Season 10, Episode 10
Michelle
Age: 30
Location: Williamstown, New Jersey
Addiction: Methadone, Xanax
What’s memorable: The way her young daughter and grandfather treat her is pretty horrifying, and while deserved it to a certain extent it’s still hard to watch and seems like a bad way to behave. And the weird relationship with the 75 year old boyfriend, yikes. I really like Michelle, I hope she got her shit together and her family is nicer to her.
Official Synopsis: Michelle, 30, looks like an aging mother of two who takes a daily concoction of methadone, Xanax, and blood pressure pills to keep her identity as an edgy party girl alive, while her family begs her to wake up to the harm that her addiction has caused them. Now the family has had enough, and they’re finally ready to confront Michelle at an intervention.
Original Air Date: August 2011
Interventionist: Candy
https://x.com/News12NJ/status/1807428956645113923
just yesterday. JULY 2024. so disappointing
at this point, I don’t know how she’s going to turn it around. I know we should always hope, but realistically I don’t know if she’ll ever get clean and stay clean.
and again in October!
https://share.newsbreak.com/7jjgtiiu She was arrested just last week. She stole a car and left her ID in the car. Oopsies!! She looks like a completely different person in her mugshot and not in a good way wither. This is very sad. I don’t know where she’s buying her dope but if it’s in Philly (the area in NJ she lives in, people typically go to Philly and/or Camden), apparently there has been a major attempt to shut down the open-air dope market in Kensington. I’m a recovering addict, on methadone maintenance and I remember back in the late 90s…they did the same thing. It was called “Operation Sunrise”. You were risking getting arrested every single time you tried to cop and I did end up getting arrested during that whole thing. So now would be a great time for Michelle to get back on the clinic…or if she’s still on the clinic, now would be a great time to stop the benzos and whatever other substances she’s using. I’m the same age as her and we’re not spring chickens anymore. It’s a very startling and sobering reality to get clean at the age of 45 and realize you’ve done nothing with your life but destroy it. Sometimes it feels like it’s just not worth it, you don’t even know where or how to start…but I got to a point where the pain of continuing to exist like that was greater than the fear and pain of trying to move forward. I hope Michelle can get there bc only then will she change. And BTW, about the whole methadone thing…I noticed comments above saying that methadone is only meant to be used for a short period of time and you’re not “supposed” to stay on it indefinitely. I disagree. I’ve been on/off of MMT for years. There were periods of time that I was definitely not clean, benzos, shooting coke, smoking crack, etc. and I never earned take homes and was “chained” to the clinic. For the past 2.5 years, I’ve stayed clean of all other substances and have earned 6 bottles/week. I pick up on Wednesdays and do my group on Wednesdays. I don’t feel chained to the clinic. I was at 150 and came down one mg/week until I got to 104 and I started to go through it a little so I stopped the taper 2 months ago. If I have to stay on this for the rest of my life, so be it. MMT has given me life. There was NO WAY I would’ve gotten clean and STAYED “CLEAN” without it. That’s it, rant over Lol.
I commented before I even got to the part about the 75 year old boyfriend. How disgusting. How does that family allow this creep around Michelle’s young daughters? When Alyssa rode with Michelle and the old man to the methadone clinic and she stayed alone in the car with him – my alarm bells were going off. I hope these children were spared. I hope they have somehow managed to be happy and successful in life even without a mother.