Season 7 Episode 1
Linda
Age: 39
Location: Los Angeles, California
Addiction: Fentanyl
What’s Memorable: Linda’s behavior is completely over the top and performative, she was obviously dealing with some serious mental issues at the time this was filmed that I sincerely hope were addressed once the addiction was treated. The things that her little brother Sam has to do to take care of her at her parent’s request are awful, that poor guy. The intervention is a doozy. There’s a lot to learn about Chinese family dynamics in this episode that I found really interesting.
Official synopsis: After graduating college, Linda found success working as an extra in Hollywood, achieving the glamorous life she always wanted. But her dreams died when she came down with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by joint dislocations. Linda started taking fentanyl, a painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine. As her painkiller use escalated, she claimed that different sources were causing her pain, including electricity, energy, colors, and even specific people. Despite Linda’s wild claims, her mother clings to the belief that Linda’s pain is real and she must do everything to help her, including depleting the family’s savings and sending her son to be Linda’s caretaker.
Original Air Date: November 2009
Interventionist: Ken
I never used in the first place. I have always USED PAIN MEDS only for pain. They sent me to a pain rehab where everyone was getting a lot of pain meds. They switched me to norco and opana and it was really confusing there was this girl that had been getting severe migraines that she described at a constant 8. and I knew she was getting a lot of oxy and other stuff but whenever we had group she kept saying she had 14 days sober or however many days sober. I was really confused as how can you be on so much oxy and say you are now sober. I just never addressed sobriety when it was my turn as I did not know how to answer it. After all the doctor was still handing me opiates. What was REALLY sad about the situation were the patients there. They were all in as much pain as I was in. I could just tell from how they were acting. Even worse the doctor advertised that by the time they were done with the program there pain would be better. I had to inform them that the doctor was not a magician and there pain was not going to disappear. It was just so sad for all of us.
We lack a protein that our body stops producing leaving our skin and ligaments weak. So you have ropes that attach your joints. We have elastic bands that attach our joints. It also leaves us with a weaker shell. EDSers are notorious for draining watch and phone batteries. As we end up super absorbent. We also absorb water abnormally which is most likely why we affect electronics the way we do. I am fine being called Delusional its just that many of my friends share the same Delusion. I am happy to educate you more if you are interested it not nice to make fun of something you don’t understand.
I just wanted to clarify in case there was any confusion about my feelings about Sam. The first 2 years he was heroic. I needed to get out of bed or a chair every 5 minutes to keep my hips from dislocating. I was unable to wear any clothes or even have a blanket on me. The hospital had provided a “Tent” for the bed so that the Blankets were still over me but were not touching my hips as the weight of the blanket would dislocate my hips. The blanket would not reach the other end of the tent so he literally had to build a sort of “Fort” to keep the blanket from touching my hips. Each time I needed to get out of bed he would have to rebuild the tent. It was a nightmare. At one point we realized that my hips would never get better if I slept over night. So one night we both had to stay up all night so I could get up every 5 minutes to keep my hips in place. At that point they were so dislocated I needed someone to lift each leg up in the most precise manner. The nightmare did pan out as eventually I started being able to get up myself. He really is my hero. The fact that people think he wasted his life. I’m sorry he did the most heroic thing imaginable. He saved his sisters life. I do hope he realizes this. If I knew I did something that important I would count that as a huge win in life. To have made that much of a difference in a persons life. At the same time I would have switched places with him in a heartbeat. That level of pain. Being the caregiver would have been the easy role. By the way THIS is the reason my mom knew how much a bed can damage my hips. Even to this day.
One minute you’re saying Sam is a hero and then you’re saying you’d have swapped places with him and being the caregiver was easy compared to your pain. Who would wish that on their hero and from what we all saw, being your caregiver looked anything but easy. Also, up above you say that the house was paid for by you and he didn’t want to pay rent. Why should he care for you and have to pay rent too! You still don’t appear to fully accept everything you put him through.
I just happened to see a clip of this episode and WOW. This is really a memorable episode for me but for different reasons than any other episode of intervention. My jaw dropped when she said something like “ If I could have my parents die to get rid of my pain, I’d let it happen.” WOW. And the poor brother.
Interesting to see it seems like Linda is posting here as recently as February 2025. Doesn’t seem like a whole lot has changed…
She has been active with her insane rants on reddit too. Not much has changed at all.
It’s quite a long story but my mother wanted me dead as well and told me to kill myself on a regular basis. She would intentionally bump into me several times a day hoping I would OD. . My whole family saw this and sent her home. my dad wrote me a letter a year later asking me to forgive her. She just has a poor attitude when it comes to money. The only reason I did not kill myself was to spite my mom. Which in the end is what kept me alive. There is severe generational abuse in my family. My family was keeping my SSDI checks and when the neighbors told my mom I needed my entire SSDI check to live on she shouted “If she needs $800 a month to live than she needs to die” So yeah there is severe dysfunction in my family.
man, her brother was a saint! it made me laugh out loud when Linda screamed she couldn’t make left turns, so her brother told her to make 3 right turns instead lol. i feel bad for what he had to deal with, hopefully he was able to heal.
I’ve never commented but oh my god as someone WITH ehlers danlos and a ton of other disorders, wow. That’s all i can say. At the end where it says “delusional disorder” i was like, well, yeah.
Ehlers danlos is painful. Yes. 100%. But people using our disorders to feed their addiction only makes it harder for us with the disorder to get the help we need.
Sam is an angel, and I hope he’s found happiness. This episode literally had me fuming. I have a rare genetic disorder and ut took me a decade to get proper pain management for it, due to people like this woman.
I loathe all like her.
But her especially with how she treated everyone around her. My husband has to help me with everything now, and I feel terrible for it daily. To see her laughing about it had me seeing red.
I hope the family has found healing.
Looks like she’s been going to lots of concerts this year…so much for the electronics thing
How do you know this?
It is a HUGE struggle at concerts. I have to move seats every 10 minutes to avoid phones. I usually hope to find a section to myself. I was just at Elton John and it sucked cuz it was sold out.
Also, there were some real comedic moments in this episode (MUCH needed with everything that was happening). When they would end or begin a scene with her laying on her back doing that obscene straddle move to help her hip or whatever. . . it did make me laugh. It reminded me of what’s her name from that other really famous episode. . . the one with the girl addicted to the computer duster and the producers would similarly include her huffing or whatever at random moments.
Allison is who you’re thinking of.
Another hilarious part in this episode is Sam’s “then make three rights” comment solution when Linda said she couldn’t make left turns” LOL
At the risk of being called Linda, I’d like to say that EDS can and does cause very debilitating pain.Ken saying it’s all lies in the intervention was hard to hear because I don’t believe it is all lies. She was diagnosed by a medical professional with EDS. I believe she’s in pain from her EDS while also suffering an delusion disorder and an addiction. Unfortunately her parents most likely had no idea about mental illness and she was left for 8 years just sitting in those delusions and getting addicted. I agree with several comments here that there should be some sort of disclaimer, because this reflects horribly on EDS patients and some of you have fallen quite deeply into “if you can move around you must not be in pain” bubble.
This is the only episode of intervention I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen lots of them) where I can’t find any inkling within myself to feel sorry or bad for this person. “ If I could have all of my family die to get rid of my pain, I’d let it happen.” Putting her brother through torture, and allowing him to bathe her, change her, and deal with her monthly cycle when she could dance around in her bedroom just fine! I’m disgusted and outraged! What a horrible individual. I hope Sam is living his best life and making all his dreams come true. He lost some of the best years of his young life. To all the people who live with true chronic pain and/or EDS, I’m sorry of the mockery she made of you. People like this are why people with rare illnesses aren’t believed by family and medical professionals. Sad.
My mom Has OCD around money issues. My entire family is aware of this. She was so concerned I would deplete her savings she wanted me dead. So She would intentionally bump into me , my wheelchair , my bed my chair to dislocate me and cause pain hoping I would OD. She saw I was allergic to all opiates and it was preventing me from breathing. After witnessing this My dad sent her home to CT and wrote me a letter stating I am so sorry Your mom has a poor attitude towards money. She wanted my social security money and when her Chinese friend told her I needed all $800 to live on she responded . “If Linda needs $800 a month to live she needs to die. ” She even sent home Aides provided by the county so that she could collect the money Being paid to Sam. Making things dramatically worse for me. I told Intervention this. I had told the producer that from the age of 3 my mother repeatedly told me that money was more important love. After Sam Mettler heard this story he said to me. Does that show you that what she felt was true. That money is more important than love? “OMG I think I just won you guys an Emmy!” . Sadly they chose to villainize me instead. therefore no emmy that year. What a waste. Karma when you don’t tell the truth.
You’re not making yourself look any better by villainizing your family in your comments, who clearly felt helpless, distressed to help & support you the best they could. I also have a 1st Gen Asian family & understand the cultural family dynamics. Whether your illness is real or not, you have a disingenuous personality you should fix first. No one is born to a perfect family & no parents make perfect decisions but your parents were trying to make up for faults by giving into anything you wanted. Get a clue, lady.
How can you be allergic to opiates then chow down on fentanyl lollipops?
What Dr. Weinburg (whom Ken invited as a support during the pre-intervention) said about Linda’s Delusions really stuck with me. “I believe Linda has emotional pain, that’s coming from psychiatric problems, that she isn’t gonna share with you, so she translates it into physical complaints, that everybody can understand[…] and treat the emotional part of her pain”
I’m pretty sure I’ve had people like that in my life and just perceived them as compulsive liars, when in actuality it was a huge cry for help. Also it made very clear to me that as a parent you have to be emotionally available and let your kids know that they can talk to you and that you will take them seriously, no matter how small their problems may seem to you, you’re gonna comfort them emotionally and help them through it.
I hope they ruled out/…in schizophrenia, that part really stuck out to me with her delusions and paranoias + she specifically made a comment about someone (family I think in one scene) inserting thoughts into her head. Sounds like the timeline of her behaviors escalating and functioning massively declining also line up with the typical age of onset, aside from the drug use increasing the risk. Also I concur the EDS is also a delusion, she would have so many injuries from her behavior in the show, especially when her brother basically tackled her but…. nope imma just stretch my groin because that’s not bizarre…
This link says she does not have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and she is giving false information and has a delusional disorder.
I wish her well!
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1561882/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
Obviously not written by a professional. All those exclamation points and there’s a misspelling.
AETV does not have access to my medical records.
I have missing teeth from doing meth 18 years ago and doing opiates seven years ago… I feel your pain!
And I am still on methadone which is not good for your teeth.
I can’t find 200 movies and shows… I find like 17 American shows and then more Asian shows but they still don’t equal to 200… But I may be wrong.
I just realized that the reason why I can’t find the 200 shows she’s been on is because she was an extra not really one of the actresses so her name wouldn’t be accredited to the show.
this episode was… damn. you know it’s bad when you’re on Intervention and drugs aren’t the main issue. i really hope Linda got the psychiatric care she needed for her and her family’s sake – as someone said, she seemed to have a lot of deep-seeded anger that her mental illness prevented her from expressing healthily. i hope she’s off fent at least
Also, I have really noticed this disease is very attractive to internet malingering…. I’m not sure why. Maybe because the classical type is hard to genetically diagnose? Anyway since my disease doesn’t effect my day to day like I Rarely even mention it to Dr’s. They either don’t know what it is or have only heard it out of the mouth of patients with a litany of self diagnose diseases looking for meds or new diagnosis of things they don’t have.
I think it’s popular to internet malingerers because
A) It’s an “invisible” illness, so only testing can clarify whether or not you have it,
B) It’s a potentially debilitating syndrome that often causes pain and discomfort, which garners sympathy
C) For reasons A + B, that it is both invisible and potentially debilitating, it is a convenient excuse to avoid undesirable events and things, and
D) For those like Linda, who are also drug addicts, it is a way to defend overmedicating themselves.
I’ve noticed EDS is becoming SOMEWHAT less popular to fake in recent months, as opposed to a couple of years ago when loads of people were doing it. Now the hot illnesses to fake are DID and Tourettes. At least with Linda you can argue that a major issue here is a legitimate delusional disorder that impairs her perception of reality; the kids pretending to tic on TikTok are often doing it for clout, or because they’re convinced they’re qualified to diagnose themselves with major mental illnesses.
Most doctors do not know that EDS is painful. Fact. it is not studied in medical school. so very hard to prove its disabling.
Just a side note. I happen to have a type of EDS I have commented on multiple other cases on here. I have a mutation in type 3 pro collagen, the type of EDS used to be called type 3. Is now categorized as vascular(if I’m caught up on the recent changes). One of my close friends has classical EDS. My experience has been of a disease that very rarely affects my day-to-day life and usually doesn’t cross my mind. I bruise easily, have visible prominent veins and sometimes I need to adjust exercises with my personal trainer. I was diagnosed as a older teen after a string of uncommon type injuries while figure skating. My friend with classical EDS had a surgery on one of her hips but she is mobile and not on Serious pain meds We are both in our early 30s.
This is one of the first episodes of Intervention that I couldn’t finish.
Fast forward to the Intervention…iconic
Sam, if you’re reading this, I hope you are doing great and have a fulfilling and amazing life!
The whole reason I’m here right now is because I need an update on Sam. I hope he is well and thriving!
I’ve seen this episode twice and as I’m going through my “intervention binge” (poor choice of words, I know LOL) I can’t bring myself to press play on this one. Her manipulation is horrifying. The most mind-boggling moment: Linda RUNNING down the street screaming during her intervention and her mother still believing “she’s in pain.” No. If she can RUN like that…. trust and believe there is nothing physically harming her. It’s all in her head and she loves every minute of it. No thank you to rewatching this episode. I hope her family has healed from her abuse, and I hope Linda has gotten some legitimate help as well.
There are diagnostic tests that are definitive, using PCR to identify mutations associarted with EDS. I personally do not believe she had it, and is merely severely mentally ill.
Shay, as someone who helps others, I don’t find a lot of empathy towards Linda. She’s ill. I suggest you never to help drug addicts. As Jeff Vanvondering says, ” you suck at it”
I’m pretty disappointed that reruns of this are still being shown and available for streaming without a disclaimer. This episode reflects *so* poorly for EDS patients, as we can be stereotyped by healthcare professionals as being malingering or drug-seeking. It’s a really, really painful disease. Like, it sucks. From personal experience, I know that if I’m screaming in pain, I’m not gonna just turn around and run down a hallway three minutes later. Then again, I’ve never been on 1.4 milligrams of fentanyl in a single day. (Oh, to imagine.) (Kidding.) (Like, seriously kidding.)
Regardless if she has it or not, the point is that she apparently appointed herself a spokesperson for the community and A&E gave her a platform to do that. An overwhelming majority of us don’t believe that flowers, colors, or cell phones cause us to dislocate. I would also hate if someone’s first impression of what an EDS patient is like is hearing someone say they would kill their own parents to find a cure.
I agree with you 100% on all counts. I don’t have EDS or any level of pain syndrome but I can certainly attest to the fact that as a viewer, when I hear the diagnosis “Ehlers-Danlos” my mind immediately goes to this looney tune. I hate it, because I have met people with the diagnosis and they most certainly do not behave this way.
I never said I would kill my parents. I said if that was needed for me to be out of pain as they were taking away what was keeping me alive. Also there is SEVERE generational abuse in my family.
Gregory Valenzuela died of a fentanyl overdose.
Was he in this episode?
I noticed in one on-camera interview of Linda, she was crying, and then looking around like she wanted a reaction of some sort in the interview room, but it looked sneaky as all get out to me, like that “did they buy that?”
I just saw this episode on Vice the other night…how her mental illness was overlooked for so long is a total shock to me. I hope she went to a place that treats both the illness and addiction. The intervention was just plain crazy! I hope all the family members healed and moved on. They were the worst kind of enablers.
This woman is my neighbor. She is still very sick, but has improved a lot from how she was on the show.
what a raving lunatic linda is!!!!! just WOOOOOOOW!!! her poor family, especially her brother who lost many years of his life being a slave and getting treated like shit!!! he looked so defeated.
I’d love an update on Sam! Sam was good looking, kind and sweet. Sam- call me lol
It really seemed to me in this episode that Linda’s issues were primarily neither her addiction nor her EDS: it is her mental illness. Everything flows from that. She might very well suffer from EDS – but most of what she says she experiences based on that diagnosis is a fragment of her mental illness. Someone with a delusional disorder could easily latch on a real physical illness and build it up to be blamed for everything and anything.
And I feel similarly about her addiction tbh – it seems she takes the Fentanyl to feed her own self-delusions of being ill more out of the kind of craving we see in other addicts.
All in all, Sam is the one who I really hope is doing well now. He is cute and clearly has treasure of patience and loyalty so I hope he found a way to rebuild a life for himself. He also provided one of the rare moments where I actually laughed watching the show when Linda suddenly claimed turning left was painful: “Then turn right three times”