Ok the math isn’t perfect here because many addicts are in multiple categories, but I think it’s interesting that there are 24 addiction categories that have been shown on Intervention but alcoholism is represented in 28% of the episodes.
Also interesting:
- Only 2 people have been addicted to cocaine (not crack) by itself. 85% of the cocaine category are people who were addicted to something else as well, most frequently heroin.
- No one was addicted to Benzos (i.e. Xanax) only. Every Benzo addict was also addicted to at least one other drug.
I always wish they did more episodes that were solely mental addictions (gambling, shopping, video games). I find them to be some of the most fascinating.
I think it goes to show how prevalent those top drugs are in communities (Alcohol, heroin, and meth). Alcoholism so often goes overlooked because, “hey, it’s legal! Can’t be that bad!” I stayed away from parties in high school and rolled my eyes at students who would come in on Monday talking about how drunk they got over the weekend. I’m a child of an alcoholic and was educated (thankfully) at a very young age. By the age of 7 I was able to understand and discuss alcoholism. I lost count of how many people I knew who either ended up in the ER from alcohol poisoning, or were ordered to go to rehab before they were even legally able to purchase alcohol (I’m in the US so that age is 21 here.) It’s one hell of a drug, that’s for sure.