Season 11, Episode 1
Christina
Age: 21
Location: Riverside, California
Addiction: Meth, Norco
What’s memorable: How crazy, violent, and paranoid she gets when high, how abusive she is towards her mother, hallucinating her crying son and bugs crawling under her skin, and a first-of-its kind intervention: Genuine yes followed by a freak out session and violent demand for drugs and refusal to go. (And then a heart-wearming followup)
Official Synopsis: A beautiful 21-year-old addicted to Norco and meth, Christina has violent outbursts, believes that bugs are crawling under her skin, and has threatened suicide. Can an intervention save Christina before she loses her mind entirely?
Original Air Date: January 2012
Interventionist: Jeff
Has anyone heard anything about Christina of Riverside California? Is she still in recovery (meetings/meds for bipolar disorder/etc)? I pray that she is. Her story left a HUGE impression on me. Please if Christina (of Riverside, CA), her brother, or other family members read this, please leave us an update. I’d love to hear from you (as would all viewers of the show). I personally pray that you have a healthy relationship with your son and that you are still recovered. Blessings.
Does anyone have any updated information on Christina?
According to Wikipedia, she had another son in 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOD20FXygg4
It looks like she’s doing really well!
One thing that bothered me about this episode was everyone criticizing the brother for how he handled her when she was threatening her family. If I was threatening my family with a knife, I honestly hope one of them would kick my ass. Also, the mother is clearly on drugs, she looked and acted just as tweaked out as her daughter.
That’s how reformed drug addicts talk. I’m not saying the mom wasn’t still on drugs, but a lifetime of drug abuse will affect your speech and looks in heinous ways. My friends mom is just like that, she was a Crack addict and then moved to meth, and only quit bc she had a stroke and is bedridden. Has that same pattern of speech and her face looks like it’s ready to slide off. Scary
Mom was very much still on drugs. She had a meth problem too. You can hear Christina telling her mom she was high during one of her tantrums. I believe they used together.
Very apt description, I used to frequent a Chinese restaurant during the before times i.e. pre-pandemic, that had a waitress who was like Christina’s mom. I mean no disrespect, but she absolutely fried her brain with meth after decades of abuse. She only got clean after being involuntarily committed for attacking her mother who she thought was a lizard person…six months later she came back to town started waitressing and bless her heart she had the mind and affect of a child. But she was also super sweet and hard working, it made me wonder how much of who she was before the meth still existed. But I suspect that person was deeply troubled to have been a hard core user like she was.
I hate to say it but her diminished capacity probably came as a relief to her family and possibly herself. No need to use if you don’t remember what got you started in the first place.
I’m hoping the mom was still not on drugs. As a recoverying addict myself, I knew her mom. Not going to elaborate…..I pray she’s still clean!!!
Any update on Christina? My heart was so with this beautiful girl. She reminded me of myself before I got clean. Praying that she finds herself!
I hope Christina is doing well and is over her addiction. Anyone cool enough to have a dad named Grizzly deserves better!
Grizzly was her stepdad but yeah. I want to watch this episode. I personally know her family but haven’t heard from them in years.
I found Christina to be really beautiful, sweet, and insightful about her illness. She deserves all the best.
I hope Christina is sober and doing well. She is gorgeous, but when she is high and bugging out she is actually SCARY. When she was picking her face and her mother was trying to get her to stop and she screams “SHUT THE F*CK UP” I was actually fearful for her mother. I thought she was gonna actually really hurt her. I don’t know how the mother dealt with that, but anyways, I wish her and her family the best and hope Christina continues her sobriety.
Christina seems like a very gorgeous, likeable girl underneath her addiction. I dont judge her for how she acted while under the influence, I just hope she is currently doing well and has a good relationship with her son, mom, and brother.
Christina is doing very well and we thank our lucky stars everyday. Thank you all for your kind thoughts and words.
I’m so glad to hear that. Does she have any custody of her first son? That seemed to really cause her torment.
This makes my heart so happy! I don’t watch the show a lot but I saw this episode when I was in a dark place and she really gave me hope. I related to her on so many levels. I wish her all the happiness and success in the world! Xoxo
Hope you and Christina are doing well! Praying for you and your family!
I think Lindsey is her sister-in-law… As that was the first name of her brothers wife… Thank you for any updates Lindsey, as we all are rooting for Christina! I was the a crystal meth user for three years, two years I smoked all day and every day, so I related to Christina. I’ve been clean off crystal meth for 19 years, ever since I became pregnant with my first child. My prayers are with Christina and her family! 🫶🏼
Just curious, how is she doing now? Christina’s story reminded me so much of myself. I hope that she’s been able to continue in her recovery.
Yes. I just watched her story and hope with all my heart she is doing good! I’d love to hear she is and is able to have her babies with her and be the amazing Mom she can definitely be without drugs. If anyone has a recent follow up would be so great to hear. 💜🧡
Christina’s story is very inspiring, i think most people could take away something from her trifles and hardships and apply them to their own lives. Keep an open mind with addicts they face more scrutiny and pressure than any other hardship faced. You can’t pacify people with fake words, you can with true empathy and love.
jeff’s comment, “you don’t have to be everything your son needs. you just have to be a little more of what he needs as time goes on.” wow! him and candy will always be my two favourite interventionists!
Some people are saying she died? Did she?
No, she didn’t. She would but in the “deaths” section on this site if she had!
Me too… I don’t like how Jeff repeats the same lines, but he does say really genuine and impactful information… I wish they would show more of those words…
I remember reading that he does seminars about addiction as a side hustle, he probably squirrels away the good stuff for times when he’s not on camera.
It always amazes me how people used to get prescribed pain pills like nothing. Nowadays it takes an act of congress and the soul of your first child to get enough medication for three days and that’s for major oral surgery. It’s outrageous how reactionary the medical community has become. We have an opioid epidemic and before that a meth epidemic and crack before that and cocaine before that all the way back to the 40s and 50s amphetamine craze. People are always going to find the next best substance to abuse, it makes no sense to punish the 99% who don’t abuse drugs, just to marginally put a dent in the supply of addicts.
Signed somebody who got seven whole hydrocodone after I had two molars extracted.
Yes but they also do that so you DON’T get addicted. It happens really quickly to people and they don’t expect it.
True, but the percentage of people who do end up abusing medication is orders of magnitude less than people who don’t. like the poster below is saying, we have swung way too far in the opposite direction now. There is ample room in the middle of the spectrum, but there’s no money in it.
A-frickin-MEN! I have read numerous statistical articles that say the majority of deaths from the “opioid” epidemic are actually from heroin overdoses. By lumping heroin and opioids in the same shit pile people are mislead into believing that prescription pain medication is what is killing so many junkies…nope, its heroin. Ive been on hydrocodone for 14 years now due to a very mutilating surgery for cancer. What i get sick of is the way doctors and pharmacists talk to you like your some kind of drug seeking animal. I have never abused my medication and i still feel like im on an episode of Drugs INC everytime i get my script filled.
Go watch Oxycontin then and now. Its a advertisement for oxycontin every one in the video was prescribed it. It was a great drug they all feel better UNTIL they didnt. Many started with pain pills and than could not afford to fill their script. I had a prescription that cost me between the doctor and even with a discount card around 850$ every month!! That was just 1 script out of 3 I could never fill them all. This sickness from the pills is the same as heroin so who wants to feel like death for a week or more. And heroin being cheaper because you can buy a little at a time is the answer for many. I am thankful I did not but I know the sickness. I know what its like to buy a pill off the street because I cant pay for my script and I cant be sick as a single mom. Seriously even if you take a prescription as it is intended when it is powerful you still get sick when you can not have it. Your body craves it. You think people just start off on heroin? Some do other drugs but many have replaced their pills with it. I know many who have. Methadone saved my life. But it isnt cheap either finally insurance works for it. I need pain medicine for a real problem but I will never take it again. The addiction is terrible.
I really wish you all the best and good luck.
OMG I couldn’t agree more if I were in your body! Why the hell do we accept this b. s. As citizens of a country that has more wealth than most how are we not seeing that addicts are a business now. Can anyone comprehend how much the government lies to us? Methadone clinics, rehabilitation centers, it’s a multi-million dollar industry now. Pain is not something that can be measured from one person to the next. Some people have poor immune systems that means they heal slowly, some have high tolerance, some have low, so when I see a cancer patient going to a methadone clinic bc their pain is being judged I am fiercly pissed off. It should be a contract between patient and doctor that says I understand the risks of addiction and neither I nor my family members can sue you, as my doctor, in the event of addiction or overdose. Because once you leave that doctor’s office or hospital it is in the individual person’s hands how they take their medication. We cannot control that and to punish people who desperately need it to heal is filthy. Doctor’s are terrified of lawsuits and losing their licenses to practice! I was under medicated after laser surgery on my genitals and I had 3rd degree burns down there. I could not go to the bathroom without screaming in agony. I ended up being readmitted and put on a pain pump for 2 days. Had my doctor prescribed what I asked for in the first place, as this wasn’t my first procedure, I would have avoided this unnecessarily. We need to stop being afraid and start standing up as citizens as a unit and fight the so called forces that be. It’s bullshit. They know and most of us now know it.
I have 3 different muscle diseases and none of my Docs will give me anything. They are all so afraid of of their patients becoming addicted, none give an RX, not even for T3 (I heard its a lesser form of morphine?). It’s really frustrating. I do understand their concern, but my diseases are incurable, progressive, and chronic. I’m on the same spectrum as Brook, from one of the Interventions. I really identified with her and hope she is resting peacefully. Her family was cruel to her.
This episode made me bawl my eyes out. I relate so much to this gorgeous girl, though my DOC wasn’t meth, I feel and felt her pain immediately. I’d LOVE to know how she’s doing, or if she has an Instagram or social media account because I would love to reach out to her. I believe we can help each other and I really really desperately need a woman I can relate to that understands what I’m going through. If anyone has any contact info (as long as it’s okay with her) please feel free to email me at [email protected] or message me on Instagram (my handle is @TheWalkingBarbie ) I really hope she and her family are doing wonderfully and would love to hear from her. It’s tough out here all alone….and never judge a book by its cover, cause the happiest, most put together people are out here dying inside, silently screaming for help. Thank you all and I hope everyone’s having a great day.
Does anyone have a update on Christina?
She’s not on the list of people who have passed away and the list appears current. That’s good news! Hope she’s doing well.
Brothers FB
https://m.facebook.com/100000952038005/
Moms FB
https://m.facebook.com/100002541122531/
I just took a look at her mom’s fb, Christina had a baby girl in January 2023. I also saw a recent picture of Christina, she looks really healthy & clean!
The government is responsible for every drug epidemic . It’s one way to control the masses and keep us under their thumb, and/or kill the replaceable off. Not to mention what big business it is. Also, the majority of ODs may be from illegal substances (street heroin and of course fentanyl), but the REAL fact that matters is that so many started as legit Rx users, and turned to the street once they became addicted and because street drugs are so much cheaper. Just my two cents. I hope Christina, and all other addicts, are able to recover and become productive and happy. F*ck the government, no accountability and no shame.