Season 22, Episode 10 (Intervention Canada)
Elizabeth
Age: 22
Location: Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada
Addiction: Fentanyl with Cocaine
Official Synopsis: Elizabeth’s single mother suffered from depression and alcoholism, and completed suicide when she was 8. She was shuffled in and out of foster homes before her father decided to try and raise her. In high school, she turned to alcohol to cope with her feelings of abandonment and isolation. Eventually Elizabeth began dating a drug dealer and replaced alcohol with opioids. Now 22 and hooked on a deadly combination of fentanyl and cocaine, Elizabeth sells drugs to fund her nearly $400/day addiction. Her father and half-sister are hoping an intervention will save Elizabeth from following her mother’s path to an early grave.
What’s Memorable: [Guest Post by Stefan] Elizabeth truly had the cards stacked against her early on both in nature and nurture. Honestly it would be surprising if someone who went through what she did ended up not becoming an addict. The craziness that took place during the day of the intervention was truly bonkers, and thankfully they were able to still have the intervention (spoiler: they always do even when they tease that it may not happen, as the show wouldn’t air if it didn’t happen). I commend Elizabeth for keeping her word and returning to treatment after leaving the first time, and I have hope that she will return again after her legal issues are straightened out.
Interventionist: Geri (who handled it like a BOSS)
Date Aired: May 10 2021 (Aired as Intervention Canada Season 5 Episode 3, on April 15, 2019)
I like Geri’s style re: how she runs interventions. She’s Canada’s version of Seth here in the US.
I like Geri also but Seth is my all time favorite…he’s a master!
Yeah. Seth is a legend
I love Seth. He’s a no nonsense kind of guy who can also show sympathy at the same time.
I like her style a lot too! And yeah, Seth is amazing, he really does not mince words but has a lot of heart and cares about what he’s doing. I bought Release on a whim from Prime and was delighted to see him 🙂
When her best friend says that Elizabeth is going to see right through it. That’s REAL. I also saw those exact same sentiments mirrored in the eyes of her Dad, Uncle & Godfather. And when the interventionist said to her best friend, when she said she wants to be there when it’s bad or even at the end, the interventionist said “So you want to be an accessory to that?” What? That’s not the right direction to go in. Healing does not have to mean that you lose every true person you’ve ever known. When the Godfather said she asked him to come over and make sure she was still BREATHING and the interventionist told him to stop doing it, he didn’t answer her. Because he knew he could never do that and I’m right there with him. I am so proud this family stuck to their guns in their love for her, because she will watch this some day and she won’t see a room of people just ready to give her right up. And we finally make it to the intervention and guess what? It’s HEAVY on the zero tolerance for contact/“you can’t live in my home” tip. I’m not sure about this interventionist at ALL. She doesn’t seem to have anything constructive to offer…she has told this entire room that she can’t be saved unless everyone says they’ll leave her. Which is exactly the opposite of what she needs. Hey this kid felt deserted all her life LET’S SCARE HER WITH THIS THAT SHOULD WORK. Well let’s see…it didn’t. She kept running home to check on Dad. I don’t have to wonder why. This style of intervention is not the best fit for a lot of people and because of the PTSD people suffer when they feel deserted as a child, they should not ever do this. I used to always agree with how they do it, but these past few years I find myself wanting to scream at the facilitators. Some of these interventions anymore are aggressive, unbalanced, two dimensional and hasty. The producers busting into her house before daylight…saying we have to go to our interview it will just take 2 minutes…uh, really? If you didn’t think she knew it was an intervention before, then she certainly knows now!! Terrible job on this one, guys.
I’m curious about what you believe a more appropriate direction would be to go in? The intention of an intervention is to manufacture a bottom. It’s not to remove people entirely. That’s the whole point, to use the value of these meaningful relationships as leverage to get the person to consider what their options really are without their best friends, family, and other key players coming in to rescue them. If these folks keep doing things as they are, then there is literally no motivation for the addict to change a thing. As they say, nothing changes if nothing changes. The conditions have to change to see the recovery happen.
I like this interventionist’s direct and firm way of guiding the process. It may not sound palatable to be asked, “do you want to be an accessory?” Maybe it’s nothing palatable because the answer is always, “no.” Good. Let’s go with that, then, because otherwise, she’s dying and you’re helping her. That’s the definition of an accessory.
*edit typo: maybe it’s not palatable because…
When it gets to this point, I think the family/friends have tried almost everything but nothing worked. To continue to enable and ignore the problem is just digging a grave quicker for the addict. Also, the family/friends need to get their life and sanity back for their own health as they too are sick but not in the way the addict is.
Some addicts don’t have a bottom so you have to give them one. I think it does more good than bad. Most times, if the addict leaves the intervention, they will decide to go after they’ve seen that the bottom is for real this time.
Your thoughts are mirrored by many experts that believe the Johnson model of interventions is counter-productive and coercive. But it makes for much better TV than the calmer alternatives.
I agree 100% my family did this I was homeless for 4 years. I actually wound up getting sober after moving in with my mom durning covid
Is the rest of the season going to be Canada episodes? I miss the whole Las Vegas thing :/
Yeah, hard to know until the episode airs, A&E is notoriously stingy and unreliable with its episode information, but I’m betting the Vegas thing is over now and any remaining episodes will be Canada. I did see a promo that the show would be returning in early June, so it sounds like it won’t be on again for a week or two then who knows how many more episodes there will be. I miss the Vegas thing too! I thought that was great. Fortunately the Canada episodes they’re airing have been pretty good ones too so I’m still overall really pleased with this season, but I do wish the Vegas theme had gone on longer. I could be wrong though, maybe they’ll be back after this hiatus.
I find some of the Canada episodes to be more “shocking” than the US ones. Like with Jennifer doing drugs right there in front of her kids, the girl with the leg infection that was so bad she almost lost it, and a few more. Also, the ending is always so short and I’ve noticed the majority leave treatment or stay sober afterward.
I’m trying to find how many episodes there are for season 22 and can’t seem to gather the info. Dizzy do you know? Also, I thought new episodes came on Sunday night…didn’t they used to? I’m waiting for ep. 18 and 19. Thanks for what you do man, keep up the great work. Promise to get you a coffee on pay day!
They have gotten cheap – they are driving the Las Vegas patients to California instead of flying (if anyone else has noticed). That’s a hell of a drive – I’d hate to be doing that “sick”.
FYI: These were shot during 2020 at the height of the pandemic. That’s why they’re not flying them around.
I was surprised no one called her out on how she blamed everyone else for her problems- she seemed really manipulative the way she interacted with her sister and her dad.
Yeah, I wasn’t crazy about her little side remarks while they were reading their letters; even so, the family was right to just take it all in stride. A lot of people, addicts or no, would react similarly in similar situations, after all.
Because all of them abandoned her and she felt she couldn’t trust any of them. Her father abandoned her and her sister abandoned her and that’s when she started getting heavy into the drugs. Did you watch the show? She felt like her dog was the only thing she could trust. Sure she’s on drugs but it’s mainly her father and her sister that are the reason she’s on them. They weren’t there when she needed them so she found drugs to comfort her.
You can’t live your life for other people. Her sister was perfectly in the right to go follow career opportunities. It sounds like her dad did what he thought was best in the moment- after her mom died, he didn’t think he was the best solution for her, but then when he saw how miserable she was he completely revamped his life around in a few months to take care of her. I don’t see either her dad or sister as abandoning her. She needed more, but they both tried their best by her.
Rewatched this episode and I’m pretty sure she said her age was 22? Also, I had SUCH high hopes for her to stay in treatment and get better, the ending was a rollercoaster and very disappointing 🙁 I truly hope she gets the help she deserves and kicks her addiction. She has such a loving family and so much to live for, really rooting for her :/ also, I LOVE GERI haha
She seemed so sweet and kind hearted.. does anyone have a update?
Wait a minute im sure she was from red deer Alberta? Not bc
all she did was play the victim. regardless of what sort of figure her sister was for her, she wasn’t her mother and she didn’t owe her that. so bananas that she just kept saying how much everyone disappointed her, yet they were all there for her. i can’t sometimes with these addicts!
To be fair, we don’t ever get the full picture of the true family dynamic in these episodes.
You have to look at it from her shoes. Her sister is the only other person in the world that can relate to her pain and problems. She apparently had it worse and was effected differently by it all than her sister was and she really needed her sister to be a support column for her. Maybe her sister was able to cope and lead a normal life but it seemed like Elizabeth became withdrawn and self destructive. That’s only worse for you if you have no one to relate too and the one person that should be able to understand you distances themself from you instead of trying to understand why you’re in so much pain and helping you. Her sister is also young she probably won’t understand till she much older and sadly by that time she might not even have a sister to apologize too. Her abandonment scars and trust issues are pretty visible. It’s understandable she had an attitude towards them at the intervention when they never went out there way to be there for her when she needed them before. Maybe she needs to spend time with a therapist before being treated for her addiction alone… her whole biological family should be in group therapy. There’s some deeply routed issues there.
Her sister has a responsibility to her, sure, but she can’t live her life revolving around her sister and her depression/addiction. I liked Elizabeth, but I didn’t like how much she tried to illicit guilt out of her sister. She was jealous and resentful of her sister simply because she turned out normal and was able to get herself together after HER mother also died. Her sister seemed like she was pretty supportive of her, but ultimately Elizabeth has to learn better coping mechanisms so that she too can live a normal life. And her sister cannot and should not be in charge of facilitating that for her.
Just FYI this took place in Red Deer, Alberta rather than Chilliwack.
Any updates on her? Hopefully she was able to overcome her issues.
I’d love an update on her. She reminds me of someone I know who is currently in recovery, and it makes my heart ache
Any updates on Elizabeth? I’m still rooting for her. One of Geri’s best interventions in my opinion. Also Nathan’s episode.