Treatment Centers

Americans have an undying fascination with the train wrecks that celebrities often create of their lives. The more privileged or successful the celebrity, the more we seem drawn to stories of their downfall. The public seems particularly intrigued if not obsessed with the foibles of young female celebrities; once the lurid details of their crumbling lives become known they become endless fodder for blogs, magazines, and entertainment television shows. This fascination began long before reality TV – think Marilyn Monroe and the persistent legends surround her life and tragic death due to overdose.

It is only natural that given this fascination, someone would come up with reality TV concepts to showcase celebrity addiction in all its lurid detail. The question is, do shows like Celebrity Rehab help people understand the seriousness of addiction or do they create a circus-like atmosphere that undermines the movement toward a more compassionate attitude toward those who suffer from this life-threatening disorder?

Addiction treatment is a serious affair. Those who make the decision to leave their families, their job, and their lives to spend 30 days among strangers are people who know that they are spiraling toward the ultimate consequence for drug or alcohol abuse: death. Their lives are often ravaged: addiction takes a physical, mental, and emotional toll on the addict. Families are often fed up; children want a real parent; wives want a functioning husband; parents want to find hope that their child is not destined for destruction.

Celebrity addiction is often treated more as a side-show oddity. Some are smug or even gleeful about the fall from grace. You will hear comments about them being spoiled, too pampered, or ungrateful for their success. Immediately, the focus is off the compulsive nature of addiction – the fact that the addict will do anything and lose everything to change how they feel – and on to a moral paradigm of addiction. The very fact that people with the ultimate American ideal of success would throw it all away for another drink or drug should instead make clear how powerful and relentless the disease of addiction is.

Reality shows seem to be here to stay, and it was inevitable that someone would produce shows like Celebrity Rehab and Intervention. It’s important for the public to understand that these shows often present a distorted reality. When cameras are introduced they inevitably influence behaviors and outcomes. In the real world, millions of people struggle under the burden of addiction, and many of them never find their way to treatment. If the public sees addiction as an entertaining character defect of the rich and famous, there will be little community pressure to make treatment for the general population more accessible.

Another concern voiced by people in the addiction treatment field is that you are getting people to agree to appear on these shows when they are at their most vulnerable. Is someone who is intoxicated or drugged much of the day in a position to make an informed choice about appearing on a reality TV show? What if when sober and clean they regret a show where their short-comings and drunken ramblings are paraded before the public? Is it professionally responsible for doctors and other addiction professionals to agree to treat people on TV who are, for all intents and purposes, emotionally and psychologically handicapped by their addiction? Could these public airings of their problems undermine their chances of success in recovery? These are critical questions that must be addressed, particularly by doctors involved in these shows, if they are to stay true to their oath: First, Do No Harm.