Season 23, Episode 7
Ryan
Age: 26
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Addiction: Fentanyl
Official Synopsis: Ryan severely injured his ankle at 16 and was prescribed opioids. When his prescription was cut off, Ryan turned to street drugs for his fix. Now 26, he is addicted to fentanyl.
What’s Memorable: TBD
Interventionist: Maureen
Date Aired: November 29, 2021 (Originally aired as Intervention Canada Season 5 Episode 2 in April 2019)
I was only joking last week when I wondered if the next episode in the California Fentanyl series would be from Canada…
Ryan’s mom frustrated me so much. Not sure I’ve seen a worse enabler. I mean, how much money did she give Ryan just during the filming of this show? And she does this just to get him out of her hair?! His dad was no better… A weak presence, and ineffective at connecting with him in any way. yeah, shoot some nerf things at him, that went real well.
I don’t think Ryanhas a bad family, they love him… But they sure as heck don’t know how to help him. And Bianca… She needs every bit as much help, too, so sad.
And I’m sorry, but Maureen has a terrible record on the show for success. And then he bails on rehab and comes back home to the same situation. So sad. I hope they can all get help and break the cycle.
I liked cousin Erin though, she was really sweet. 🥰
The nerf gun scene was incredibly weird and uncomfortable to watch.
OMG I cracked up at that out of sheer unease.
Weird season- back in Canada again, eh?I don’t dig the inconsistency with the seasons- especially if there’s a theme. Otherwise don’t package and present it as such. Early seasons didn’t commit to particular locations or focus on a type of addiction. As a Californian, I have been looking forward to this season’s Fentanyl exposé here; have noticed how my city is pretty devastated by it.
Maureen is my least favorite interventionist. She seems kind of clueless, lacking understanding/ empathy for the addict. Why pair someone who has zero experience as an addict with someone with the worst kind of addiction? I can picture her as an assistant to an interventionist (who has personal knowledge and understanding of the addict psyche), providing help with family support, especially for the parents (that is something she understands and is in her wheelhouse).
I was surprised and sad that Maureen didn’t get some sort of help for Ryan’s enabling family (they needed it!) The update didn’t come as a surprise. No bottom lines held, apparently no one learned or changed anything. Can’t believe after all that Ryan’s back with his parents. What are the odds they’re back in their dysfunctional roles and toxic relationships? To think they may be again enabling and funding his addiction is frustrating, sad and so disappointing.
What is Maureen’s success rate, anyway? She does seem out of it. I think she’s a nice person who cares and could be helpful to families but the addicts themselves don’t seem to take her seriously or something. I just don’t get it. There seem to be others (like Andrew Galloway and others) that do seem to make more of an impact. Am I being too hard on her? I wish I knew.
I feel like that’s why people like Candy and Donna. They’re pretty straight forward in saying what they’ve been through when they were at their bottoms, and it’s believable .
All I know is that Maureen is an Interventionist but was never an addict like all the other interventionists we see on this show. She only became one because of her son who was an active alcoholic at one time. Her resume is full of “experience” in too many fields…in my opinion. I don’t know how you can focus on being so many different things.
http://www.successfulrelationships.ca/AboutUs/BioMaureen.aspx
Oh boy, this episode made me so frustrated! I had a very hard time sympathising with anyone. I think that if they would stick to their bottom lines, Ryan would go back to rehab because it seemed like that homelessness was something he was afraid of and he eventually said yes.
But now he is going to bully everyone for money and use in the house until he dies and then everyone will just probably say “well, we did everything”. It makes me angry.
Maureen was not the right fit for him. She is way too mellow and sweet for a hardcore fentanyl addict like Ryan. I think they should have chosen Andrew.
I have a man crush on Andrew. He’s just great, and I wish he could help everyone, every time.
Him and Jesse are my dream team!!!
Jesse Hanson is the most strikingly handsome man I’ve ever seen in my entire life. His personality only adds to that.
I don’t know if it’s because fentanyl just turns its users into zombies, but Ryan was probably the least sympathetic and likable addict I’ve seen in a long, long time. His “whatever” response to everything at the Intervention really showed how petulant he is & I was unsurprised he couldn’t cut it in rehab.
Agreed. Him getting on the phone was so disrespectful. I thought Andrew would’ve been a better choice as an interventionist. Guess he can’t do them all.
IKR? The way he was just waiting for him mom to put up $500 (or whatever) for the ball of fentanyl — which he used right away — was just a disaster. Him wanting it, and then him getting it.
Ryan’s cousin was mid-sentence reading her letter when Maureen got Ryan to put down the phone, then immediately moved onto the next family member. She’s such a useless wet sock of an interventionist, and this was one huge wet fart of an Intervention. I hope next week’s is better.
hey Mr b they BEGGED me to pickup more dope because I wasn’t getting fucked up enough for tv. I told them nah I’m straight. that scene was set up believe it or not.
before that they made me exhale dope into the camera man and dude went white and had to switch out with another because they thought I was smoking fake dope.
I so agree with you. I usually feel empathetic towards anyone struggling with addiction, but Ryan was just so incredibly unlikeable. To be fair though, so were both of his parents so perhaps it’s not surprising.
This was such a frustrating episode. Just exasperated all the way around. This season has so far been pretty consistent in showcasing addicts who have dealt with pretty serious adversity/trauma and the people in their lives trying their best to save them but this episode…everyone seemed so ambivalent. The parents just seemed resigned to burying their kid and the dynamic between the parent and kid was wild–dear god, what was happening with the nerf gun?! I was shocked that they weren’t given any kind of treatment, given how sick they both are and how little they understand the disease of addiction. I was also surprised that they didn’t offer treatment to his “girlfriend” too. As far as Ryan himself, I’ll always be rooting for addicts to get sober but he was hard to sympathize with. If he ever makes it to sobriety, he’ll have to do a lot of growing up to do.
So agree with you about his parents! I’ve watched just about every episode of Intervention & can’t recall any parent being so accepting of their addict child’s death while they were still alive. Also, I believe treatment was offered to Bianca & she declined. Such a sad & frustrating episode.
Re: Nerf… Watching this was so indicative of how the parents interact with their son. Just a total disaster, and FFS, that’s not how you get someone to wake up to the destruction of fentanyl.
Also, how about that BBQ scene? Painful AF. Again, I think cousin Erin was the shining star in this family. She was so sweet. I hope she is okay. 🥰
She was the only one who had any awareness at all regarding the situation.
they set up some B’s drama and got my uncle to say “I don’t know what more I can do to help you” out of no where and I never asked that man for shit except to pick me up from jail. haha
I think I join virtually everyone in saying that this episode was so frustrating and awful to watch. The father shooting him with a nerf gun while he was high was honestly so disturbing to me. This is also my first Maureen episode and wow is she bad at this. It really does go to show that you truly need to have been an addict in order to understand addiction at all. So clueless and no self-awareness at all. Reminds me of every bad high school counselor.
That’s a great analogy about Maureen, and yes she usually is pretty insufferable.
I agree she is useless. You really need to have been an addict to understand. I cannot imagine her trying to intervene on more difficult cases at all. She gives zero support to the family, I cringe watching it.
One more from me, then I’m done… I’ve watched every episode of this show over so many years… This was one of the worst. God, please help this family!!!
As soon as I saw Maureen was the interventionist (if you can call her that), I literally said out loud “Oh, no…this kid doesn’t stand a chance at help.” And I was right.
This was by far the most ineffective intervention I have seen to date. I heard a lot of catch phrases but there were NO breakthroughs whatsoever. The enabling of the parents was not addressed in any meaningful way and the fact that it didn’t stick comes as no surprise
The parents were so odd, in so many different ways.
Yes…there were some long established patterns of avoidance. It sounded like Ryan was exhibiting some signs of ADHD in school and they were having a hard time managing him and moms solution was to “home school” him rather than address any underlying issues
It was pretty clear that he stood almost no chance of recovery given how comfortable his mom made him at home. I also found the Nerf scene disturbing, as well as his dad saying “If Ryan doesn’t get help, he will be dead. And I’m okay with that.” Huh? You’re okay with your son dying from an addiction? Then why do an intervention? What a weird and inappropriate thing to say.
Useless parents. If I was the interventionist I’d have rang the police on them. They might as well put a gun to his head. Maureen is neither use nor ornament tbh……
He has his mom transferring money to his account for the Fentanyl then has his dad bring him to go and pick it up. I was like wow! Just to get him out of their hair, however I am sure there is a lot that the cameras did not show us as to how big of a fit he threw until he got his way. But then the comments made by mom and dad “he is going to overdose and die but at least it will be over” “he is going to die and I am okay with that” what parent much less both parents say that about their child (addict or not)
I never threw a fit to my mother. that’s why she loves me. lol
I just pray that Ryan and his girlfriend will decide on their own to be done with that lifestyle and own their own decide to get help and go to a detox clinic followed by a long term inpatient rehab get clean and stay clean. With the help of out patient treatment once inpatient treatment has been completed successfully.
I have a new sympathy for this guy after watching the HULU miniseries “Dopesick”. Prescribed opioids for pain, he got hooked. Then he has a Mother who, I don’t know what she is doing. Other than the obvious, enabling Ryan to kill himself. The Father, to me, was a bum. He came back to live there probably because he had nowhere else to go. I don’t think he really cared about his son. Strange parents indeed. Strange episode – other than the final results, I did not expect him to stay clean and he didn’t. Just hope he doesn’t kill himself.
What pissed me off more than anything is the dad. First of all this guy had no clue even how long Ryan was using. Show how much interest he had in his son… Two the gun thing ya that pissed me off but, what makes me mad more than anything and I’m sorry to say this but the way these parents are you can count that kid good as dead because my number three and this is quote what the dad saids ” if Ryan don’t stop he is gonna DIE and, I’m good with that!” Like WTF someone need to slap that guy really I used herion for 10 year and if I can get clean anyone can my parents were total opposite Ryan ima say this now get help fast buddy I’m pray for you my friend
i got a vibe of resentment from his father. i feel like the mom enabled Ryan even when he was young – yoinking him out of school when he was having issues instead of trying to deal with the root – and the dad became resigned and embittered. he just goes along with it and probably views his son as a lost cause. it’s very sad.
I think this is the worst case of enabling I’ve seen on this show since it aired in 2008. The amount of money the mom gives him at a time is absolutely absurd, considering it doesn’t exactly look like she’s living lavishly. He’s a dumpster fire of a human, if she can’t get him out of her house then call the damn cops and charge him with drug possession and send his behind to jail. That’ll straighten him up a bit. People don’t realize, privilege kills in these scenarios. You’re helping him to hurry up and die -_-
I had a fucking job the summer this was filmed making anywhere from 6-10k a month.
we parked my vehicle for the week so I wouldn’t get a DUI and I acted broke in front of them because by the time they showed up even though I looked like total shit I was only spending 100$ every 2-3 days compared to the $1000’s weekly.
#themoreyouknow
Ryan is doing an AMA on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/InterventionTheTVShow/comments/133dxbr/this_was_my_episode_im_sober_now_ama_about_the/ he says he’s sober now, but if you read some of his previous posts it seems like he’s struggling with alcohol. He doesn’t talk well about the show.
Ryan recently did an AMA.
What is an AMA?
Ask Me Anything
Ryan surfaced on Reddit in an Intervention sub a few days ago. Apparently, he suffered a withdrawal seizure so severe, it broke multiple vertebrae in his back. He says he’s clean on Fentanyl, but his actual posting history is full of references to selling drugs in the present and binge drinking. He also shared his side of the story concerning filming, going to treatment, and the relationship with his family. It makes for an interesting read, although I don’t think he comes off in a particularly favorable light (except where he criticizes Maureen; those are comments we can all get behind).
He posted a new update on Reddit and he claims to be clean:
https://www.reddit.com/r/InterventionTheTVShow/comments/16t7l9n/im_still_clean_guys/
I am clean. I was mad bored when I broke my back sitting in a recliner all day so I spent my time scamming kids on Reddit looking for drugs like I used to. I also came across some sub reddit for hurting alcoholics who spot each other money. I was seeing if they were dumb enough to just send me money. they were not. haha. I imported a vehicle from Japan and I’m currently just hanging out waiting for my back to recover . peace y’all
I am Ryan
I am clean.
take that fuckers!
Omg, the mother saying, “They lock themselves in the room and get high, nothing I can do”…about her 26 y/o addict son and his girlfriend/drug buddy. I’m an addict in recovery and my parents drew a real hard-line on me at the age of 18. This kid is coddled…needs a swift kick in the ass, honestly.
Forgot to add…this is happening in HER HOUSE!!!
He’s absolutely insufferable. In the show, in these comments, and on Reddit.