List of Intervention episodes

After a promising education and early success, a series of bad business associates led him to seek refuge in the casinos, where he soon became a problem gambler and lost large amounts of money.

Vanessa, who was a recurring character on the long-running medical drama ER, is addicted to shopping. She is heading towards bankruptcy.

Alissa's parents and friends try to save her from her gambling addiction. She has lost over $30,000 on 25-cent slots. Her boyfriend has three jobs and makes all of the money, while Alissa gambles it away.

Brian has a bad crystal meth habit. He is also a sex addict. Brian roams around the streets to find new partners every night.

Epilogue: Alissa refused to go to treatment. She and her boyfriend later broke up. She married a new man in 2006. She says she continues to gamble, but hardly does it anymore.

She had everything she ever wanted out of life, including a wonderful husband and family. In fact, she almost had a perfect life until it all ended in divorce. Not knowing how to handle the divorce, she turned to crystal meth. Sara is now a junkie and has lost everything in her life, including her daughter. She lives at home with her parents and continues using drugs. Her family hopes she will get help to get her life back.

Former rock star Travis now spends his days in a meth-filled haze, an addiction that has cost him nearly everything.

Matt is addicted to crack-cocaine. He steals from his family and friends so he can buy drugs.

Epilogue: Travis immediately walked out of the intervention, but later decided to accept the offer of treatment. After completing his program, he moved to Utah and began traveling and playing music. He suffered a brief relapse, but regained sobriety in September 2005 and maintained it until September 2007, when he had another relapse; he has since stayed sober.

Peter is addicted to video games. He refers to himself as characters that are in the games he plays.

Renee has an eating disorder and is dependent on water pills to keep her thin. Her health and her family are all feeling the effects of Renee's eating disorder.

Epilogue: Peter completed 40 days of treatment and returned home. He says he has learned to communicate better with his family. However, he still plays video games.

Tina is a mother of three and a true desperate housewife. She spends all of her time gambling with her car and house payments while high on prescription pills. Tina is at a crisis stage with almost all of her jewelry pawned and getting paycheck advances at any chance. Now she spends all of her days at race tracks and bingo halls. Her husband Harley has contacted Intervention as a last resort.

Cristine, a wife and mother with an abusive and dark past, is an alcoholic who drinks about 18 beers a day. Just three years ago, Cristine was top saleswoman at her LA-based newspaper; now, since her return to work after having her first child, the alcohol has damaged her career so much that she has yet to collect any commissions from her ad sales. Her husband is a stay-at-home dad, but their "home" is Cristine's mother's living room floor due to Cristine's business problems. Now Cristine's health is failing – she often works 4 hours or less a day due to stomach problems caused by her drinking – and the family feels an intervention is the only thing that can save her from herself, but Cristine wants no part of rehab after a disastrous stint two years ago.

Kelly is an anorexic real estate agent and club DJ in Florida who weighs only 93 pounds and who often consumes less than 5% of her body's caloric needs for the day. She has a 6-year-old daughter who is following in her mother's footsteps, imitating Kelly's disdain of food by refusing to eat her breakfast and leaving her lunch tray full of food. Kelly's boyfriend wants to come live with her in Florida but knows he cannot save Kelly by himself and needs outside help. Everyone who loves Kelly is not only trying to save her, but also her daughter.

Epilogue: Kelly gained 15 pounds since the intervention. She and Jason moved in together. She no longer goes to therapy.

Kelly is living on the streets and is an alcoholic. Even though he has a genius-level IQ, he cannot seem to stop himself from living off others.

Mark has been addicted to painkillers ever since he had a morphine pump surgically implanted because of illness.

Epilogue: Kelly walked out of the intervention, but agreed to go to treatment on the condition that he could pick up his dog first. He transferred to another program after 20 days and spent a total of 60 days in treatment, but immediately purchased and drank beer upon leaving, saying that he never wanted to get sober. Five months later, he and his girlfriend had broken up and he had lost his dog again.

Rachel, who was once a gorgeous child, now spends all of her time getting high on heroin and engaging in prostitution.

Tommy is a cocaine abuser who has lost everything, including his job, to support his habit.

Epilogue: Tommy moved to the east coast and works as a finance manager. He has been sober since September 30, 2004.

Michael has a serious anger problem. He has a history of violent behavior and has been known to punch holes into the walls of his father's house.

Michael is a school athlete, yell leader, and is now addicted to pills and alcohol after emotional pain from his high school days. He is now facing jail time after parole violations.

Corinne is a pretty 18-year-old who was an honor roll student, star athlete and played the clarinet and saxophone. She started using drugs at 14 after being sexually abused by a neighborhood boy who babysat her. Still striving to move forward while battling her addictions, she completed her GED and began college, finishing two semesters before dropping out. Now, Corinne has become addicted to a deadly combination of heroin and crystal meth. Corinne is also a diabetic who requires insulin, but she often skips her doses because she is so high. After repeated trips to the emergency room, her family is expecting to hear that they've lost her for good.

Epilogue: Corrine was kicked out of the first treatment center for getting drunk on the grounds. She transferred to another treatment center, in which she left early.

Audrey, 24, was popular and artistic. Now, she is a heroin addict living on the streets. She has been an addict for 5 years and her family feels like the next time they will see her is in a coffin. Her family plans an intervention to save her, if they can.

Adam, who began using heroin after his girlfriend broke up with him, panhandles money at gas stations to get enough money to score. His family is "hanging on by a thread" and desperate for intervention help.

Michael is a violent son who holds his family hostage with his rage. Truly in crisis, his family will do anything to stop living in terror.

Heidi leads a busy social life and takes great pride in maintaining her health and personal appearance. Unfortunately, she is addicted to plastic surgery (over $40,000 worth of procedures in just a few years) and compulsive shopping (leading to a $110,000 credit card debt). Heidi has stolen her mother's identity and used it to procure more charge cards to feed her shopping addiction and now collection agencies are threatening to file charges of felony fraud for both the identity theft and the massive credit card debt Heidi rang up, which stresses her elderly mother to no end.

Suffering the loss of her father and sexual molestation at the hand of her cousin at a young age, once bright student Michelle turned to drug use. Michelle has admitted to trading sex for drugs and uses methamphetamine intravenously. Her mother is afraid that at any moment Michelle will shoot up for the last time, but a more immediate threat emerges when rivals of Michelle's meth dealer boyfriend come after Michelle and her family now that her boyfriend is in jail. Tara Fields and Candy Finnigan are brought in to help free these women from their imprisoning addictions.

For the past eleven years Salina has been suffering from severe bulimia. She also struggles with a shopping addiction and recently began battling a new urge, self-mutilation.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Troy had a promising future until his recreational crystal methamphetamine usage escalated into a full-blown addiction. While high Troy reports to having had "hundreds of homosexual encounters." Now homeless and unemployed, he sells methamphetamine and claims that injecting crystal meth helps him stay alert and survive on the streets.

Kristen is an alcoholic and heroin addict who prostitutes herself for her drug and alcohol money. Her addictions and behavior has cost her custody of her child. Her family hopes that an intervention will help reunite Kristen and her child.

Following up on alcoholic Cristine, drug-addicted brothers Brooks and Ian and junkie Audrey at various stages in their recoveries.

Cristine is no longer drinking but her husband didn't go for the suggested counseling and his lack of commitment is damaging their relationship.

Brooks and Ian have both struggled through rehab issues – Brooks has been through three rehab centers and relapsed repeatedly but is now doing well at The Foundry in Birmingham, AL, while Ian is living with a former addict in Taos, NM. Brooks visits his brother in New Mexico, but when Brooks' counselor discovers crack residue on the kitchen table, he threatens to separate the brothers until Ian confesses that his roommate, the "former addict", is still using drugs and Ian hasn't spoken up because he didn't want to lose his apartment. Brooks and Ian return together to Birmingham and now have to learn to deal with their own addiction demons.

Antwahn managed to survive a rough and abusive childhood to become a star basketball player in the NBA and in the European leagues, until a knee injury ended his career; now Antwahn is a homeless crack addict whose wife is on the verge of filing for divorce unless Antwahn can get off drugs.

Billy seemed to be living the typical life of a suburban teen until his mother had a near-fatal heart attack and was diagnosed with severe heart disease. Billy turned to opiates to dull the emotional pain; after his family sent him to rehab, Billy returned addicted to yet another opiate, methadone, and now believes he is as addicted to "the needle" as he is to the drugs.

Amy is a free-spirited dancer and class clown who is now a homeless meth addict with a past history of self-mutilation. Annie is a ballet dancer who is anorexic and bulimic and is very close to death. Both have co-dependent partners in their addictive behaviors (Amy's boyfriend Tom; Annie's fellow dancer Selena). Success in their interventions depends heavily on whether or not their partner addicts will also agree to get help.

Chuckie, the son of Three Dog Night vocalist Chuck Negron, was born addicted to heroin when Chuck Sr. and his wife Julia Densmore Negron were both heavy drug users. At 18, Chuckie became addicted to heroin again; he now lives in a motel room, spending his days mooching money from his mother and shooting up. With the birth of Chuckie's son, Noah, to his now-clean former girlfriend Jen, the family is in a race to break the cycle of addiction before it costs the family yet another generation.

Gina is bright, fun-loving and ambitious, but she's losing a difficult battle with drugs and compulsive gambling.

Andrea is a 30-year-old, divorced, single mother addicted to alcohol, cocaine and marijuana. She says that she loves the party lifestyle and that she can't end the cycle of drinking and drugs in which she's immersed herself. Andrea's drinking is also putting her son Matthew in danger, as she has driven under the influence with her son in her car.

At 33, all John can see is the loss in his life. His mother died when he was 12. This year, he lost his sister, his cousin and his best friend. His only escape from it all is in his addiction to crack and alcohol, an addiction that has already come close to taking his life. His family and friends cannot imagine losing someone else. Their only hope is an intervention and the possibility that John will seek treatment.

We revisit with two of our subjects to see how they've been doing since we first profiled them. Antwahn's family staged an intervention to save him from cocaine and he went to treatment. But unfortunately, we learn that his story does not end there.

Tammi has five sisters who are all driven, successful career women and survivors of everything from the corporate rat race to breast cancer, but Tammi is an alcoholic facing jail terms for several DUI violations.

Daniel was born into a family of traveling evangelists who seemed to have everything until Daniel's father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and a long-time family friend took care of Daniel and his sister...and molested Daniel, who turned to drugs, including meth, to deal with his anger and his self-loathing.

Mike is a chiropractor from Modesto, California who loves adrenaline rush sports like snowboarding, jet ski riding and other forms of living "the high life"...which also includes a hardcore addiction to smoking heroin and cocaine together, a combination known as a "speedball". Now Mike has lost his wife, kids, apartment, car and tens of thousands of dollars to his drug addiction.

James was an outstanding student and ROTC drill sergeant until his mother suffered a serious cardiovascular illness and he was forced to step up and be the man of the household while his father cared for his ailing mother; James cracked under the pressure and turned to meth to allow him to escape from his increasingly grim real life. Now James is an unemployed tweaker who got two girlfriends pregnant within weeks of one another and the pressures to be a father to his children drive him even further into a crystal meth haze as well as forcing his mother to pay child support for him.

Epilogue: After Mike left treatment he spent 3 days in jail for drunk driving and criminal mischief. He returned to his parents' house and began visiting his children regularly. Mike continues to drink but stopped using drugs.

Tim is an up and coming music producer who becomes addicted to crack cocaine. His girlfriend Madyson is lead singer in Tim's band and is just starting to break through in the local music scene, but Tim's crack abuse is threatening to derail her career. Interventionist Candy Finnigan has to persuade Madyson that the only way to help Tim is to force him to go to rehab.

At 40 years old, Betsy seems to have it all. She's beautiful with great friends and a gorgeous house. But Betsy is miserable and she drinks up to five bottles of chardonnay a day to mask the pain. The alcohol is starting to take its toll. She has been in detox several times this year. Betsy does not believe she has a problem with alcohol.

Cristy is a severe methamphetamine addict/alcoholic. She was once a fun-loving and outgoing child, but now her addiction has changed her into a person her family does not even recognize. Due to her addiction, Cristy lost her job and abandoned her career aspirations and she now finances her drug and alcohol use by working as a stripper. She has ruined her father's rental property and has such violent tendencies that many of her relatives fear her. Despite an outstanding warrant for her arrest on DUI charges, Cristy insists she'd rather go to jail than go through rehab.

A high-functioning 49-year-old, affluent, former interior designer and onetime actress. From North Carolina, Sylvia Parsons is twice-divorced and a habitual drunk driver. She lost her thriving business and custody of her four children, as her alcoholism worsened. Sylvia prefers mini-bar-sized bottles of vodka – which she calls "red tops" – that she hides in her purse and around the house. A lifelong perfectionist and overachiever who fears being alone, Sylvia's addiction is fueled by unresolved rage at her first husband, her mother and herself. Both Sylvia and her adult relatives are desperately trying to cope, but unsure of how.

Jessie is a sorority girl enrolled at Oregon State University who dreams of being a pediatrician. Jessie was a bright and sociable child who excelled in school and was in a gifted program. However, throughout childhood she experienced severe anxiety, panic attacks and night terrors. She learned that binging on sugary foods would lead to a rush of endorphins that calmed her anxiety. Concerned about gaining weight, she began purging after her binges, and developed bulimia. Because of her eating disorder, Jessie has been forced to drop out of school. Her parents have to lock their food cabinets and refrigerator when she comes over to visit them, and Jessie has turned to stripping to make enough money to pay for her food addiction.

Laurie was a well-respected prison death row psychologist until her affair with a co-worker became public knowledge. A stressful divorce, followed by injuries, illness and accidents led to her becoming addicted to tranquilizers and opiate painkillers; now Laurie has lost everything, including her children. Laurie almost seems oblivious to having lost custody of her children to her own parents, and refuses to give up her pills or seek any kind of help.

Epilogue: Jessie successfully completed treatment for bulimia, has returned to college at Oregon State and has not binged or purged since the intervention.

Lauren is a former Physical Education teacher who is now a major heroin addict. She lives at home with her mother and holds her family hostage, almost literally, with her volatile temper. Her best friend Déa has become her addiction partner and each woman fuels the others addictive tendencies. And to top everything off, her boyfriend Mike, a former cocaine addict, recently relapsed and was kicked out of his home the day before the intervention, giving Lauren yet another reason to refuse to change her behavior.

Epilogue: As a condition to get Lauren to agree to go to treatment, Mike, who had a desire to get back into recovery and wanted to be a role model for Lauren, was allowed to move in temporarily with Lauren's family. The show's producers offered to get Mike into treatment in a nearby facility in Pennsylvania; Mike eagerly accepted but had many issues during his second stint in rehab and his relationship with Lauren is strained. Lauren managed to get sober and worked for Oasis, a drug treatment center, in Anaheim, California until she relapsed in November 2007; she returned to recovery and was sober since January 2008. However, Lauren died of lung cancer in May 2016.

Ryan abuses OxyContin and other opiates. Ryan's mother was previously married to a cocaine addict; when that marriage ended, she married a man who became an alcoholic. Ryan has been through rehab in the past but always failed. His stepfather's drinking makes any attempt at gaining help for Ryan even more difficult because Ryan calls out the hypocrisy. Interventionist Ken Seeley tries to make sense of the tangled family dynamics to get everyone on board to help Ryan succeed this time. At the end of the episode, Ryan agrees to go to treatment, but is kicked out of one rehab center and runs away from the second episode.

Jacob is an alcoholic whose mother was a major drug dealer when he was a young man. Jacob, normally a calm and friendly guy, has a darker side that comes out when he drinks; he has been thrown out of multiple bars for fighting, including fighting with bouncers. Now living with his mother (who has recently returned after serving two years for drug dealing), Jacob and his mom are constantly butting heads, driving Jacob even further into the bottle. Jeff VanVonderen has to cut through the complicated tangle of multiple familial addictions and dysfunctional relationships to get Jacob to agree to accept help.

Kim is anorexic and bulimic, and also cuts herself. Kim's biological father was physically and emotionally abusive to the family, and Kim's early childhood was very traumatic. As a result, Kim suffered from severe separation anxiety, and clung to her mother for comfort. Kim's mother was overwhelmed with Kim's emotional demands and felt like her children needed a father figure, so she remarried when Kim was still a young child. Kim's relationships with her family and friends are strained—her mother enables her behavior, her stepfather openly disdains her "neediness" and attention-seeking behavior, she has lost her husband and her home. Kim's anxiety and eating disorder are destroying her, the negativity is now threatening to destroy everyone around her as well.

The youngest son in a gregarious Italian-American family in New Jersey, Anthony should have been following in his half-brothers' footsteps to open his own pizza parlor...but instead followed his heroin-abusing half-sisters' addictive lead, ending up with a serious addiction problem. Though he successfully completed rehab to get his heroin addiction under control, he still felt an overwhelming desire to inject something into his system, leading to an ever-worsening addiction to shooting cocaine. Anthony has robbed his brothers' businesses, stolen from his parents and committed a number of serious criminal offenses, all in the name of obtaining drugs.

Trent, 33, is a four-star chef who's served U.S. presidents and Hollywood stars. But as the child of alcoholics, Trent's formative years were marked with violence and abuse. He ultimately turned to drugs to cope and today he is homeless, sick, battling freezing temperatures and has an insatiable heroin and cocaine addiction. His friends and family fear he won't make it through the winter on the streets.

Dillon is a crystal meth addict living in a small town in Oklahoma. He is also a criminal whose violent tendencies – brought on by manic phases in a bipolar cycle and amplified by meth use – frighten his family, who admit that if he keeps going down this road, he will either end up dead from the meth or dead from the crimes. Dillon also refuses to stay in compliance with his bipolar medication, making even attempting to talk to Dillon about his increasingly out-of-control behavior nearly impossible. What starts out as a typical intervention with an uncooperative addict quickly spirals into a situation requiring police intervention to solve.

Jessica, 21, comes from a tight-knit family. Her father, mother, sister and grandfather all work at the family-owned gas station. But Jessica's not allowed to work there any more. Ever since Jessica became addicted to heroin at 17, her family cannot trust her. And even worse – her addiction is straining family relationships. Everyone wants to see her go to treatment. But just organizing the intervention is tearing them apart.

Laney, 36, is a hard-core alcoholic who grew up in a dysfunctional family where her mother's many husbands and boyfriends both physically and verbally abused her, in addition to being raped by an ex-boyfriend in her own home. Laney is a millionaire thanks to a divorce settlement from her husband, a dot-com exec whose stock options paid off handsomely, but she spends her days alone in a luxurious mansion with only her cat for a companion, drinking rum constantly and popping tranquilizers in a futile effort to numb the pain. She books limousines to take her everywhere, including long cross-country trips to visit relatives, claiming that she does not want to take her cat, Puddy-Tat Ashworth, on a commercial airliner. When Laney, during a hospital stay caused by a suicide attempt by drug overdose, overhears a doctor telling a nurse that her family is planning an intervention while she is still hospitalized, she checks out of the hospital against medical advice and rushes home before her family can stop her. When Candy Finnigan leads the family over to Laney's home the next morning to conduct an "ambush intervention", Laney locks herself in her mansion and calls the police to get "this group of really weird people who are trying to break into my house" off her property, leading to the most unorthodox intervention ever seen in the series.

Growing up, Ashley, 20, was always considered the wild child. While her younger sister was quick to follow the rules and be active in the church, Ashley tended to reject her parents' strong Christian values. The more her parents tried to guide her, the more she pulled away. By her teenage years, Ashley became a chronic runaway and drug addict and is convinced she's on her way to Hell for being a meth addict.

Not long ago Andrea, 31, decided to follow in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother and became a nurse. But all the while Andrea was hiding a dark secret – a growing crack addiction. Now she's lost her job and relies on several male friends to buy her drugs.

Growing up, Ricky seemed to be on a path to greatness. He was a straight-A student, a star athlete and named one of the three brightest students in school. He joined the Marines, where he served as a police officer. But what started as experimentation with drugs has turned into an out-of-control heroin addiction. Ricky's friends and family fear for the worst but hope an intervention will be his best chance for getting his life back.

Leslie is a suburban Oklahoma housewife with a severe alcohol addiction. Her addiction is so all-consuming that Leslie has resorted to drinking mouthwash for its alcohol content. She has been arrested multiple times and is facing jail time for several DUIs. Leslie's husband has filed for divorce from her in an effort to protect their children, but takes her back in as part of one last shot at an intervention.

Coley is a meth addict who was raised by his mother, who was a speed junkie for much of his childhood. Previous attempts at rehab seemed to have started Coley on the path back to sobriety until his mother was found dead in her home a year ago. Since then, Coley has been on a meth-snorting binge, endangering himself and others because of his occupation – a logger. However, Coley is preoccupied with finding burl—a potentially valuable cancerous type growth found on trees. Despite spending months collecting burl, Coley hasn't managed to sell any of it.

Caylee is a 23-year-old bulimic who is also addicted to "speedballs" (heroin and cocaine, smoked together). She has dropped down to 80 lbs. Caylee's mother, Christy, has been a major influence for her addictive behavior. Christy had a traumatic childhood (including physical abuse and rape) and has hidden bulimia from her family since she was much younger. Christy taught Caylee how to watch her weight and together they suffer from this very dangerous eating disorder. Unable to cope with Caylee's growing drug abuse and stealing money for drugs, Christy left her family and moved to Chicago, where her bulimia is becoming life-threatening. The family wants to help both of them, but they need to have Christy present at the intervention to confront Caylee. Then, the family plans to confront Christy, with treatment options for both of them.

An alcoholic with a terrible past full of failed marriages and abuse, Pam drinks to cope with her past and cannot move beyond her pain, which is damaging her relationship with her loving boyfriend Marvin. Pam's mother is in serious denial about the abuse her children suffered and even claims Pam makes up these stories to keep Mother from "being happy"; Pam's siblings – all of whom have had addiction problems – sympathize with her anger at their mother, but all have urged her to let go of the pain so that she can stand a chance at having a good life. Cirrhosis has already claimed one member of her family. Her family does not want Pam to be the second victim and urge her through an intervention to agree to treatment.

Jill was a beautiful teen well on her way to a successful dance career but was betrayed by a boyfriend who distributed copies of a tape that depicted them having sex. Now, Jill is depressed and hurt, using alcohol to numb her pain. Further complicating the issue is the divorce between Jill's parents left all of their children hurt and adrift and Jill's mother has serious problems with verbalizing expressions of love. Her family hopes an intervention will bring Jill out of her alcohol daze and help her deal with her pain.

Epilogue: Jill and her mother went to family therapy and are still working on their relationship. She stayed sober for nine months, then had a brief relapse; she has been sober since April 2008.

This twenty-six-year-old grew up struggling to meet her parents' high expectations, as well as constantly being overshadowed by her more outgoing identical twin, Tiffany. Despite winning many academic and athletic honors, Emily suffered from depression and low self-esteem. Her shameful feelings intensified when she was date-raped in college. She dieted in hopes of regaining control of her life, but now she weighs less than 90 pounds. Her family hopes an intervention will save her before she starves to death.

Dawn, a forty-nine-year-old former model, is now homeless and wanders around town using meth and suffering from the effects of meth psychosis.

Fabian is an amateur artist, musician and photographer who was once a rising star in the Los Angeles entertainment promotion scene, but his childhood growing up with a bipolar mother who once kept her miscarried fetuses in jars and boxes in closets, coupled with his girlfriend miscarrying Fabian's child, sends him down a meth and alcohol spiral toward oblivion.

A look at how two people have fared since their interventions. Ryan, an OxyContin addict, was in and out of treatment for months before dropping out entirely and hitting bottom as a homeless heroin addict on the streets of L.A. Now he's back in rehab at Oasis in Anaheim, California, a facility where he'd had previous clashes with the rehab director, under orders from a judge to stay in rehabilitation for one year or face a jail sentence for heroin possession and DUI conviction. Ryan, as in his earlier stints in rehab, openly refuses to conform to the facility's rules; the facility's director, speaking at a follow-up hearing after Ryan's first 60 days at Oasis, informs the judge of Ryan's continued rule-breaking and asks the judge to remind Ryan of the terms of the sentence. He will be kicked out of Oasis if he breaks one more rule or continues to defy the staff counselors and doctors. Ryan puts this to the test just six weeks later as he is kicked out of Oasis' Sober Living program for prank-calling his former girlfriend.

Brooke suffers from chronic pain and doctors have never been able to find a diagnosis. Her family thinks she takes too many prescription pain pills. Brooke was found unconscious and injured by the Intervention production crew after taking "an extra pill or two" to take the pain away. Her mother wants her to go to a Lyme Disease treatment center, but Brooke's regular doctors are adamant that she does not have Lyme Disease.

Epilogue: After the episode re-aired in April 2008 indicated that Brooke underwent treatment for Lyme disease and rheumatoid arthritis at a center for chronic pain management where doctors continued to adjust her medications to alleviate her chronic pain; however, Brooke admitted after viewing the episode that she was indeed addicted to pain pills. As of September 2008, she has undergone treatment for that addiction and had her knee replaced, resulting in improved mobility.

Jason is an alcoholic and cocaine abuser who makes all of his money selling drugs. His sister, Joy, is often his drinking partner and co-drug user whose partying ways cost her custody of her two-year-old son. They come from a large religious family that was torn apart by their mother coming out as a lesbian and then abandoning her entire family. Though the primary addict who needs an intervention is Jason, it becomes increasingly apparent that both Jason and Joy need professional help.

Josh is a talented young singer with an uncontrollable desire to eat; he weighs over 550 pounds.

Ben is a genius with an IQ of 170 and a debilitating addiction to DXM. Both addicts suffered at the hands of abusive fathers and father figures throughout their childhoods and both have serious issues with low self-esteem. Ben's blog can be found here

Epilogue: Josh recently provided his own video update on YouTube, in which he says that he has moved into a halfway house in Boca Raton, Florida. As of July 2008, he has lost 192 pounds; his father underwent treatment as well and has lost 50 pounds. An update episode later showed that Josh returned home for his brother's high school graduation 172 pounds lighter. He also came out as gay to his parents and ex-girlfriend as did his brother. As of October 2011 he has lost 260 pounds though his weight continues to fluctate, but he works on managing it.

Tressa is 32 and was an outstanding female athlete from Nebraska, the world women's shot put champion who would only have had to drop the shot in front of the throwing circle to qualify for the 2000 Summer Olympics, until she tested positive for cocaine the day before the 2000 Olympic Trials. Tressa was banned for 2 years from Olympic competition; her family then found out about her LGBT lifestyle and drug abuse, which caused severe strain in all of their relationships. Tressa has given up sports altogether and now uses crystal meth daily as her life spirals out of control. Her girlfriend has kicked Tressa out for stealing, leaving Tressa even more emotionally overwrought.

As a former clean-cut track star, John's life used to revolve around athletics. Now, after a leg injury ended his running career, John spends his time abusing his body with alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and hallucinogenic drugs. He believes he is living a charmed life as a successful and popular DJ when the reality is that he is losing his friends, his family and his chance at success in the music industry to an addiction that could result in permanent brain damage or death.

Brad grew up the eldest of three – and the only boy – in his family. His parents split when Brad was young and his mother attempted to parentally abduct his younger twin sisters, leaving Brad behind with his father; despite evidence to the contrary, Brad's mother insists she never intended to abandon her son. Brad's father won custody of all three children and married his children's former babysitter. Brad self-medicated as a teen with marijuana to deal with the emotions left by his abandonment and his anger at his stepmother's attempts to enforce discipline. At 18, Brad's father ordered him to either leave home forever or sign up for the military; Brad chose the Army and came out of Basic Training seemingly a changed person. After two tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom, however, Brad's tenuous hold on maturity and inner peace was shattered after Sgt. Deason, his commander, was killed on the last day of their second tours. Brad returned home suffering from serious PTSD. Unwilling to accept the drug and counseling therapy offered by the VA and unable to find a job because his Army skillset doesn't match current employer needs ("Nobody wants to hire someone whose only job skill is killing people," Brad's dad notes), Brad gets a job as a stock clerk at a liquor store, self-medicates to deal with his pain and is now drinking over a pint of vodka per day and smoking any weed he can get his hands on. Brad wants to return to the Army Reserves, but Brad's family wants him to get past his PTSD and anger issues first.

Having graduated high school with academic and athletic honors, Lawrence, 34, became a successful owner of a chain of tanning salons in Las Vegas in the early 1990s, but he was never able to dull the pain of emotional and physical abuse suffered in childhood at the hands of a brutal father figure. In his early twenties, Lawrence gained formal custody of his two younger siblings in an attempt to remove them from a home environment full of unhealthy abusive dynamics. However, Lawrence could never conquer his own demons brought out by the brutality and he began consuming GHB for both its muscle-building and mind-relaxing properties. When GHB was taken off the market, Lawrence looked for a substitute for GHB's calming effects and turned to alcohol. Addicted within weeks, the alcohol abuse left Lawrence a shell of his former self as he frequently consumed over a liter of vodka a day in large 32-ounce mugs. A recent battle with testicular cancer has left him further weakened; Lawrence had surgery to remove the cancer, but never underwent any follow-up treatment, despite his family's pleas to see an oncologist or a urologist to ensure the cancer has not returned. Lawrence's body is covered with deep purple bruises in random spots, a sign of low blood clotting factors indicating impending liver failure. Lawrence's denial of his deteriorating health and his accelerating drinking problem is so strong that at one point he openly denies having had anything to drink while holding a plastic mug full of straight vodka, in an apartment where the garbage cans are full of empty vodka bottles. Lawrence's loved ones bring in Jeff VanVonderen for an intervention in the hope that this show of love and support will help Lawrence get the help he needs and that by sharing his story he might help others.

After a troubled childhood that sent him to juvenile hall for felony arson, Chad's father introduced him to cycling at age 15. Chad went pro and cycled on the same team as Lance Armstrong. But after getting kicked off the team for "personality conflicts," Chad was crushed and turned to drugs. Now homeless, Chad spends his days panhandling, smoking crack, and drinking. His family's many efforts to get him off the streets have failed. Their last hope is an intervention.^[6]

To the outside world, the life of 40-year-old Dan may seem ideal. Dan is married to a supportive wife, Sarah and has a beautiful daughter, Ava. He loves music and works as a first mate for a snorkeling and whale-watching boat company on a stunning Hawaiian island. But everything is not what it seems: Dan is an alcoholic. An adolescence filled with physical violence and verbal abuse left Dan with deep emotional pain and the loss of his son Miles after only a few days of life only intensified the pain. Dan's family desperately hopes that an intervention will turn his life around.

She sits in her garage every day, popping painkillers, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and sleeping pills. Sandra's pill use is so bad that her two sons, 17 and 11, have left the house. Her best friend, Julie, moved in with her and although Julie suffers from multiple sclerosis, she takes care of all the housework. Julie and Sandra's husband, Dan, ration Sandra's pills so she doesn't overdose. They know they're enabling her, but they're afraid of what will happen if they stop. Sandra's family is ready to try an intervention, but they're not sure she'll ever choose her family over her addiction.

A talented motocross rider, Charles, 23, is still dealing with terrible childhood memories. When he was seven, his father went to jail for molesting him and his younger brother and his mother became an alcoholic. Today, he uses heroin and alcohol to blot out his memories, but he's pushed most of his family away. Now, his half-sister, Lindsey, is reuniting the family in one last attempt to help Charles with an intervention.

Epilogue: Charles was kicked out of his program for having syringes mailed to him, but transferred to another one in Florida. A November 2008 re-airing revealed that he subsequently moved into sober living, but relapsed after one month; now he lives back on the streets in California and is again using heroin. He was arrested for using his brother's identity and has been in jail since September 2009.

A Sophia Loren look-alike, Marie was born into an Italian mob family. When her parents' marriage ended, Marie and her mother struggled with extreme poverty. Marie's three marriages ended in divorce, but she was still determined to give her children what she didn't have growing up. Despite her own unhappy love life, she became a highly successful matchmaker and well-known socialite. She even appeared on shows like 60 Minutes. Then Marie met her fourth husband, Bora, an addict and alcoholic. Marie tried to clean him up, but developed her own addiction to alcohol. Bora's alcoholism killed him and now Marie is headed down the same road – fast. Marie's family knows an intervention is her last hope.

Growing up in a South Boston neighborhood run by the Irish mob, Tom got caught up in the gangster lifestyle. By his 20s, he was dealing drugs and running with the wise guys while holding down his day job as a fireman at the Boston Fire Department. Throughout it all, Tom remained a dedicated and loving father to his four children. Eventually, Tom's other life caught up with him after being indicted on drug charges. He lost everything – his house, his job and his family's respect.

Born into a mixed-race family in a predominantly white town, Asa struggled with low self-esteem and body image growing up. Classmates teased him because of his size, ethnicity and effeminate manner. Desperate to loss weight, Asa became bulimic. He came out as a gay man at 19 and started using hard drugs and drinking heavily. For the past 10 years, Asa has been working towards his college degree. Being a medical science student, he understands how his eating disorder and alcoholism are affecting him, but he's been unable to stop. His family now realizes that an intervention is their last chance to help Asa.

He was once a championship bodybuilder and successful property owner. But when he turned 30, Derek felt he was over the hill and became severely depressed. He started drinking to cope with the pressures of marriage and the responsibilities of getting older. His beautiful wife left and now Derek's days are all the same – he sits in his dark basement, smoking and drinking and bemoaning the loss of his wife. He narrowly survived one suicide attempt and his family is worried he'll try again. An intervention is their last hope.

She was a pre-med student on her way to becoming a surgeon, but the trauma of being molested as a child and her parents' brutal divorce haunted Allison. She started to inhale computer dust remover, which is potentially fatal with each breath. Her erratic behavior and absence from classes got Allison dropped from the pre-med program. Allison is currently inhaling up to ten cans of dust remover a day and also struggles with anorexia and self-mutilation.

A 44-year-old singer and songwriter, Phillip used music to escape the pain of an unstable childhood. He gained fame due to his charisma and musical talents, but Phillip now consumes up to four pints of peppermint schnapps a day. He lost his career, the love of his life and the respect of his family.

Mike, 67, was a police sergeant, avid outdoorsman and respected citizen. After he was injured while apprehending an addict, signs of Mike's obsessive-compulsive disorder started to emerge. His fear of germs caused him to wash his hands over 40 times a day. The problem forced him to retire early and his wife divorced him. He was able to keep his OCD under control for eight years, but a relapse caused him to think his food was spoiled and almost starve. Mike's children feel an intervention is their only hope of helping him.

Jenny, 32, is a talented hairstylist from a close-knit Mormon family. When a diagnosis of endometriosis crushes her dreams of having a family, she turns to prescription drugs. Her addiction quickly escalates to IV heroin and meth use.

Epilogue: Mike completed nearly three months of treatment, moved back to his apartment in Utah and began taking medication for his OCD. An April 2009 re-airing revealed that he recently stopped the medication due to financial difficulties. A subsequent re-airing in late 2011 revealed that Mike died in September 2011.

Three of the show's interventionists and five former addicts are featured guests on this episode, hosted by Christopher Lawford and recorded before a studio audience. Jeff Van Vonderen, Candy Finnigan and Ken Seeley discussed their respective motivations for entering the field, after which clips from the addicts' episodes were shown and the addicts themselves commented on their experiences during and after treatment.

The addicts, with their comments on sobriety as of the tape date:

*Sylvia — 2 years, 1 month
*Michelle — 3 years; has since given birth to a child.

• Hubert — 1 year, 7 months. Hubert's friend John, who figured prominently in the original episode, made contact with his daughter and has also received help; now he is living in Indiana.
• Dillon — said he was "sober today"; his mother Tammy was not sure that he was really recovering, since he had left his treatment program early and would not commit to returning to a 12-step program. Dillon asserted that 12-steps did not work for him – each time he went through one, he left treatment and immediately went on a meth binge – and that "relying on God" to keep him on the right path worked best for him. He declined an offer from Ken to enter a new program, saying that he wanted to find his own way to sobriety.
• Coley — 1 year, 3 months. His wife Francine and their children went through a treatment program for family members of addicts. The couple announced during the show that their 14th wedding anniversary fell on that day.

Jeff Van Vonderen disclosed that he had taken a leave of absence from Intervention in order to sort out personal issues associated with a relapse into his own past addiction.

Kristen is a 20-year-old who injects heroin and cocaine. She prostitutes herself on the streets of Baltimore to get high. She usually injects the drugs into the artery in her neck. During the intervention Kristen is very emotional, but agrees to treatment as she realizes she will die if she doesn't get help.

Ed, 53 and Bettina, 49, had a picture-perfect life, including three adoring kids, a dream home, sports cars, motorcycles and a respected place in their church community. But six years ago, Ed made a bad career move and ended up unemployed. He and Bettina lost everything they had worked for. They began to drink and quickly became alcoholics. Ed has been hospitalized for internal bleeding and Bettina for withdrawals so excruciating she thought she was dying. Their children have begged them to stop drinking, but it only strengthens the bond between Ed and Bettina.

Epilogue: Ed and Bettina completed their respective treatment programs and moved into sober living in Florida. He plans to find a job in sales, while she is now a house mother in a sober-living facility; they have been sober since June 2008.

At age 6, Janet was molested. She was also bullied by other kids, making her extremely self-conscious about her looks. At 18, she married a drug dealer who made her rich, but her husband was sent to prison, leaving her alone with two sons. She turned to drugs and alcohol and had multiple affairs. Her husband discovered one of her affairs and divorced her. Janet remarried and had two more children, but she missed her old luxurious lifestyle and began drinking heavily. Now she frequently passes out, threatens suicide and puts herself in life-threatening situations.

As a result of being sexually molested by her neighbor as a child, Nicole has developed dysphagia, a psychological inability to swallow. At mealtimes, she chews her food for the taste and then spits it out; her only nutrition comes from liquid supplements, taken through a feeding tube she has used for years. Her weight has fallen drastically and she abuses the medications prescribed by her doctors to help her deal with her past trauma. Nicole's family now fears for both her life and the welfare of her two daughters.

Brittany was born five years after the brutal rape and murder of her 9-year-old sister, Terry. Brittany struggled with the pressure to live up to her mother's perfect image of Terry. At 12, Brittany was molested and she began taking drugs and sneaking out at night – anything to get out from under Terry's shadow. Now she shoots up Dilaudid six times a day, begs family members for money and prostitutes herself. Brittany's mother scrambles to give Brittany enough money for her fix. Desperate and on the verge of bankruptcy, Brittany's family prepares for an intervention.

As a boy, John was diagnosed with ADHD and was shunned by his classmates for being different. When he developed diabetes, he took good care of himself at first, but later slipped into a depression and began failing to monitor his blood sugar, eating whatever he wanted and not taking proper doses of insulin. His behavior now has his entire family fearing for his life, especially his mother, whose own health is worsening under the stress.

Epilogue: After two months in treatment, John was asked to leave for failing to follow the plan laid down for him. He moved back home with his parents, where he began to look after himself properly and gained 35 pounds. He has kept his blood sugar under control since September 2008.

This episode revisits the cases of Tressa, whose drug habit ruined both her family relationships and her chances of qualifying for the 2000 Olympics and of Josh, a morbidly obese compulsive eater whose family worried about both his health and his father's.

Update: Tressa attempted to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials, but fell just short of the needed mark. She went home to Nebraska, her first visit since the intervention, to attend her mother's wedding. At the 2008 USA Track and Field Masters Championships, she won four gold medals.

Once a fantastically successful hairstylist, Casie now works in a small-town salon. She abuses numerous drugs, is bulimic and sometimes prostitutes herself. Her parent's divorce and her mother's cocaine addiction shattered Casie's childhood. This left Casie: with very low self-esteem; idolizing the father who abandoned her at age three (while blasting those who haven't with her anger over it); and, desperate for attention – yet convinced that no man will stay with her. Casie's mother now stubbornly enables her out of guilt and loyalty, even as this destroys the mother's second marriage. Casie's boyfriend John tries to keep her functioning, but he's an addict, too. John shows up late to the pre-intervention, claiming it was because Casie got strung out on drugs and was doing her chores, but the group suspects he was using too. Casie ends up agreeing to go to treatment and John reveals that they got engaged the night before the intervention.

From an early age, Anthony's father made him feel worthless. His parents divorced and his mother remarried, but she was still unhappy and turned to alcohol and drugs. It was little wonder, then, that Anthony began drinking at age 13. Another blow came when Anthony's younger brother died of leukemia. Anthony spiraled downward and now he drinks half a gallon of vodka a day and takes whatever drugs he can find. During the course of the intervention, Anthony goes on a binge so bad that he has to be hospitalized for five days and the doctors say that his liver can't process alcohol anymore and one more binge could kill him. While in the hospital, he decides to drink hand sanitizer as it has alcohol in it.

Lana grew up in a family of 11 children and her older sister introduced her to drinking at the age of seven. Despite this precarious start, Lana excelled in sports and was active in the church. But at 18, Lana began to enter into dangerous relationships with men and started abusing drugs and alcohol. She was in two near-fatal car accidents. And now, to make things even worse, she is in a relationship plagued by physical violence.

When Angelina was eight, her family grew apart over an argument about money. Her mother, Peggy, turned to prescription drugs and cocaine to deal with the stress. After graduating from high school, Angelina became her younger brother's legal guardian, but she was overwhelmed by the job of taking care of her brother and addict mother. Angelina became addicted to OxyContin and spent her trust fund of $350,000 on the drug. Then Angelina turned to cheaper drugs and heroin to support her habit.

Born into a family with traditional Catholic values, Chris struggled with his sexuality until coming out at 18. Now, at 34, Chris feels that being gay has cheated him out of the things he wants most – marriage, children and inclusion in his family. He drinks first thing in the morning to ward off tremors, he's abusive to his partner and he can't keep a job. His father believes Chris should be able to stop drinking by sheer force of will, but his mother believes that genetics is to blame for his alcoholism. Chris' family and partner convince him to go to treatment ultimately.

Nik, 35, was a successful college graduate and businessman who was adored by his entire family. He used to direct a profitable chain of casinos. But after suffering a back injury, Nik became addicted to the painkiller OxyContin and as his addiction progressed, he moved onto heroin. Now he is homeless, jobless and has lost custody of his son. His family hopes an intervention can help Nik.

Tiffany is a beautiful young woman who was once an excellent student and talented athlete. However, as a child, she was plagued by the pain of her parents' chaotic and violent marriage. Tiffany got married at a young age to escape her home life. However, her husband became controlling and abusive and Tiffany was forced to leave. Now Tiffany abuses alcohol to numb the pain of her troubled childhood and failed relationships. She frequently injures herself while drunk and has attempted suicide. Tiffany objects to the fact that her parents want her to stop drinking, but yet remain in denial of their own substance abuse problems.

Epilogue: Tiffany relapsed six months after treatment. She broke up with her boyfriend and moved into a sober-living facility. Tiffany's mother continues to drink. Tiffany has been sober since November 22, 2009.

Nik relapsed one month after treatment. His family continues to hold their bottom lines and his son is being raised by Nik's sister. Nik is living in Washington and continues to use heroin.^[8]

By her late 20's, Sandy had achieved the American Dream. She was married with four beautiful daughters and owned a home she and her husband built themselves. But today, Sandy's life is unrecognizable from what it once was. Her days consist of combining prescription drugs with a pint of vodka and relying on her daughters to monitor both her diabetes and drinking. Her speech is slurred and she's been hospitalized several times. Her family has only one option left – an intervention.

Sharon is a compulsive shopper who has undergone numerous plastic surgeries to feel better about her appearance. She also feels she must hit herself. She has bruises on her thighs and stomach and repeatedly hits her head with a hairbrush.

When he was three, Gabe's mother abandoned him on the streets of Calcutta, but he was adopted by a young American couple. Gabe seemed happy in America, but he secretly felt like an outsider. In high school he started to rebel and resent his conservative Christian upbringing. He began using marijuana and cocaine and later graduated to heroin. Then he squandered all of the $37,500 he received after a car accident to support his drug habit. Now the family fears that without an intervention, Gabe's addiction and depression will soon lead to his death.

Forty-year-old Jeff was once known as a heroic firefighter after he saved his partner's life. But Jeff was traumatized by the harrowing event and his drinking increased drastically. Jeff has received two DUI's and been rushed to the hospital numerous times for seizures. Jeff's alcoholism has also forced his son and wife to move out. Now his family's last hope is that an intervention will stop Jeff from drinking himself to death.

When he was five, Donald's parents divorced. He longed for a strong father figure, but his father had very little contact with him. Donald became a gifted boxer, but ultimately chose drugs over his career. He joined a violent gang and turned to stealing to support his crack habit. Donald's girlfriend just had a baby and Donald has a second chance to be a good father, but his crack use is spiraling out of control.

Jason grew up in a seemingly perfect upper-middle-class family in Littleton, Colorado, but he struggled to gain his father's approval. When Jason failed to make the baseball team his freshman year, Jason and his father were devastated. Jason began rollerblading and excelled, but he quit because his father disapproved of the sport. Jason turned to drugs and by his senior year he was an addict. A year later, the Columbine High School shooters named Jason one of the bullies they retaliated against. Overcome with guilt and grief for his dead classmates (he felt that it was his fault that the massacre happened), Jason's addiction escalated. Now Jason lives on the streets of Denver and his family is in pieces.

When she was young, Nikki's mother and grandmother worked hard to give her a good life. Nikki excelled in school, but she was devastated when her grandmother died. She began hanging out with a rebellious crowd, skipping school and using crack. Nikki eventually had two daughters, but has remained addicted to drugs. Her daughters desperately want to have a relationship with Nikki and know that an intervention is their only hope of saving their mother's life.

Forty-two-year-old Bret grew up as a "golden boy", playing sports. He married his high school sweetheart, Amaya and they had two children, Kelsey and Kyle. Bret was a real estate agent. He and Amaya divorced after he began drinking heavily. He had an intervention before; this time, he strongly resisted and angrily left and walked back to his house. His family broke into his condo to take his shotgun after worrying he may use it on himself. He agreed to treatment after his family threatened to make him take a psychiatric evaluation. Bret went to the Hope by the Sea treatment center in California. Eighty days into treatment, Bret was diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer. He died three weeks later on June 19, 2009. He was sober for 104 days.

As a boy, Aaron Brink was subjected to his parents' divorce and custody battle. He lived with his father while his 2 brothers lived with their mother. Aaron began rebelling in his teens, experimenting with alcohol and other drugs and spending time in juvenile prison. In his 20s he began a successful career as a mixed martial arts fighter and also worked as a porn star. He was introduced to crystal meth through the porn industry and addiction quickly took over his life. His wife and family are at their wit's end and hope Aaron will accept treatment to save his life.

Danielle lives in Vancouver, BC, with her two children and husband Rod. As a child, she and her two sisters struggled with her father's drinking and subsequent neglect by him. Now an adult, she is addicted to Percocet, taking up to 40 pills in 1 day. She gets the pills from her mother's prescription and stole one of her sister's identities in order to get more.

The episode features Chad Gerlach, clean nearly a year, in training for his first competitive cycling race (in Italy) since undergoing treatment. He has signed on with a cycling team consisting of and sponsored by recovering addicts. His relationship with his girlfriend, pregnant with their first child, is also featured. Sobriety and impending fatherhood have caused Chad to mature significantly as a person. Chad performs poorly in the race, but has recovered and matured enough to realize it's just an early step in his road to recovery.

As a boy, Joey was subjected to his parents' divorce and subsequent remarriages. Both parents were focused primarily on their new marriages and starting new families and often neglected Joey's emotional needs. Joey entered his teens feeling rejected and abandoned by his parents, and began experimenting with marijuana and other drugs. At 19, he broke into his mother's house and stole her credit cards to finance his burgeoning heroin habit. His mother pressed charges and Joey spent a year in prison. Upon his release he entered treatment, began a successful career as a tattoo artist, met his girlfriend (also in recovery) and fathered a little girl (Lyla). Fatherhood proved to be too much pressure on Joey, however, and he relapsed. Now, Joey is seriously addicted to heroin, spends over $200 per day on the drug, and is in danger of losing his family, his home and his life to his addiction. Joey's family hopes an intervention can help him accept treatment, repair his relationships with his family and become a better father to his young daughter.

Sebastian, 22 and Marcel, 20, brothers and the sons of Chilean immigrants, grew up overindulged, inadequately supervised and spoiled rotten in Palm Springs, California. As a result of the irresponsible and negligent parenting they received, Sebastian started experimenting with alcohol, drugs and sex before he even reached puberty. Once Marcel started to witness his older brother's self-indulgent behavior he quickly followed in his footsteps. By age 17 Sebastian had become addicted to cocaine and crystal meth and was sent to treatment in Chile for 6 months. Marcel remained at home and continued to use. Upon his return from Chile, Sebastian got caught up in Marcel's lifestyle, quickly relapsed and eventually started to use heroin. Both brothers still live with their parents, smoke up to $600 worth of black tar heroin a day and are involved in trafficking to finance their addiction. Sebastian and Marcel's parents are held hostage by their sons' addiction and criminal behavior, are in severe denial, think their sons are perfect and can do no wrong and think themselves powerless to stop their sons' self-destructive behavior.

Gloria, 53, is an attractive African-American caterer living outside San Francisco who has been an alcoholic for 30 years. She drinks because, in her words, "African Americans don't have it very good in this country and that's just what we do." She has survived giving birth to a stillborn baby, domestic violence and breast cancer and sees herself as a passive victim in life instead of an active participant. She puts on a front of being a "functional" alcoholic, but 30 years of alcoholism has left her anything but. Her drinking has left her in debt and has prevented her from having any sort of meaningful relationship with her two adult daughters whom she basically abandoned when they were very young. Gloria's daughters hope that an intervention will give them the sober, loving mom they never had.

Marci, 36, grew up in Chico, California in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and a mother in denial who tried to cover up the family's secrets in order to impress outsiders. Marci began drinking and experimenting with drugs in her late teens and early 20s. She stopped using after her 2 children were born, but being trapped in an unhappy marriage with 2 young children proved too much stress and drove her back to the bottle. After her divorce, in which her ex-husband was awarded custody of the children, Marci began using methamphetamine. Three years later, Marci smokes, snorts, or injects meth multiple times a day and is showing signs of drug-induced psychosis. She has no job and no home of her own. She has minimal contact with her children, and a heavily strained relationship with her family, including her mother and her brother (who is seriously ill with a heart condition). Marci's family hope an intervention will help Marci give up drugs, re-establish ties with her children, and restore her relationship with her family.

After graduating from college, Linda found success working as an extra in Hollywood, achieving the glamorous life she always wanted. But her dreams died when she allegedly developed Ehlers–Danlos syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by joint dislocations. Linda started taking Fentanyl, a painkiller 100 times stronger than morphine. As her painkiller use escalated, she claimed that different sources were causing her pain, including electricity, energy, colors, and even specific people. Despite Linda's wild claims, her mother clings to the belief that Linda's pain is real and she must do everything to help her, including depleting the family's savings and sending her son to be Linda's caretaker. Linda's entire family is now held hostage by her manipulative, narcissistic and addictive behaviour. During the intervention she claims one of her brothers causes her pain and makes him leave, but ultimately runs from the room and building screaming until her family corners her in the parking lot where she finally calms down. Linda doesn't take her father's letter cutting her off if she refuses help seriously as she knows her mother will still support her, claiming to have dislocated her hips and that if she goes into a facility all her "progress" will be undone. As her mother still supports her despite Linda's blatant lies (she freely walks around during the intervention and ran away) the mother is removed from the scene. Unable to manipulate her mother further, Linda finally agrees to treatment and her mother apologizes to her son for forcing him to deal with her like that for eight years.

Greg once owned a thriving business and was a devoted husband and father. But after a back injury left him disabled, he lost his business, started gambling, and became dependent on pain medication. He also became obsessed with Internet sweepstakes, and other 419 scams. As a result of these cons, and his habitual sending of funds overseas, he has bankrupted his family in a relentless pursuit of big winnings. Having lost everything, Greg's family just want their proud father back. The family believes he may be bipolar too. During the intervention, Greg is shocked, but admits he has a problem and even supports his family in reading their letters. He immediately agrees and heads off to the recovery center. During the drive to the airport, Greg tells Jeff that he's looking forward to this chance to get his life back and had started to think he was better off in prison. At the rehab center, Greg is eager to start his treatment and the doctors believe that his pain was under-managed since his injury and if it had been better managed before, he wouldn't have had so much pain so part of their goals is to help him manage his pain better so its tolerable to him.

Once an effervescent, beautiful young woman, Jennifer was considered a genius by her teachers and was the pride and joy of her parents. But at age 17, Jennifer was involved in a car accident that caused a brain injury and kidney damage. Jennifer survived, but only three days after she left the hospital another family car accident ended in a fatality. Jennifer turned to drugs and alcohol to cope and now spends her days searching for parties or drinking companions. Her parents know that only an intervention can save her.

Amy grew up feeling unloved and unable to meet her parents' high expectations. She was also molested by a neighbor when she was eight, but never told anyone in her family. She began to self-mutilate and restrict her diet, and by 17, she was diagnosed with anorexia and bipolar disorder. Now, Amy eats only 500 calories a day, drinks up to two bottles of vodka a night, and regularly self-harms by burning herself with cigarettes and cutting. She has become a victim of date rape, has stolen money from her parents, and has attempted suicide multiple times. She currently has a roommate who is also alcoholic, and the two feed into each other's addictions. Family members are worried about Amy's young daughter and are ready to give up on Amy, but they still don't know about her childhood sexual abuse. Only Amy's friend, Jessica, knows the truth.

Raped when she was 14 and feeling abandoned by her family, Sarah turned to drugs, even becoming a stripper to support her drug habit. She's prohibited by the courts from seeing her three-year-old son, and now lives with a man who is more than twice her age and manages a massage parlor.

Once known as "the prettiest girl in town", Jackie had a promising career as a radiation therapist. She became a wealthy doctor's wife, a country club member, and a proud mother. But Jackie was haunted by childhood traumas. She was devastated when her father died when she was 13. And as an overweight adolescent, she was teased with the nickname "Fat Jack" and felt she was never as good as her pretty sister. After Jackie's second pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, she turned to alcohol. She's had three failed stints in rehab, an ugly divorce, and lost custody of her daughter to her sister. Today, Jackie drinks two bottles of wine a day and regularly suffers broken bones and bruises in her drunken state.

Vinnie, 28, a talented mechanic and once a promising BMX competitor, has been addicted to crack cocaine since the age of 19, smoking it up to 8 times a day. He suffered through childhood constantly seeking approval from his abusive father and never receiving it. At 14 his parents divorced and he was sent to live with his abusive father. By 19 he was a high-school dropout abusing alcohol and crack. Now at 28 Vinnie is living at his mother's house after a four-month stint of homelessness. He hasn't been able to hold down a job for more than 4 months and has turned to auto theft and borrowing money from his mother to finance his addiction. He's managed to alienate himself from his parents, brother, sister and 3 girlfriends, and now has only his dog for companionship.

Robby, a 30 year-old music prodigy from New Jersey, was once a successful hip hop and R&B musician, who wrote, produced for and performed with such famous acts as Will Smith and Jay-Z. Robby was a member of the Grammy-nominated R & B group City High. Robby's success, however, allowed him to get caught up in the rock n' roll lifestyle and he began drinking heavily and using drugs to mask the pain of his parents' divorce and humiliation of his career downfall. Robby managed to drink his entire fortune away and is now living with his mother, virtually bankrupt, drinking up to a fifth of vodka and a case of malt liquor per day, and estranged from his girlfriend and their daughter, Lyric. Robby's loved ones hope an intervention can give them back the talented, loving Robby they used to know and get his career and his life back on track.

Marquel, a 30-year-old Cuban-American fitness instructor from Miami, suffers from alcoholism and compulsive exercising and is in complete denial of her addictions. She lost her mother to breast cancer at 15 and to mask the pain and grief, exercises over 7 hours a day and spends her nights drinking heavily and partying in South Beach clubs, often leaving her two small children home alone. She left her ex-husband and a stable domestic life for the thrills of exercise, drinking and clubbing. Marquel's family is exasperated by her self-indulgent and self-destructive behavior and hoped an intervention would convince her to commit to putting her children and family first and enter treatment. Marquel, however, steadfastly denied she has any problems and, after a heated confrontation with her father and sisters, to date has refused to seek help.

Although she has a blood clot in her brain that makes drinking dangerous, Kristine is an alcoholic. But she doesn't believe her condition is a reason to quit because she recently learned that she may have leukemia. Now she figures she may as well keep drinking because the leukemia might kill her anyway.

Epilogue: Kristine's leukemia-like symptoms were found to be the result of her excessive drinking, not leukemia. After completing 90 days of treatment, Kristine returned home to her family. She had been sober since November 4, 2009.

A talented cellist and an aspiring music producer, Shane's musical aspirations are now out of reach because he abuses prescription drugs and deals drugs out of his grandmother's house. After injuring his neck in a car accident, he began abusing OxyContin and other pain medications. His father was a drug addict, too, who died from an overdose. Now Shane is following in his father's deadly footsteps.

Rocky Lockridge, once a world champion lightweight boxer, is now a homeless crack addict living on the streets of Camden, New Jersey. He began abusing cocaine whilst the champion, but switched to crack after his boxing career ended. His addiction has alienated him from his twin sons and his brother, and his only support left is from his best friend Joey, an aspiring boxer who provides him with food and money to finance his addiction. When short of cash, Rocky panhandles to finance his $75/day habit. In spite of Rocky's long-term crack addiction, it's clear that he still has a heart and a soul and wants to get well and reconnect with his family. Can an intervention save him before he loses his life to this disease? This episode is famous online for giving birth to the internet meme "best cry ever."

Ashley was raised by a mother addicted to gambling and methamphetamines until her aunt and uncle became her legal guardians, but when her beloved grandfather died, she started using heroin and her family fears she will overdose and die. Her aunt spends a lot of time chasing her down and trying to stop her but fails in keeping her stopped. The intervention succeeds and Ashley becomes sober and claims to not miss heroin. Her mother, an admitted gambling addict once addicted to crystal meth as well, also considers going to treatment but ultimately rejects a 90-day treatment offer.

Amy was an anxious child who was never comfortable in her own skin. She became anorexic in high school and dropped out of college after one semester. She began binging and purging shortly after. She went to an inpatient treatment center and was in recovery for a year, but then relapsed and has been on a downward spiral ever since. Her bulimia has caused major health problems and friction between her and her family members. Amy has stolen from her family and been caught shoplifting food multiple times. Her parents have moved to a new house to accommodate Amy's disorder, allowing her to live in the basement but locking her out of the main house to prevent her from stealing their groceries. Amy consumes an average of 24,000 calories a day and is obsessed with exercise and burning calories. Her family hopes that an intervention will save her from slowly killing herself.

Tyler is a mechanic addicted to crack, crystal methamphetamine, alcohol, Xanax, Soma, heroin, and Dilaudid. In three months, he has lost his brother and sister to drug overdoses. To keep him from having the same fate, Tyler's family has set up an intervention as their last hope.

Every day, Donna, 47, and her son, Josh, 20, cause a storm of drinking, fighting, and chaos in the overcrowded home they share with Donna's sister, mother, and a stable-full of dogs and cats. Raised by alcoholic parents, Donna was exposed to violence and abuse at an early age, and later drank so heavily that she lost custody of her two children. Josh, now an adult, has moved back in with Donna, and they have become drinking buddies. Both mother and son need help desperately to save themselves and to stop the cycle of alcoholism from being passed down to another generation of their family.

Adam was once one of top skiers in the United States. As a Marine, he served in 15 countries, including Iraq and Afghanistan, on terrorist-related missions. But when he came back home from overseas, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and started drinking. His alcohol abuse is ruining his body.

A charismatic reverend at a wedding chapel, Miriam, 38, is adored by her clients, but suffers inner torment. Sexually abused as a child by someone she trusted, Miriam turned to drugs at a young age, and now she has been addicted to PCP for the past 25 years. Because of her drug abuse, she has spent over a year in jail and sometimes prostitutes herself for drug money. She once managed two years of sobriety, but ultimately she relapsed. Her family has practically given up on her, and she risks losing her relationship with her daughter, who was taken away from her years ago and adopted by Miriam's brother.

Once bright, likable, and athletic, Andrew has become a gaunt, menacing OxyContin addict. As a child, Andrew learned to manipulate his father, Dan, who now admits, "I can't stand up to Andrew. He'll threaten to commit crimes and trash our motel room. I'd rather give him money for a pill than have him out robbing innocent people." Andrew, his father, and two brothers have been evicted seven times due to property damage and financial hardship, and they can go days without food. Can an intervention help Andrew—and make his father realize that if he doesn't get tough with Andrew, the whole family will be destroyed?

When Amber was molested as a young child, she bottled up her emotions. She began binge eating, and became bulimic because she wanted to be popular and beautiful like her older sister. After high school, Amber had a baby and married, and managed to look like she was living an idyllic family life. But she was actually depressed, drinking heavily, and purging regularly. Her family hopes an intervention can help her confront her problems.

Though he grew up in a close-knit family, Joe has felt lonely and isolated all his life. As a child, he was excluded by his peers and didn't get the affection and acceptance he needed from his father. At age eight, Joe learned "the choking game," in which a person uses his hands to cut off the oxygen supply to his brain to get high. Joe loved the sensation, and secretly choked himself regularly throughout childhood as a way of dealing with his pain. In high school, Joe discovered drugs and alcohol; he began using heroin at 18 and has been addicted for the past six years. Now, living in a motel, he often steals to support his addiction, and he has been arrested and jailed several times for drug possession and theft. He has gone through treatment programs before but has always relapsed soon afterward.

John is a flight attendant who loves his job, but his lifestyle is fueling his alcoholism. When he was a boy, John's parents focused their attention on his "profoundly retarded" brother. His mother blamed herself for the disability and turned her anger towards John. Now John's alcoholism leaves him prone to blackouts and frequent serious injuries, but he denies that anything is wrong.

Growing up with an abusive mother, Dionicio turned to crime and drugs as a teen. He became a father, but couldn't handle the pressure of providing for a family. Now he spends his time panhandling and shooting heroin.

When Jason's mother and stepfather had twins, Jason felt abandoned. He dropped out of school and turned to drugs. Now he lives with his grandmother in a retirement community and takes up to 30 mg of Xanax and shoots heroin up to five times a day. After an overdose, Jason had multiple hospitalizations and four grand mal seizures. Worn out from the drama, his family is frustrated with their inability to get Jason to stop using drugs and into treatment.

A chef for 15 years, Ryan dreams of running a kitchen in a four-star restaurant. But alcoholism stands in his way. Ryan always felt like the black sheep of the family compared to his successful, police officer brother. His mother supplies him with alcohol so that he doesn't go into withdrawal. But now the family feels that "it's not if we lose him, but when."

Rachel started experimenting with cocaine and meth at 14 and using heroin at 16. She survived on the streets with the help of her boyfriend until he was sent to jail. Can an intervention save her from herself?

Michelle, a lesbian, has a troubled history of being abandoned by her father and molested by a stranger. She was also ridiculed in middle school. After a relationship ended badly, Michelle turned to heroin and desperately needs an intervention. After seeing the group gathered, Michelle walked out in shock but came back when someone went and got her. Michelle agrees to go to treatment when asked and shows hope for the future.

When Austin's stepfather died from alcoholism, he turned to alcohol himself to numb the pain. But Austin's girlfriend is now pregnant and the partying and binging he is engaging in needs to stop. Austin needs an intervention to become a sober dad and break his family's cycle of alcoholism. Austin initially walks right out of the intervention after seeing the people gathered as he realized what it was, but the interventionist goes after Austin and convinces him to hear them out. After an emotional plea from his little sister that drives both to tears, Austin agrees to go.

Erin relies on her looks to score drugs, including meth. She abandoned her child and the child's father and continues to engage in a drug-induced party lifestyle. Now her daughter has been sent away and the rest of the family wants to get Erin help now.

Epilogue: Erin completed 37 days of treatment and became a mother to her child again. She and her husband began constructing a multi-story lake house, which they completed and subsequently started a real estate business. Erin also began talking to her estranged father again. Her husband, who self-proclaimed himself to be an alcoholic, did not attend 12-step meetings but he maintained sobriety.

Jimmy was raised by an alcoholic father but is now a heroin addict. At 13, he was in a gang which abused drugs. Jimmy also has a son and has tried getting sober in the past, but the pressure from his family in this instance lead to dependence on methadone. Jimmy's mother Joannie is also a methadone addict due to her originally getting on it for lupus treatment. Joannie is also alcoholic and enables her son by paying for his bills and his medicine and also giving Jimmy her own methadone. While the family gathers to have an intervention on Jimmy, they also turn to Joannie to convince her to get treatment for her own addiction and she agrees. Jimmy immediately realizes what's going on and refuses to go to treatment, but agrees to listen to his family's letters even though he says it won't change anything. He rejects his mother and sister's pleas, but when his father, who was an alcoholic when he was a child makes his plea, Jimmy listens as his father is emotional and has always maintained a distance from him. Jimmy finally agrees and he and his mother go off to treatment.

As a child, Cassie was abandoned by her mother and raised by her father, who married and divorced several women. Her rebellious behavior led him to send her to a behavior modification camp for teenagers that was run like a prison. She is now addicted to crack and oxycodone, a habit she supports by prostituting herself, and has an infant son whom she hardly ever sees. Cassie's family must try to break through her deep distrust of them and stop her father from enabling her further in order to save her. At the intervention, Cassie is furious as she figured out the truth and had been promised it wasn't an intervention. Her refusal to listen causes her grandfather to storm out and she kicks everyone but her father and aunt (the only two people she'll listen to) out. Cassie refuses to listen and throws the treatment center pamphlets around the room in an act of defiance. Her father and aunt break down in tears at Cassie's indifference. Finally, her aunt leaves after giving her a final goodbye and Cassie storms out after her father decides to cut her off. After the failed intervention, Cassie's father stops his last payment on her motel bill and a week later, Cassie finally agrees to treatment.

Jimbo's addiction to painkillers has already resulted in a devastating injury and a strained relationship with his devoted dad. Unable to stop using he now spends his days snorting drugs and flying into rages that have terrorized his family and community. Can an intervention stop this small-town menace?

An ambitious inventor and entrepreneur, Benny once dreamed of becoming a millionaire. But stress, drugs, and alcohol have turned his dream into a nightmare. Worst of all, he is no longer a dependable father to his six-year-old daughter. Benny, now 38, addicted for 15 years and having spent his entire life living with his enabler mother, has seen his relationship with his family reach the breaking point. Benny has also been arrested several times for DUI and assault, including assaulting his mother. Several business failures, a rocky relationship with his girlfriend, and the discovery that his daughter was in fact not biologically his have only added to Benny's problems. Only an intervention can save him now.

Once happy-go-lucky, Megan, 25, is now a volatile drug addict who scares her family with her unchecked anger. A child of neglect, Megan is now enabled and financed by her guilt-ridden mother. She spends her days drinking and smoking crack. How will Megan react when confronted by her family in an intervention they believe is needed to save her life?

After the tragic and shocking loss of her two young children years ago, MaryAnne turned to alcohol to cope with the pain. Today, MaryAnne is the mother of three, but her inability to stay sober has jeopardized the safety of her children. She's lost custody of two and lives in squalor with her youngest daughter. MaryAnne needs an intervention before her tragic streak continues.

Epilogue: MaryAnne is still in treatment at the time of this episode's airing. She plans to move back with her children in Utah. She has been sober since November 17, 2010.

Jamie abused both drugs and alcohol and at 21 she got sober. However, a fatal overdose that killed her 23 year old twin sister Jen sister triggered a relapse on the first anniversary of Jen's death. Jamie's sister Susan, feeling guilty over Jen's death, drinks and uses drugs with Jamie under the pretense of monitoring Jamie's behavior. Jamie's father John enables her drug and alcohol use, giving her money and a place to live rent free. Jamie already has pancreatitis and suicidal tendencies, she needs an intervention fast. However Susan refuses to attend the intervention after getting into an argument with her fiance Donny and accusing him of an affair, and threatens to kill herself when John attempts to get her to go.

Tiffany, a former beauty queen, has always wanted the family she never had. Now, after ten years of using crystal meth and looking for love in all the wrong places, Tiffany may lose the one thing she values most, her one-year-old daughter. Her family is terrified that they're going to lose Tiffany, and desperately hope that an intervention will save her from her abusive boyfriend and constant drug use.

A talkative, eccentric, antiques collector, Michael, 52, was a military brat who moved with his family all over Europe and the U.S. But what he really wanted was a stable, loving home. After a series of traumatic events, Michael began to do drugs, and now he's a rambling, self-loathing addict. Even worse, his two sons have become his using buddies. Michael needs an intervention to save himself and his children.

Brittany once dreamed of becoming a police officer to protect people from the traumas that she faced as a child. After an alleged childhood molestation, Brittany had a miscarriage at 20 and began abusing the Vicodin she was prescribed. Brittany also began stripping and prostituting herself. Now 22, her goal is slipping away. She's a heroin addict who sells her body to get her next high. Can Brittany's family convince her that it's not too late to get help?

Like Romeo and Juliet on heroin, Mikeal and Sarah are a poor boy and a rich girl who have found sanctuary in each other's pain. At 17, Sarah met 19-year-old Mikeal; two weeks later, Sarah used heroin for the first time then moved in with Mikeal. Mikeal's mother Danielle enables his addiction by paying his rent and other expenses, out of guilt over Mikeal's molestation by a family friend. Sarah's family feels that Mikeal has corrupted their daughter, taking Sarah from a casual pill abuser to a full-blown heroin addict. But now both families now agree that an intervention is their only hope. Will Sarah and Mikeal get help, or help each other tumble deeper into addiction? The episode also features the Orchid Recovery Center for Women.^[18]

A mother of three, Latisha will go to any lengths to feed her crack addiction, including prostitution. Having been abandoned by her own parents because of their addictions, she's happy with her life and just wants her family to get off her back, but the needs of her young daughter Tuesday—who has lived with relatives since birth—are going unmet. Latisha's mother Sharon enables her addiction by giving her money and allowing Latisha to smoke crack at her house. There's only one way to save Latisha from herself: an intervention.

Growing up with parents who demanded hard work, Larry rebelled with a life of crime. Today, he drinks a fifth of brandy a day even though he's a spiritual man whose religion prohibits alcohol. Megan is struggling with her own demons. Her mother divorced and remarried, but Megan never felt included in her new family. She became an addict and even turned to prostitution to pay for her drugs. Can an intervention save Larry from being ostracized by his spiritual community, and can Megan still realize the dreams she once had of becoming a lawyer or professor?

Epilogue: Larry's wife and stepfather walked out on the pre-intervention, ultimately rendering Larry's intervention unsuccessful. Two months after rejecting treatment, Larry was arrested for drunk driving and assault. He has since moved out of state and reduced his drinking.^[19]

Living in a small Hawaiian village, Penny-Lee has an infectious laugh and loves to have fun. But despite having a good family life and four children to be proud of, she's an out-of-control alcoholic who spends most of her time alone, screaming and crying out to no one as she downs beer after beer. An intervention is her family's last hope for their beloved family matriarch.

Luke, 23, dreams of a career in photojournalism, but his daily cocktail of drugs has derailed his college plans and left both him and his mother struggling to survive on the streets of San Francisco.

Shantel uses OxyContin to cope with learning and mood disorders and to find friends in the drug culture. An overprotective mother provides her with money, and now Shantel, who faces potential jail time for a robbery, spends her days feeding her addiction in a motel. Without interventions, Luke and Shantel will continue to see their lives spiral downwards.

Tiffany, 24, a former athlete and cheerleader who dreamed of a career in the medical field, has no intention of giving up her IV crystal meth addiction, despite the fact that her four-year-old son is being cared for by her family. Can an intervention help Tiffany to regain her son and her life?

Brittney saw her food addiction transformed into a raging alcohol addiction after gastric bypass surgery. Now she stands to lose her family as they grow weary of her alcohol-fueled antics.

Ricardo, is a dedicated dad of three on weekends, but suffers from a daily addiction to meth which threatens to destroy his health, professional success, and relationship with his children. Brittney's and Ricardo's families have been pushed to the brink, and now realize that only an intervention can save their loved ones.

Though she initially resisted, Brittney ultimately agreed to go to treatment, but left treatment after 11 days and moved in with her boyfriend where she continues to drink. Her mother is holding her bottom lines.

Michelle, 30, looks like an aging mother of two who takes a daily concoction of methadone, Xanax, and blood pressure pills to keep her identity as an edgy party girl alive, while her family begs her to wake up to the harm that her addiction has caused them. Now the family has had enough, and they're finally ready to confront Michelle at an intervention.

A college graduate who now works as a genealogist, Jeff can't give up his 30-cans-of-beer-per-day habit even though his health is failing, he recently lost his wife, and his children are struggling to cope with the loss of their mother. Now Jeff faces a choice–his life or his beer. Can an intervention bring him to his senses?

Growing up, Christina had to shuttle back and forth between her drug-addicted mother and neglectful father. Having never received the support she desperately craved, Christina turned to drugs at an early age. Now prescription painkillers and meth have taken over her life, and she's repeated her mother's mistake by losing custody of her son. Only an intervention can free Christina from the devastating cycle of addiction that grips her.

Strikingly beautiful with a great sense of humor, Dallas is nevertheless addicted to heroin and lives on the streets. After her mother attempted suicide, Dallas turned to drugs to deal with the confusion and pain. But Dallas' mother is in denial about her addiction and supports her "heroin-chic" lifestyle. Dallas' family needs a wake-up call and face her problems head-on if they're going to save her.

A 34-year-old gay man, Richard grew up knowing he was different and never feeling accepted. His stepfather disciplined him severely for his effeminate behavior. Today, Richard lives in subsidized housing and has done everything from dealing to prostituting himself to support his meth addiction. Richard's family will have to make amends to him if they hope to get through to him.

To the outside world, Kimberly lives a dream life in an extravagant mansion without a financial care in the world. But the "dream" is really a nightmare because Kimberly is an alcoholic with no limits. She lives with her boyfriend, who has locked her in a bedroom in an effort to stop her from drinking. Kimberly's father has written her off, but the family must come together or Kimberly will continue to drown her pain in alcohol.

Neglected as a child by her alcoholic mother, Dorothy is now lost in a haze of drugs, alcohol, and self-inflicted cuts and burns.

Ivan was once a rising rap star who got caught up in the "thug life" and PCP addiction. Both need interventions to reclaim the promise of their youth and talent.

When Skyler was a kid, his mother pushed him to do modeling and TV work, but the tension drove Skyler to drugs. Now he uses the new synthetic drug "bath salts," which cause him to hallucinate. Can an intervention save Skyler's sanity–and his life?

Jessa's meth and alcohol addiction have caused her to hole up in her parents' basement, drinking and using drugs until she blacks out, punches walls, and even attempts suicide. An intervention is desperately needed before Jessa overdoses and dies right under her parents' noses.

Now 40, Julie Hegedus of Prescott Valley, Arizona has often turned to food and alcohol to find comfort in tough times. After suffering at the hands of a verbally abusive father, Julie married at 20 and had two children. Divorcing at 30, Julie's weight ballooned, hitting 300 pounds at her heaviest. She had gastric bypass surgery at 33, and began drinking within 6 months. But now she spends her son's child support money on beer and 90-proof peppermint schnapps and recently tried to take her own life. She has a failing liver and constant blackouts, often waking up in strangers' beds. Julie needs an intervention before she loses her family–and her life.

Courtney, 20, lives in Miami and injects heroin up to eight times a day, prostituting herself to support both her own habit and her boyfriend's. Her mother, sister, and grandmother want her to get help and are ready to use Florida's legal system to force her into it if they have to.

Growing up in a rough neighborhood, and having an openly gay father, Sean developed anxiety problems. He showed promise as a popular local DJ, but his musical aspirations were ruined once he turned to alcohol. He now drinks constantly, relying on his daughter to look after him and pay the bar tabs he can no longer afford.

As a child, Kaylene was physically abused by her father. Later, she and her mother began using cocaine together. Now Kaylene is a 21-year-old who oozes sweetness and charm but who is unafraid to die and will stop at nothing to get her next fix. After so many years of neglect, can Kaylene's family finally step up and help her get the live-saving treatment she so desperately needs?

Once a stunning model and devoted mother, Terry binges on vodka every day to escape her mother's taunts and her father's neglect. She ignores her doctor's warning that she will be dead in six months if she doesn't stop drinking.

Leon, a 25-year-old Russian-Jewish immigrant and former cello prodigy, smokes PCP to escape from the feelings of disappointment and failure that plague him. Both Terry and Leon have one last chance–an intervention.

Epilogue: Terry completed treatment and moved into a sober-living facility in Texas. She has been sober since November 18, 2011.

Nichole, 25, spends her days mostly incoherent and suffering from constant tremors due to a severe alcohol addiction as she struggles to overcome the pain of her sister's betrayal, and the Mom From Hell, who reminds both her and her sister of the betrayal at every possible opportunity and does whatever she can to keep the sisters pitted against each other so that she can feel in control and needed.

Elena, 63, has no intentions of stopping her daily meth addiction, even though her children and grandchildren desperately want their adoring grandmother to get well.

Twenty-five-year-old Katie has suffered from bulimia for over a decade and has been an alcoholic for three years. Katie and her family once had a bright future, until Katie's grandfather died when she was twelve; within two years, Katie's father was forced out of the family dry cleaning business and her parents' relationship soured. Katie did attend college but abruptly dropped out, began stripping and shortly thereafter drinking. Katie now lives with her parents and has been prostituting herself to get money for alcohol. Katie uses her eating disorder and binge drinking to cope with her mother's secret alcoholism and parents' war with each other while her worried siblings pray someone can step in and save them all.

Once a big-hearted Christian family man, Dennis uses his meth addiction to run from the past that haunts him, while his family falls apart. Dennis' father was an addict and abusive to Dennis and his mother; after his parents' divorce, Dennis lived with his drug dealing father. Dennis then went to work selling drugs for his dad. At 23, Dennis was arrested for drug dealing and pled guilty to protect his dad. While in prison, Dennis' dad tried to rape Dennis' wife. Dennis then testified against his father; Dennis got a reduced sentence and his dad got a life sentence for selling drugs. Dennis' successful construction company was wrecked by the collapse of the US housing market in 2007, and at 37 Dennis tried crystal meth. Eighteen months prior to this episode, Dennis left his wife and children.

A former "super mom" to her three children, Diana has exchanged her apron for an alcohol and meth addiction and is unraveling her marriage, family and sense of self-respect.

A family begging her to get help and two overdoses in the last two weeks don't phase 21-year-old Britney as she fearlessly shoots up suboxone and bath salts up to 30 times a day.

Epilogue: Britney left treatment after 14 days and relapsed on Suboxone. Britney continued to use. Her family maintained their bottom lines.

Terry, 32, is a chef who dreamed of opening and managing his own restaurant, but his career, marriage and parental rights to his nine-year-old daughter have hit a dead end as a result of his $500-a-day cocaine and fentanyl addiction.

Amanda, 31, abandoned her dreams of becoming a teacher in favor of heavy drinking (four bottles of wine a day) and a heroin addiction. Her boyfriend is also an addict, and her PTSD-afflicted father provides money and support to feed her habits.

Ryan, 25, is a sweet, sensitive man whose alcohol addiction is spiraling out of control as he and his fiancée are expecting their first child in a matter of months.

Loud and spunky 50-year-old Cher's alcohol addiction has led to liver damage and is driving a wedge between herself and her family.

Al, a big guy with a big personality, is sacrificing his relationships with his wife and children to chase his out-of-control meth and painkiller addiction.

Megan is a 24-year-old addict who turned to drugs to kill the excruciating pain she experienced as a young teen after her innocence was stolen by her mother's boyfriend. Today, Megan's life is at a critical point and she is facing a long stint in prison with her next mistake. Can Megan ever feel worthy of a different direction for her life and make the choices needed to stay out of the prison system?

Kelly is a 27-year-old mother who turned to drugs to handle the trauma of being sexually abused by her sister's boyfriend when she was 11. Today, Kelly is using meth up to 4 times a day, as well as taking up to 400 mg of OxyContin.

Nick, 23, uses his business talents to deal in heroin rather than business. Once the apple of his father's eye and destined to carry on his successful business practices, Nick's early rule-breaking and experimentation in drugs turned him into the black sheep of the family. Now abandoned by his family, Nick lives in a heroin daze, crossing the border into Mexico to get his next fix.

Sandi, 64, is a vivacious, spunky and fun grandmother who loves gardening. But as her drinking escalates throughout the day, Sandi turns her gin-fueled anger on her 88-year-old mother and her 45-year-old daughter, alienating everyone in her wake. Can Sandi finally make peace with her estranged family and get the help she so desperately needs before it's too late?

Alissa, 19, is a smart and fearless teenager who uses bath salts to mask her inner pain. Alissa must make peace with her estranged father in order to break free from her dangerous lifestyle and her self-destructive cycle.

A charismatic businessman, spiritual leader and father, 56-year-old Terry is destroying his legacy with his crack addiction and taking his adoring son down with him.

Epilogue: Alissa completed treatment but relapsed one week later on Xanax and meth. Her parents held their bottom lines but Alissa continues to use marijuana.

When her rock and best friend, her grandmother Elena (featured in episode 175), went away to treatment, Sarah, 21, spiraled out of control. Today, in denial of her own addiction, Sarah is on the same path of addiction her grandmother was on just six months ago. This cycle of addiction must stop in this family now, or unfortunately, Elena will pass on a legacy of addiction instead of recovery.

Tiffany is a 19-year-old, doe-eyed, innocent-looking young woman who treks to the seediest parts of Baltimore to score heroin while her family tries to pray the "devil" out of her.

A gregarious man with an intense personality, 32 year-old Sean's alcohol addiction is causing him to blackout and suffer seizures, which have his wife and family on edge. Sean was living a relatively normal life until he allegedly saw his father having an affair, which the whole family denies.

In an Intervention first that reveals a surprising outcome, 18-year-old Andrew, from Cedar Park, Texas, once dreamed of a military career, but now binges and purges up to 12 times a day, as a response to his father leaving him and being sexually abused in the military.

As a teenager, Ryan was on the fast track to professional BMX racing until his mother's suicide attempt sidelined his life. Ryan turned to drugs to deal with the trauma and silence around it. Now, at 23, he lives in his parents' basement using and dealing heroin, enabled by his parents' inability to face or confront reality.

Gina has spent her life living in the shadow of her domineering Korean mother, and it was not until she started using heroin that she was able to escape the most painful memories, being blamed by her mother for being raped. Now, with absolutely no sense of self-worth, Gina will do anything to get her fix, even at the cost of losing her son.

At a young age, Kaila, 19, was raised in an affluent, image-conscious community where she felt teased for being overweight, and overlooked by her parents. Now, at a mere 80 pounds and eating on a few calories a day, Kaila is literally starving herself to death to have what she's always wanted—to be the center of her family's attention. Her distraught parents have been told by Kaila's doctors to prepare for her death, "Intervention is truly our last option," says Kaila's mother, "Please help us!".

Epilogue: Gina completed treatment and moved into a sober living facility in Florida. Her son continues to live with her mother.