Season 2 Episode 21
Lauren
Age: Late 20’s
Location: Lansford, PA
Addiction: Heroin
What’s Memorable: The childhood friend, Dea.
Update: Sadly, Lauren died of lung cancer in June 2016. She was clean and sober.
Official synopsis: Lauren has known plenty of success in her life. Growing up, she was a cheerleader, a dancer, a swimmer and a great student. After college, she became a high school health and phys-ed teacher, and the students loved her. But amid all the accomplishments, Lauren was hiding a growing problem: an addiction to heroin. In the past three years, Lauren has lost her job and her apartment. She’s living with her mother and her moods swing constantly between volatile and depressed. Her family’s only hope is an Intervention.
Original Air Date: December 2006
Interventionist: Jeff
That was a crazy intervention! Jeff handled it really well.
It was Pennsylvania. She went to Penn state.seen it recently.
She and Dea had to drive an hour or so to score in Reading, PA. in either direction there’s allentown (which u can vet dope) and philly where you can EASILY get dope. My guess she’s up in coal cracker region, schuylkill county
Here is Dea’s obituary
http://articles.mcall.com/2006-08-24/news/3683343_1_lansford-daytona-beach-college-church
I really wish the show had gone into more detail about Dea and offered her treatment, as well.
I found an article about how her father died in a plane crash in 1989 when he was only 40, so much tragedy in her family.
http://articles.mcall.com/1989-03-10/news/2673501_1_smoke-inhalation-summit-hill-purple-heart
http://www.parambofh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1159650&fh_id=13584
Sadly Dea’ s mother passed away too.
Yeah I was wondering why they didn’t help Dea too! It really upset me-here’s an obvious addict who needs help-that’s what the show is about-and they just ignore her plight and only help her friend and leave the poor addict to her troubles. And now she’s gone. This is one episode that upset me-is the show just about entertainment or helping addicts? Really sad show.
To be fair this is a relatively early episode of the show and maybe they didn’t have enough funding to pay for 2 people going to treatment? i feel like they started offering families to go to the betty ford center relatively later as the show went on and the funding presumably got bigger
To Joe…it was Lauren’s family that did the intervention for Lauren only…. Not a group intervention
I agree with Snuggs and Joe. Many addicts lack the ability to access treatment. It is a fatal disease. When there are friends and family members also dying of this disease, and are willing to get help, Intervention should help them get into treatment. A & E does not have to pay anyone to be on the show. They don’t pay actors or writers, and they make so much money off of the show from advertising. They can definitely afford to pay for 30 days in a rehab for a few extra people.
They did offer help & treatment for Dea as well.
Snuggs, Dae was offered help, she refused to go
Lauren sounds like she was doing pretty well as of July 2012
http://www.tnonline.com/2012/jul/11/overcoming-addiction
I just rewatched this episode and I loved reading this. What a powerful and strong woman. Rest in power
Brilliant to read
Sadly, Lauren was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and just lost the battle.
https://www.gofundme.com/22sp5zgw
Thank you for posting this very sad news. Here is Lauren’s obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/tnonline/obituary.aspx?pid=180142705
If I remember right, she also had a boyfriend who was offered treatment. I can’t remember his name but he was a big part of the episode, I believe. Anyone know who he is?
His name was Mike. I was also curious about the “incident” Lauren’s mother hinted at
I’m so sorry to see this update. My deepest sympathy goes out to Lauren’s family and friends; such a tremendous loss. My sincere condolences; I wish I had the right words, but all I can say is you’re all in my thoughts and prayers during this most difficult time.
condolences to the family. very sorry for OUR loss. She was a survivor of addiction! RIP angel
This truly breaks my heart. RIP Lauren!
Hello, My father Bill appears in this episode. He was the Assistant Director at the treatment center where they are going to send Mike. Sadly, a year or two after this episode aired, my father relapsed and ultimately committed suicide. A short article about his work is here: http://franconiaconference.org/struggling-with-suicide-picking-up-the-pieces-looking-for-the-gift/
So sorry to read this. Deepest condolences to you and your family.
???????????? So sorry for your loss…..
I’m terribly sorry for your loss. It sounds like he touched so many lives.
I’m so sorry for the loss of your Dad.
I had watched Lauren on Intervention in the year prior to going to treatment. I remember watching her coaching on the show and thinking “That lady’s no-nonsense. She’d kick my butt”.
Well, I went to treatment in 2008 and she was the house supervisor at my facility; she was exactly who I needed to meet.
I went looking for her today to see how she might be and was so sad to see this news.
Her family must be devastated. She was loved and a fantastic person.
I barely knew Lauren. She was the trainer who taught my boot camp twice a week…I knew nothing of her past and nothing of her personal life…but she really left a lasting impact on myself and others in the class. So many of us could tell she was sick and hurting but she continued to show up and give us her all.
I write this post to honor her life and to say she had such a special and memorable presence. I pray that she is at peace in heaven and I pray her son will be raised to know what a strong and special mother he had.
Lauren was my gym teacher in high school. I remember when the school announced that the intervention episode was coming out. She had stolen my lunch money out of the locker room to get heroin, and had jaundice at that point. Never once did I ever become angry about that, even at the time when I was 14 and didn’t know what was going on.
She was a great gym teacher and very liked by my classmates.
I felt very drawn to her story and want to send my condolences to her family. I read her obituary and seems like she had been doing so well and got herself out of the area…..yes Crystal (posted many lines above) she (and I, I don’t live there any more) are from schuykill county.
RIP Lauren. It is so sad to see how many people have died since this episode. They were all so young. My condolences to all their families.
Mike was so handsome.
Last we know, he isn’t doing so well during his treatment and what we know of his home life, his grandparents kicked him out after relapsing on cocaine.
Has anybody ever gotten any lead on him on where he is today?
I hope he’s doing ok.
I don’t know if I remember seeing this when it first aired but I saw the episode recently. I read the updates on this page. It is so sad that Lauren and others associated with this episode died. I admire how Lauren kept trying to better herself. She fell down a few times but got up. I really admire her for starting her own business when she couldn’t get work. She had a lot to give. RIP Lauren
I wonder how Mike is doing. He played a big role in getting her to agree to treatment and seemed like a good guy. I hope he is sober and happy now
So sad about Lauren. I really liked her. So much tragedy in this episode. Lauren, Dea, Bill from the treatment centre.
My heart really feels for them all
Wow! I couldn’t sleep last night so I watched this episode. I had no idea she had passed. I’m astonished, this girl was rough and tough. Very athletic. Strong. Never would have thought she was gone. You’ve got to cherish life – you never have a clue of when it will be taken from you.
Cried so hard after watching this one. Even though I knew she had died nothing prepared me for hearing about Dea and her family as well. So much tragedy, one of the most tragic and unforgettable episodes I’ve seen.
Lauren’s father passed away this week.
Ugh. Her story was essentially the exact same as mine, we even look alike, then as I’m watching I’m like wait that definitely looks like a turn onto 222 then I see the signs for reading, where I used to live and when I moved to Lancaster I drove that route to go cop nonstop. So I looked her up to try to message her because that really is a small world serendipity thing and I see she died from lung cancer. And I say all the time how it’s creepy as hell that people my age die from cancer, LITERALLY just said that maybe 10 hours ago. Of all of them to have so many similarities. That’s a shame.
Iconic line, “nah…you wouldn’t move this”
this is such a memorable episode. I remember when this aired I had a new baby. her friend dea died the day my son was born. this is before I became a full blown addict myself and i still remember fully understanding & feeling how she described her love/hate relationship w/drugs. it’s always sad to see anyone who passed from this show no matter if they died from the addiction itself, the life style or something non related. but this one is a tough one to swallow. you could see she was an amazing person underneath it all. I’m happy to know she had clean time between this episode & may 2016 💜
I just watched this episode today binging on old episodes and my god my heart dropped at the end she they paid tribute to Dea 🌹 she was so lucky she went to rehab because both of them could of passed away in 2006 so sorry to read that Lauren passed away in 2016 of lung cancer 🌹rest peacefully Lauren condolences to her family