A New Crop Of Celebrities Fights For Sobriety In The Celebrity Rehab 5 Supertrailer

kenny davisJune 15, 2011 at 3:05 pm

what I think is ridiculous is having the same celebs over and over,once theyve had the chance of a lifetime to be on it,and dr drews help…if they continue to “FALL OFF” THE Wagon,it just looks like their not as much an addict as they are for Publicity, why steven addler again? come on….in all of hollywood…their isint any other celebs who need to get sobor?

mandiJune 15, 2011 at 5:42 pm Eva VargasJune 15, 2011 at 9:35 pm

This group, looks for real. I hope they make it especially Bai Ling, Sean , Michael, Amy, Jeremy, Jessica, Steven (again) Adler. They deserve recovery. It does get easier as time goes on (I mean it doesn’t feel so bad) and you only have get through this once, AND YOU NEVER HAVE TO DO IT AGAIN! IF YOU CHOOSE.

MarWorksJune 16, 2011 at 12:35 am

When I first began watching these, I did saw some respect for Dr. Drew and what he was trying to do. However, his extremely negative attitude toward scientific advances in addiction treatment, such as substitution therapy and other medical advances that have made relapse much less likely and long-term sobriety more attainable, has led me to believe that his form of treatment is much more about TV-reality, rather than best practices for his patients. I am a strong believer in opiate maintenance, particularly with suboxone, but in some cases with methadone, and he lost me when he claimed on the show that “methadone steals your soul.” Granted it’s controversial, and medication alone, without other recovery modalities such as 12-step and counseling, isn’t enough. However, the patient that he was forcing through a grueling, totally unnecessary and dangerous detox from methadone is now dead. as is his other star opiate-addicted patient, who suffered from severe chronic pain but was told by Dr. Drew that he could never find recovery unless he never took pain medication again. To consign someone to a fate that is truly worse than death; a lifetime of unimaginable suffering, when he pain and addiction could very well have been managed by long-term therapy with methadone or suboxone, is absolutely wrong. the problem is that state-of-the-art treatment isn’t that exciting. It’s the torturous detoxes and the emotional overloads that the viewers want to see, and this show just keeps them coming. Just remember as you’re watching it, that this IS reality TV, and it’s much more TV than it is reality. With abstinence treatment alone, at least for long-term heroin and pain pill addicts, the recovery rate is less than 20% at 5 years. With substitution AND the typical treatment of which this is almost a parody, even the most hopeless of addicts are still in recovery at a rate of 50-80% at 5 years. Yes, many of them take a medication every day and may the rest of their lives. But they work, raise families, don’t abuse their meds or other drugs, and go on to live lives of purpose and meaning. I’m one of those people, and I don’t believe that it has stolen my soul at all. With Dr. Drew’s treatment, I would be dead now, like Mike Starr and Gary Conway.

trickynekJune 16, 2011 at 4:45 am

@MarWorks i agree about dr. drew sticking to the classic AA/abstinence-only model as detrimental. you often see him truly reaching people or having no judgements about relapses, which he also admits are eventualities, but yet still clings to the “your brain is diseases” model of thinking. …..he needs an invtervention for his therapy techniques…..

EvaJune 16, 2011 at 7:02 pm

Treatment is treatment what ever it is. What do you guys know about addiction any way nothing it seems. never put the personality before the disease. People are different once they get clean and of course, they might not be nice people. You’re judging? What good does that do at this point? They want treatment and what they will have to go through to get clean, I would not wish that on my WORST enemy. Drew’s belief is his belief that just the way he rolls. I believe in many ways to treat an addict, but I respect his way. Why? It works. There are many people who did it this way and were saved, who are you to criticize/judge. give US a break. There will be many people who will die with the right treatment or wrong tx. That’s just the way it is. you can’t save everyone, it’s really sad, but true.as for Amy, she made a mistake (getting involved w/that dumb mut) a big one and then instead of getting therapy for what happened to her she went on to bigger things. I’m no push over, but I know when people don’t deal with their issues, their issues will deal with them. AND yeah, I still wish her the best, she’s human, she deserves to be happy. you all have your nerve.while I may not agree with some of the goings on in his show, it gives me an insight into the process of what addicts go through to get CLEAN, and that’s invaluable to people who have problems with addiction or those who live with them. Look at the positive instead of the negative you’ll get more out of life.AND the word is clean and not sober. Sober is alcoholic term, clean is a chemical term. Alcohol is a chemical.

Rebecca GravesJune 19, 2011 at 12:08 pm

I grew up having an alcoholic drug-addicted father, and also have a brother that used to be a hard core alcoholic drug abuser. One thing that i’ve learned over the years is that people have to want change in order to get better, and that all people are diffferent when it comes to recovery. What works for one person treatment wise may not work for another, and I can see now why Dr. Drew is hesitant to use suboxone and methadone as treatment therapies for people who are trying to rid themselves of heroin, or opiate addictions because the suboxone or methadone may not be enough for hardcore, long-term addicts and they may ultimately end up going back to heroin to try and “feel better”. those are two very dangerous drugs! the reason why Mike Starr died is due to him mixing different drugs together and he might even have had an underlying health problem that no one knew about that may have also contributed to his death. Same goes for Jeff Conaway. From what I recall, he had just undergone back surgery recently and was using pain meds and what ultimately killed him was not drugs, but in fact Sepsis caused by pneumonia that wasn’t treated until too late threfore it took his life. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s not fair to try and throw Dr. Drew under the bus because he is against using methadone and suboxone, and it was not Dr. Drew’s therapy or maintenance therapy that killed these people, I think both Jeff and Mike were very unhappy men and they were both in lots of emotional and physical pain and they just let gave into their addictions because they couldn’t deal with the suffering anymore and it’s just sad.

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