Season 6 Episode 14
Marci
Age: late 30’s?
Location: Chico, California
Addiction: Meth, pain meds
What’s memorable: The seriously high-speed crazy stuff she says that makes absolutely no sense to anyone else. Her in-denial mother and dying brother. How shockingly different she was as a wife and mother just a few years ago.
Official Synopsis: To outsiders, Marci’s family life seemed ideal. But while her mother worked, Marci was left home with her alcoholic father. She endured his abuse while her mother looked the other way. Marci began drinking and doing drugs. Her marriage failed, and she lost custody of her children. But her mother still denies that Marci has a bad problem. Can an intervention help Marci and her mother to stop their dangerous behavior before it’s too late?
Original Air Date: September 2009
Interventionist: Ken
Hello, I live in the Republic of Panama. This morning I saw Marci’s episode and I would like to know the name and adress, is possible, of the desintoxication center where marci was sent. I just notice a sign mentioning Sunrise.
Could you bring me please rhis information? I have a very similar case with my daughter and want to look for information about this center.
Thanks in advance,
Jenny
Hello Jenny,
Much time has passed, I hope your daughter is getting well, but I think the name of the facility was Sunrise Detox: 2331 NE 53rd St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
(954) 491-9700
Yes, Marci doesn’t remember the past very well and all the people she has sacrificed for her drug addiction. I did 39 months in prison without any apology or explanation for her actions. This is 2015. Same patterns of behaviors. Grow a conscious heart.
Was she involved in you going to prison for 39 months? Do u know her?
you DO look like colonel Sanders! 😀
LOL Jon! Read up on you and you have/had quite a rap sheet anyway before this incident you are talking about. It sounds like YOU played the bigger part in that incident and are now entirely blaming Marci. Sounds like you stole two vehicles of someone who was moving- then took the vehicles to Marci’s residence and then unloaded these peoples possessions. How about YOUR patterns of behaviors? LOL
Marci is still homeless in Chico. My roommates and I often chase her out of our backyard as she takes our garden hose and tries to flood our house. She is barely coherent almost the time and extremely aggressive. She often rifles through our trash and throws garabage everywhere. She is a menace throughout the community and infamous with not only the student population, but also the homeless community. Hopefully she can get help and stop terrozing our community.
Do NOT spread lies about her. She is NOT homeless anymore, and based on her Facebook she is well connected with her family again. Someone should chase you out of a backyard.
No you’re wrong she is homeless. Someone called cops on her three days ago after someone punched her away from them.
Hi AW
I am actually a family member of Marci’s. She is not homeless, but lives in such a manner that it appears she is homeless. The sad truth is that she will probably succomb to her addiction. It is the life she has chosen. The pictures on Facebook were of a visit her children made last June. It had been 6 years since I had a conversation with her and 7 years since I had seen my niece and nephew. Their father took them out of California and used them as pawns, so the decision was made to have no contact with anyone. This was for my sanity and self preserverence. Don’t believe what you see on Facebook. In order to be with us, Marci must be on Ativan or other like it. This keeps her calm, but practically asleep. As a family member, I will always love her, but due to her addiction and her mom’s denial it must be from a distance. She, through her own admittance is an addict and is choosing this life. These are just the facts.
Thanks for the update.
That is so sad to hear that she is still homeless and using. 😔
I was thinking about Marci today and found her Facebook page. She looks wonderful!
https://www.facebook.com/Marcimariebarker
She hasn’t posted since June 2017. I think she only posts when she’s sober. I think what AW said is more accurate at this time.
She seems to be doing pretty good right now according to her recent fb activity. The picture she posted has her family and kids with her.
please read AG’s comment above. Those pictures are for her public persona. She is not an active parent. Facebook is not an accurate depiction of real life.
I saw how well she was doing in rehab when she was finally diagnosed with bipolar and the proper medications that she then took really made a hell of a difference (in a positive way) and she agreed too. I was sad when I saw the ending where it said she was kicked out of rehab because she refused to take her meds anymore. Then her mother buys here a truck and she crashes it a month later.
Bipolar individuals not wanting to take their meds is definitely a thing. I have Bipolar 1 and I too feel the natural addictive rush of the “good mania” and think to myself “well, maybe I can just let my mind go without these meds for a bit. Last time I went without my meds for a full month, I went into a deep psychotic episode. I don’t even remember most of that month. The good manias are addictive. The bad manias are horrific.
For some reason I am unable to respond to your comment above to me regarding FB. First off, I know how facebook works vs. real life. If you read my comment again, you will notice I am referencing one current picture of her and her kids. Based on that picture is why I said she “seems to be” good. That’s it nothing more. I did not state facts. I gave my opinion just like you are giving yours. I don’t need a facebook 101 class here
I’m bipolar also (5 minutes into the episode I was almost sure she was too) and yeah not only do i agree with the comment above, but also, some of the meds we have to take are really difficult to live with and i’ve quitted a lot of them in the past (lithium has been a big change for me)… so I understand 🙁
This really was a scary episode for me to watch
Did anyone else think that when she was on her cellphone that she was talking to nobody and faking it?
Yes!
Dealing with a mental illness is hard enough but throw a serious drug problem into the mix and it rarely ends well. I wonder how her brother is doing. He seemed such a kind man.
I watched this episode today and was disappointed to see that things fell apart and she ended up relapsing. It has been mentioned that the father took the children and moved out of state. I was happy to hear this. As has already been stated, this woman has made an active decision to choose the drugs over her children. While we do not know the intimate details it does not appear that it would be in the Children’s best interest to have her in their lives. The chaos and unpredictable nature of an addict was on display during the episode when she impulsively showed up at her children’s school during the day. This mother has abdicated her parental rights by repeatedly choosing drugs over her babies. I hope that her children are able to have a more loving/structured environment out of state. I don’t know for sure, but I can only speculate that this woman’s family did not follow through with the consequences they articulated during the intervention. This woman’s mother seemed particularly problematic and fully enabled the daughter to continue her destructive ways. I cheered this woman on during the episode, but now that she has chosen the drugs she needs to accept the consequences that go alone with that decision.
Her mum is a major narcissist. She wants to put a front on for everyone to appear to be the best and any problems she fails to acknowledge because as a narcissist she sees that as a weakness. Her problems are not helped by her mother. I feel so very sorry for marci.
Her mum obviously is a loving person, how dare you call her a narcissist. It is some sort of co-dependency she is suffering from. How strong must she be after everything she had to go through.
I feel with this family and I feel with Marci. She went to this treatment program with twinkles in her eyes dreaming about to be reunited with her children.
What she found was a shocking diagnosis. Another trauma for her. Bipolar disorder can be heavy. So heavy it frightened her ex-husband away. She lost everything by trying to get help. This is what she learned from trying treatment. If I was in her shoes I might have relapsed, too.
I pray for a light on Marci’s path, for people who will be able to ignite the hope in her and to lead her way into a really healthy and happy future – the one she’s longing for – and not the one that has been offered to her in first place.
God bless you Marci and family. Merry christmas
Anyone who says she’s “choosing to live this way” clearly knows nothing about the illness of addiction. If she was sick with cancer, would you say she’s not trying hard enough? This is severely sick and needs help, not people on the internet judging her. Do better.
If the cancer patient chose to skip chemo or not have a tumor removed, would that be choosing to not get better, or are they still a victim? We live and die by the choices that we make. Do better.
The difference there is that cancer doesn’t cause you to crave cancer. Her mental illness causes her to crave the feeling of illness itself. The resistance to treatment is part of her illness. Not so with Cancer.
Very true. Although the individual chooses to do drugs in the first place, then addiction takes over. But I do agree that people do have addictive personalities. Many of us dabble, but grow out of it.
I know a few people with mental health disorders and hyperactivity that use speed to self medicate. It calms them down and they even sleep on it. It’s insane.
However, refusing meds was her choice and choosing to restart drugs was also.
I think the dad of her kids did right, I hope the kids get a good step mum and move on, so the cycle doesn’t repeat itself.
It’s terrible, looking at her pics you can see she’s still skeletal so I find it hard to believe she’s not using and in a bad place. I wish her the best.
I’d love to know how Marci and her brother are doing. I really hope they’re both well and Marci has managed to stay in recovery. The damage of a combination of a mental illness and trauma in childhood can’t be under estimated and I fear for Marci
Hey Dizzy, maybe you wanna delete these posts, where someone posts links from totally different persons. this happens now and then although I do not understand it at all… allmost every time the person looks totally different and dates and so ob don‘t match one bit 😉
Thanks for making and maintaining this site so well!
She was just arrested November 14, 2022 and Chico.
https://crimemap.chicoca.gov/crime/arrest
You have to type in her name on the search
She was charged with possession for sale And narcotic controlled substance.
I do really feel for Marci. My sister has bipolar and also borderline personality disorder and PTSD and OCD… And she has self medicated in the past with meth and other drugs. And when she takes her medication for her bipolar she ends up not taking it after a while because of reasons that others mentioned on their posts. The one medication that helped her the best, she was on it probably for a year and it was her best year, sometimes the other medications did not work, but this one worked so good and then she stopped taking it because it made her gain over 100 pounds. And she’s never really found another medication that works that good. I am also in recovery from using Crystal meth but I have been clean for 18 years. I truly hope Marci will finally go back to treatment and get on the right medications so she can live a happy sober life. Also someone asked about her brother… On her Facebook page I noticed a picture with her family and it looked like her brother so it looks like he still alive and doing well… I truly wish their family a life full of peace, good health, happiness, and lots of love! ❤️🙏🏼
What is her correct name?
Marci Marie Barker, for those wondering
She was busy: https://unicourt.com/case/ca-bur-people-of-the-state-of-california-vs-barker-marci-marie-71276#party-details
On the shallowest of notes am I the only to find that the house of Marci’s brother looks a lot like the house of the Golden Girls? Here is a link to a screen capture of his house: https://imgur.com/gallery/bWFlMQv