychology. I feel that it is very important to clear up the misunderstandings regarding this disorder. People with ADHD have a lack of dopamine. Stimulant medications (Ritalin, Vyvanse, Adderall) help to regulate dopamine levels. People who are not medicated for their ADHD are at a very increased risk for addiction due to their lack of dopamine. ADHD makes them more impulsive (more likely to experiment with drugs) and it also causes them to have a stronger reaction to drugs that give them a hit of dopamine since they are deficient of it. People with ADHD are literally chemically wired to seek out dopamine. Many people do this by consuming coffee, cigarettes, energy drinks, uppers, meth, etc.