Season 5 Episode 3
Janet
Age: 40’s
Location: near Portland, Oregon
Addiction: Alcohol, sex
What’s Memorable: A gallon of wine a day! The glamorous drug dealing life she had before, the crusty old boyfriend, what a hot crying mess she is ALL THE TIME, and the amazing followup.
Official synopsis: At age 6, Janet was molested. She was also bullied by other kids, making her extremely self-conscious about her looks. At 18, she married a drug dealer who made her rich, but her husband was sent to prison, leaving her alone with two sons. She turned to drugs and alcohol, and had multiple affairs. Her husband discovered one of her affairs and divorced her. Janet remarried and had two more children, but she missed her old luxurious lifestyle and began drinking heavily. Now she frequently passes out, threatens suicide, and puts herself in life-threatening situations.
Original Air Date: December 2008
Interventionist: Ken
Hi! Do you have an update on Janet? Episode 75 I believe. Thank you so much!
I found her facebook i think
https://www.facebook.com/janet.vanwess?ref=br_rs
different one – this lady is in Oregon and doesn’t look anything like the Janet in the episode.
It’s now December 2020, I’m very curious to see an update on Janet, anyone???
Hi Nancy! I’m the baby in the video who said Aunt Janet is dead. She is still kicking! and still drinking.
Seriously? Whoa…
I’d love to know how Janet is doing. I saw the episode on its original air date backin 2009 and just saw it again. I hope she’s still doing well.
I am also really interested in an update. There doesn’t seem to be any information out there right now. She was one of my favorites. Hope she is doing well.
Jan seemed to have the most loving family!
Watching this episode, I cant help but notice that at every attempt her family made to get her to quit drinking, they all had a beer in their hand?…While I believe they all love her and wanted her to get well, they didn’t really do much to support their cause…her son literally sat his 40 on the ground to pour out her wine…uh what?
I hear what you’re saying, but the family manages to maintain their lives even when they drink than Janet does. They do the things they need for daily life (working, etc). I didn’t see her sisters drinking either. Meanwhile, Janet’s drunk and showing off her chest to senior citizen guys, among other activities. I don’t mean to be harsh. Who knows…maybe they have cut down/cut off their drinking as a result of their mom getting help.
Did anyone else notice that at the beginning of the ep, Janet’s 8 yo daughter is bringing bugs to a nest of stiff, dead baby birds???? It’s one of the more macabre things I’ve seen on Intervention. Hope they are all doing well now.
LL, do you think they were dead? I couldn’t tell for sure. That were Awfully still, but one of the parents would typically throw out the dead babies as they died off one by one. If they were dead and the editor/ camera person realized it it is certainly odd…
The very best thing any addict can learn in recovery is that the world will never be safeguarded enough to keep them sober. She would have found a way to drink if they were dry, and she would have found a way to stay dry while they drank if she wanted to. I know because I’m 9 years sober from alcohol myself. I worked in craft brewing for five of those years and we keep alcohol in the home for my husband and friends – all of whom drink very responsibly. It was hard and still is. I still practice recovery every single day. But I helped promote sobriety and harm reduction in brewing and am on the board of directors for a youth addictions counseling program, and I couldn’t do any of that if I treated alcohol like a boogeyman.
Someone please! Let us have an update!!
Lord please let this be the year we get an update
I’d really love an update as well. Especially re the kids. Such lovely people, beautiful souls.
Me too. If anyone knows how the family is doing, please do let us know.
The little girl at the beginning (Janet’s daughter) is the sweetest, most earnest kid ever. I hope she (and Janet!) are doing well!!
Yes!! I loved christina! Such a smart and cute little girl. I wanted so bad to hug her when she said she related with the baby birds alone in the nest, because her mama wasn’t there to take care of her too.
Johnny and Sarah visibly ressented their mom too. and Thomas, omg how Thomas nedded a mom and how hurt he was about the whole situation.
I hope from the bottom of my heart Janet found her way back to her family.
Love to know how this lady turned out
This episode annoyed me, she seemed so self absorbed. She was more upset about loosing all her money and comfy lifestyle than loosing her children! The older daughter didn’t even seemed to know her. Her two boys are a blessing they’ve got their heads screwed on. And not the time to laugh but the old boyfriend was funny he didn’t seemed to know what was going on lol. BUT wheeew the ending.. she was a completely different person! The voice, the way she carries herself, her focus back on the children.. hope she stays sober and healthy
« I don’t like you! »
No joke, I hope she and her kids are doing well. and Russ.
Did she get back together with Russ?
I’d love an update on Janet too! I really feel her episode for some reason. Her transformation at the end was SO dramatic. Her sweet kids were just amazing. All that love, it gets me every time. I hope they’re all doing really well!
the dead baby birds :O
Truly one of the darkest scenes ever on this show.
Watching this episode right now on antenna TV. They have just shown her past. I hope she can turn it around.
Now, Russ her 2nd hubby,is standing there drinking a can of beer. Ya ok, you ask how to help after administrating a restraining order against your wife and Jan is bawling, trying not to drink and yet, it’s acceptable for you to be drinking I front of her. No way. Hypocrisy.
through out all of these comments not one person has mentioned the Lord our God. To me this is truly a shame. The part in this episode where her son thomas mentions the fact that his prayers were not answered and is making him not believe in God tells me that Janet raised her children to know God at least as she knew God as our Lord and Savior and that right there in my Faith makes her one of the greatest mothers on earth. When I first seen this episode being a mother who lost her 4 children due to the judgement of man got down on my knees and prayed for this family ,mostly for thomas and his mother. I would like to tell janet to please show this comment to your son thomas so that he knows that yes prayer does work and his prayers were answered. i was happy to see that at the end of the episode janet got her life and family back and only being of human ego i would love to claim it was my prayers that accomplished this but unfortunately like I said human ego I know now that this episode aired years ago so thomas it was not my prayers that brought your mother home to you,it was your prayers hun that the Good Lord answered so I pray that you realize this and NEVER EVER GIVE UP ON GOD BECAUSE HE WILL NEVER EVER GIVE UP ON YOU! Janet I love you and your family and pray for you always.REMEMBER IF YOU KEEP GOD IN YOUR LIFE THEN THERE IS NO ROOM FOR SATAN! AMEN!
That’s hype that you are all in on your faith, but not everyone feels the same way, so please keep your prayers out of this and please just make a difference by changing the way you treat addicts and addiction in a productive manner.
This whole comment is dangerous propaganda.
Not everyone is religious, it’s fine if you are, but being a Christian doesn’t automatically make you a good person and if someone chooses to lose or gain faith, that’s their decision to make and theirs alone.
Anyone know what her first husband’s name?
Her update at the end of the episode states that she still drinks “occasionally”. That’s not really staying sober, is it? I’d like to know more.
There‘s an update from Dec 7, 2022, from a family member on one of the first comments here…. still drinking.
This one really bothered me! Her family just seemed so sweet and amazing. And she was SO awful to them and SO ridiculous and belligerent at the intervention. Considering all of that, I was especially amazed and disappointed by how she did not seem transformed at all after the 70 days sober. There she was, seeming pinched and unhappy. Still seemingly trying to be right. Even perhaps affecting a bit if a strange accent (in an attempt to sound sophisticated and under control?) describing her drinking as “over indulging” (!!) and saying that she just wants her kids. I was shocked at the continued lack of taking any sort of responsibility. No remorse. No gratitude or sense of joy for getting another chance at life. I wasn’t convinced that she really worked on any of her issues. It seemed like treatment was just a place for her to go “dry out” so that she could come out and try to get her way in life again, trying to be a more in-control version of the same selfish, reckless person she was. I’d like to be wrong about this, for the sake of her family. Anybody got anything?
*a bit OF. There’s no edit function on here!