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Intervention Update – January 2015

First of all, LMN is still airing Intervention Canada episodes and calling them “all new” and “back-to-back premiere” episodes.  Still no word on when the actual new season will begin.

The real reason for this update is to let you know that I’m moderating the comments a bit harder than I have in the past.  Here’s what happened:

When Brooke died just before Christmas, a lot of people felt the need to comment about how her family were horrible people who didn’t deserve any sympathy because of how they treated Brooke during the show. I let some of the milder comments through but kept quite a few back. Then Brooke’s twin sister Brittany commented, and what she said really stuck with me.

“…The show did not portray us in good light as I am well aware of how people felt about us. Yes, Brooke was in pain, she had been in and out of rehabs when we got to the point of the show. We were all at that tough love stage. We were all trying to force her to get help. Basically, a 45 min show cannot possibly tell the story of her abuse of drugs.”

She’s right.  Who are we to think we know more about their addictions and family dynamics & history than they do just because we watched a HIGHLY edited 45 minutes of video?  We get a glimpse into the lives that they actually live. We do not know more, we do not know better.

What if the person you were once closest to in the world was an addict on this show? How would you be portrayed in the editing in order to make a compelling story? What would people on the internet rush to say about you? And how would you feel reading it?

We can judge these people all we want, rant about how they should have done this instead of that and oh my God what a horrible mother, but who does any of that help exactly?  And does anyone actually want to read other peoples’ opinions or do we all just want to declare our own?

Needless to say, I thought long and hard about what kind of change needs to happen here. I thought about a “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all ” policy, but I can’t adhere to that myself. I pass lotsa critical judgment and offer my opinion in plenty of the posts here, and it’s certainly not all positive.  What I can do, though, is not publish comments that are mean just for the sake of being mean. This goes for comments that are supportive of the addict and hateful towards the family. I’ve said this several times and I’ll say it once more: These are not fictional characters, they’re real people struggling with some of the most intense and traumatic things that humans experience. Remember, as much as we might not like the family, they are willingly participating in a nationally televised intervention in order to save the person they love. Go easy, will ya? They’re doing something right.

So that’s what’s new. I will decide on a case by case basis if a negative comment is worthy of being published. If it’s just a nasty comment full of shit talk, I won’t publish it. Yes, I will be the judge. Hey, it’s my site! I do what I want!  If you have a problem with being “censored” by Dictator Dizzy, you should probably go post on one of the many other Intervention discussion forums. Also, I’m about to embark on the adventure of deleting old comments that this rule applies to. Sorry if you posted a nasty comment, it’s about to disappear.

Mean exists everywhere on the internet, I want this to be just one place where it doesn’t.

Thanks,
Dizzy

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  1. Samantha

    What you said it so true. My mother is addicted to Vicodin and klonopin, and abuses her trazodone as well. She hits my friends up for drugs, and my father enables her to the point that it is sickening to me. She claims she is in a lot of pain, but I don’t believe her for a second… Her pain comes from being inactive for months at a time and then trying to move around again, no underlying conditions.

    I could understand Brooke’s sisters’ reactions so well, because you just get to that point where sympathy is impossible. It’s maybe only a little different, because I don’t believe Brooke did it to get high, whereas my mother is always chasing the next high. But you can only find your loved one on the floor passed out or falling asleep while eating so many times before you have to distance yourself from them. I’m 23 and I have been covering for her since I was 9 years old when my father would go on business trips and she would leave me with my infant brother for days at a time to go off and do her pills. When my brother was 4, he found her passed out on the floor and called 911 to tell them, “mommy is dead.”

    If she was on Intervention (which I doubt would ever happen because she is also a habitual liar and the queen of denial) would they relay these things to the viewers? Or would they paint a picture of her that makes her look sympathetic? Probably the latter because that makes for more interesting TV. Would my dad look as spineless as he behaves? Maybe. All of the things I’m saying sound incredibly harsh, but nobody but my brothers and myself have seen him pick her over us time and time again. No one saw me flush my pain meds when I had a very invasive oral surgery at 17, which took me twice the time to recover from than it should have because she would have taken the pills when I needed them, or see her spend all of my baby brother’s money. Nobody has seen us be filled with hope for a week or even a couple of months when she goes off the pills and starts to act like a mother, or the pain and letdown when we come home to find her passed out in her food again because she picked back up. Nor have they seen how she is a child, plain and simple, who does nothing but bark orders at everyone, make a mess, spit out hateful things, and make you feel like you’re 2 feet tall. Overall, nobody has seen everything that she has put us through over the 18+ years that she has been abusing her medications, nor is it possible for me to recount the misery that was my adolescence and continues to be my adulthood because I would have to write a novel. Tough love is the best option after you’ve seen them relapse so many times.

    I am not trying to say, “woe is me.” I am trying to paint a picture. Because I can only imagine what people would say about me. When I hear her coming down the stairs, I hide. I ignore her when she calls out to me because I don’t want to have an incoherent conversation with her in which she berates me for being lazy when I work 3 jobs and take 5-6 classes at a time, not to mention being a mother to brother who has no respect for her or my dad anymore. People would think that I’m heartless, or I’m an ungrateful brat because I live under her roof. But I refuse to enable her, although I’m sure I still do to some extent. You get to the point where you do what you have to in order to survive. I know that when I am finished with school and can live on my own, there will be no relationship with my parents unless they get better. As much as I love my dad, I don’t know if I can really look at him anymore because he may be sicker than she is because of his codependency issues. And I guess I wouldn’t expect anyone who hasn’t been through something similar to understand why I do what I do.

    tl;dr- I understand Brooke’s family, and agree with your statements wholeheartedly. No one can understand until they have been there and have someone they love consumed by addiction, in denial, and fading away.

    Thanks, Dizzy!!

    1. Samantha

      Jeez, I’m sorry this is so long. I got carried away!

    2. WonderWoman

      WOW…that was a really good insight into such a tough situation. I’m sorry that you have had to/are going through that, Samantha. It’s hard to even imagine.

  2. Mrs E

    I appreciate you moderating the comments more mindfully. I love this show and have been guilty myself of judging, specifically, Brooke’s family. At the end, it became clear that they didn’t understand addiction as it applies to people w legitimate pain issues. You’re absolutely right that none of us saw the years leading up to the major step of calling a national TV program.
    People can be so nasty. It couldn’t be easy, as one of the addicts or family members thereof, to air their dirty laundry, subject yourself to editing and then suffer the results of your show airing. We tend to immediately form opinions when we don’t know the back story.

  3. Sars

    Hi Dizzy, my post was one of the comments that were remoeved. I have followed this site for a few years and have watched every single Intervetion episode at least 2 times. I was sirprised my post stayed up as long as iit did. with that being said, perhaps in the future, you could develop some consistancy when it comes to comment aprrovals and denials. I just read every comment again, and remember most of the ones you deleted. I hope I’m mistaken but, one could concludeyour editing actions, that perhaps you pick and choose the comments that you might agree with..as there are other comments still up (I agree with every comment by the way) that would have been removed if you were truly being fair. I know this,post won’t stay up, but I know you won’t forget the point I made, just like I know Brooke’s sister will live with her actions the rest of her life!!

    1. dizzy

      Yeah I haven’t had a chance to go through all the comments yet – there’s over 1,000 of them so it’ll take some time. But as I do I’ll do my best to be consistent. And I’m not just removing the ones I don’t agree with, not sure why you’d even say that.

      1. Bob

        Yes, why would anyone think that you would remove comments you don’t agree with. I mean, over 1000 comments came in and less than 20 made the cut. Nothing fishy there.

      2. dizzy

        1000 comments on the whole site, not on one post. What’s your deal Bob? Do you just come here to complain about me? You should chill.

    2. Clementine Danger

      “perhaps you pick and choose the comments that you might agree with”

      Even if that were true, it’s Dizzy’s site. They get to remove whatever they want from it and they’re doing us a courtesy by even letting us know the moderation rules. Their space, their time and effort, their rules, or no rules. Comment sections aren’t democracies.

      Since you can’t resist getting a dig in at Brooke’s poor family even here, I can’t imagine your comments there were very compassionate either.

  4. crystal

    There are 7+ billion imperfect people on this planet.

    Addiction is something non-addicts will never truly understand, and that is the core conflict with most addicts and their people on the show.

    The only people who deserve to be trashed are the people you DON’T see. “_____’s father declined to participate.” Or the rapists, molestors, abusers who are bleeped or otherwise just mentioned. Those people either caused the person pain that led to them being susceptible to addiction, or just plain didn’t care enough, or were embarrassed.

    The people who appear on camera love and ultimately have hope left that the subject can turn their life around, Dizzy is spot-on, they are desperate and are doing something about it.

    Angel Brooke’s family was put through so much, but do not think they didn’t love the hell out of her.

  5. Clementine Danger

    “The only people who deserve to be trashed are the people you DON’T see.”

    Amen.

    One of the most poignant moments for me was when a young addict’s uncle who didn’t want to be on camera and really didn’t want to be on international TV showed up to an intervention anyway when they called him. He was so visibly uncomfortable with all these cameras, but he did it, he showed up, he hugged her and she went to treatment.

    I know I’d be judged at work if I had an addict in the family. So many parents of addicts get the Judgment Glare. “She must be a terrible mother.” “He probably beat that poor kid.” “They must be drunks too, that’s where he learned it.” Going on TV at all is brave and caring.

    I get not wanting to be on TV. I get not wanting to be on this show in particular. By the time we even see them, they’ve already made a huge commitment and sacrifice for their loved one. Sitting down in front of a camera crew, lights and lenses in your face, and talking honestly about your family’s dirty laundry takes guts and compassion.

    1. crystal

      You’re right, I get, considering the subjects at hand, people’s hesitation to be on camera. Even when I was Super Junkie, queen of all heroin addicts (yes, it’s a thing- I was an arrogant prick and heroin NEVER woulda killed me…), I myself would’ve been reluctant to appear on the show.

      So it does take a big set to be anyone on the show. Great point.

      What pisses me off about Brooke in particular, and what makes her eventual meth-related death even more sad, is that people focus SO MUCH on the family. What they said/did/didn’t do, instead of realizing the lessons you can learn from her life.

      Brooke had pain. Through a lack of proper medical attention, on her part, and by her doctors, and to some extent family, she became addicted to pain meds. Addiction likes to change, and for whatever reason, she eventually used meth. Drugs killed Brooke, addiction killed Brooke, but Brooke and her family did not kill Brooke.

      That’s the lesson. Prescription or otherwise, the world is awash in drugs aimed to obliterate pain and depression, or boredom.

  6. Jess

    At the end of the day, this is your site Dizzy. Your rules are your rules.

  7. Gregory Moore

    Hey Dizzy,
    I totally understand your frustration. There are easier things in the world to do than moderate a group like this, one that allows comments. Some people get it, some don’t. Most of all, you owe NO ONE an explanation, let alone an APOLOGY for being stricter in your policies. This site is different than other “fan sites” of TV shows in that it IS about real people–real people who (along with their real families) sometimes read the comments. It could only be hurtful to come across a site where they are being attacked–after exposing their innermost secrets in front of millions of people. I think you’re doing a great job here, and providing a great service to the many people who have found “Intervention” to be inspirational. I’m totally “with you” on the anti-negativity thing. Sometimes, you look at a nasty comment and think, “This person took time out of their day to sit down and write this??” So keep up the good work…and do it YOUR way!

  8. Sandra

    Again Dizzy, I completely support however you want to moderate YOUR site. I cannot imagine how daunting a task reading all the comments are. Your hard work is very appreciated!

  9. Sara

    Hey Dizzy, I’m so addicted to Intervention, and now also your site. I just wanted to post, because I haven’t seen it here yet, that A&E posted that they are picking the show back up with what I assume are truly new episodes. The supposed new season starts March first on A&E! I’m pretty excited if this is true.

    1. dizzy

      It’s LMN that is picking up the new season, not A&E. And yeah I just read that the new season starts March 1st. Yay!

  10. Sara

    According to their facebook, it’s coming back to A&E

    Intervention
    January 13 at 9:39pm ·
    The Emmy Award-winning series ‪#‎Intervention‬ returns to A&E for a powerful new season March 1st at 9/8c. Stay tuned!
    Like · · Share · 7,364548903

    1. dizzy

      Well that is SO confusing. Is it gonna be on both networks? I don’t know what’s going on.

      1. snugs

        Just on A&E now

  11. Sandra

    I watch several shows on that channel and they have never advertised Intervention. I think the moderator of the FB page made a mistake.

  12. Amanda

    Just found your site – thanks for all the hard work.

    I do wish you categorized your episodes by Season & Ep instead of overall # as that would make them easier to find on streaming services.

    Example: Amazon lists Sarah/Mikeal is S10E02 vs. You have it listed as Episode 144.

    Clearly this site is a labor of love, and I’m glad to have found it.

    1. dizzy

      Thanks Amanda. The reason I primarly categorize by overall episode number is because each streaming service and A&E number the episodes differently. So Episode 4 Season 6 on A&E might be Episode 3 on Hulu and Episode 1 on Netflix and even Episode 1 Season 7 on Amazon. This is because if Amazon, for example, does not have an episode, they re-order the ones they do have instead of skipping that episode number. But the overall number is always the same, or at least should be. So that’s why it’s like that. I would love it if all the numbering was the same on all the sites but they all do their own thing, and it was changing constantly. This was the only way I could keep the numbering consistent.

      You can however find all the episodes in a season by clicking on the Season # in the right column at the bottom.

      I recently moved over to a self-hosted blog and when I moved everything over, I lost the ability to display all the categories each post belongs to, such as season AND trigger AND addiction. Right now each post only displays one category, and I’m not even sure which one it’s picking to display. I’ve tried to fix it but I’m not all that savvy with PHP (so if anyone knows how to do that, please let me know).