Intervention Directory
Sylvia
Episode 244: Jackie R.
Season 19, Episode 2
Jackie R
Age: 45
Location: Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Addiction: Alcohol (white wine)
What’s Memorable: Ooof. I don’t know if it was the story or the people or the fact that so many of Jackie’s behaviors and justifications were uncomfortably familiar, but I found this episode to be really powerful. It reminded me a lot of Sylvia’s episode with the whole graduation event – watching her be totally committed to going and then slowly over the day getting drunker and drunker, convincing herself she’ll be fine and there’s nothing to worry about, having someone there watching her to make sure she doesn’t get too drunk to go. It’s painful watching people watch over an addict like that, there’s such a shared sense of dread and helplessness. The moment when Jackie asks for a drink during her intervention and immediately understands how bad that sounds and bursts into tears, I mean damn. I burst into tears right along with her. Jackie’s family was amazing and kudos to Sylvia for another job well done. I imagine she related to Jackie pretty strongly. She’s also just very good at this.
Official Synopsis: On the surface, Jackie had it all: a large tight knit family, a devoted husband, two beautiful sons, and a nursing career. But unbeknownst to anyone, Jackie found herself stuck in a loveless marriage. For 15 years she put on the happy face, but gradually began to drink and before she knew it, she was a full-blown alcoholic guzzling up to a gallon of wine a day. In 2015, her marriage dissolved, and after three wrecked cars and a DUI, she lost her RN license. Her bottom should have been a near fatal OD in Feb. 2017, but Jackie continues to drink, and her family and sons are helpless to save her.
Date Aired: June 2018
Interventionist: Sylvia
Episode 227: Joshua B.
Season 17, Episode 3
Joshua B.
Age: 34
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina
Addiction: Hand Sanitizer
What’s Memorable: None of the people in this episode are in denial. Not Josh, not his family, not his ex-wife. They all know exactly what’s up, they know Josh is killing himself, and they’re willing to do what needs to be done to save him. Josh, despite his threats to throw himself off a bridge if this is an intervention, calmly accepts that if all these people are willing to do this for him, they must care. That’s what he didn’t know before, and that is what so much of Intervention is about. The fact that these important people in your life are willing to do something so freaking dramatic because they’re THAT worried about you, because they care THAT much, it’s got to be a huge wake up call. Joshua, you seem smart, resilient and kind and you’ve got a lot of people rooting for you. You can absolutely do this.
Official Synopsis: By the age of 21, Joshua had the world in his hands. A six-figure salary managing a dozen convenient stores, marriage, and owner of his own home, Joshua was a great provider for his wife and her children. But a back surgery in 2010 led to a severe addiction to pain pills that morphed into an extraordinary addiction to hand sanitizer that has cost him everything. Now, his family is petrified that without help, Joshua’s his addiction will blind him, cause a massive stroke, or death by organ failure.
Date Aired: August 2017
Interventionist: Sylvia
Episode 222: Sturgill
Season 16, Episode 6
Sturgill
Age: 23
Location: Sissonville, West Virginia
Addiction: Methadone, Alcohol, Benzos
What’s Memorable: I’ve watched every episode of Intervention, many of them multiple times, and after 16 seasons in 12 years, it’s become more and more difficult for me to get emotional. Maybe it’s because I know the show’s formula so well and I’ve seen all the possible endings – from successful treatment to relapse to death – that it’s hard to surprise me. I don’t even try to guess anymore if an addict is going to be successful or even survive. You just never know until you get to that final black screen. But it bothers me that it doesn’t make me cry so much anymore. I mean this is sad, heavy stuff and I used to cry at every pretty much every episode, now it’s 1 or maybe 2 per season that does it to me. Anyway, this was apparently that episode. I can’t say what it was exactly that cause me to cry like a little baby at the end. Maybe because Sturgill was such a good and warm-hearted guy. Maybe it was how much he and his family cried in pain and in joy, or how hopeful but honest Sturgill was after getting sober. Maybe it was that he wanted to get into Drug & Alcohol counseling to help other people because that’s just the kind of person he is. Maybe it’s just my own issues with addiction being triggered by his story. I don’t know, but this was an excellent episode of Intervention and it gets placed in the Most Likeable Addicts and Most Uplifting episodes. Because that’s how I felt when it was over. Uplifted. Hopeful. Happy. Like Sturgill.
Legacy Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX5zvExzSCk
Official Synopsis: Sturgill was a promising young golden gloves boxer and wrestler who dreamed of the Olympics. He was also an academically gifted pre-med student. But a broken arm and multiple surgeries led to a pain pill addiction, which soon turned to heroin. Now, Sturgill’s drug habit includes a dangerous combination of Methadone, benzos and alcohol. His family fears that he’s on the verge of mixing that one fatal dose. Sylvia Parsons is Sturgill’s Interventionist.
Date Aired: Dec 2016
Interventionist: Sylvia
Episode 220: Tiffany
Season 16, Episode 4
Tiffany
Age: 32
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Addiction: Heroin
Official Synopsis: Tiffany had the talent to be a successful graphic designer, but severe complications from the birth of her first child led to an addiction to prescribed pain pills. Then post-partum depression after her second and third pregnancies, resulted in an opiate addiction. After her husband took their three kids and filed for divorce, Tiffany became a full time heroin addict. Today, she has a new husband and baby, but her addiction is threatening to end the marriage, and if she doesn’t get help–her life.
Date Aired: Dec 2016
Interventionist: Sylvia
Episode 209: Karissa
Season 15, Episode 6
Karissa
Age: 28
Location: Central Square, New York
Addiction: Heroin
UPDATE: Karissa Hilts was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Florida on March 8, 2017. By all accounts she was sober at the time. Here is her obituary.
What’s Memorable: Despite her intimidating and manipulative behavior, Karissa is still somehow very likable. It’s not a mystery why she became an addict given her childhood traumas, but it’s clear that if she wasn’t addicted she would be such a cool person to be around. Also: That family diner has such personality, but it was disturbing to me what the non-family employees had to deal with everyday. I mean that’s a borderline abusive working environment, having to be witness to all that and pretend to not be affected. The idea that Karissa thinks she’s a ‘functional junkie’ because she gets up in the morning to go to work shows how deluded she is about what “functional’ means. Leaving work to go lie to the doctor in order to get Suboxone and immediately selling it for 10 bags of heroin and then needing people to stay up watching you all night with an overdose kit at hand because they’re afraid you’ve taken too many benzos with your heroin and you might die – that is not functional. I’m so glad Karissa made it and as of February 2016 is still sober. She deserves such a better life.
Official Synopsis: Karissa was always a talented cook – so much so, that her mother had one day hoped to pass the family diner down to her as a legacy. But Karissa’s life took a drastic turn when a close family friend fed her Oxycodone, and then ultimately made her a drug courier. From there Karissa was lost. Now, years of self-abuse, self-medication, and a severe addiction to heroin have left her volatile and desperate. Her family fears that if she does not heal from her violent past and the childhood she lost, she will never have the future she deserves.
Date Aired: April 2016
Interventionist: Sylvia (who rocked this one)
Episode 201: Erin
Season 14, Episode 12
Erin
Age: 36
Location: Bradenton, Florida
Addiction: Dilaudid
Legacy Update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWOsE98v38
Official Synopsis: Erin spent her teens and 20’s as an A-list rock-n-roll groupie, but a prescription to relieve neck pain got her hooked on Dialudid. Now her mother raises her 5 year old son while Erin prostitutes herself to maintain her habit. Her family calls on Sylvia Parsons, who was intervened on by Jeff VanVonderen in 2006, and who became the first subject of Intervention to ever make the transition to interventionist.
Original Air Date: August 2015
Interventionist: Sylvia
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