Intervention

I’m not a big fan of A&E’s show "Intervention", which is about getting someone to agree to get help with their addiction. I think that if someone is faltering that way then they should be saved privately and that drug rehab should be something away from the public eye. I think that some people who get well through the show may find themselves unable to progress in their lives afterward because of their community’s social norms regarding drug addiction and alcohol recovery. For instance, in my town, which is a small town in the middle of Ohio, if it becomes known that you’ve been in treatment for some kind of addiction your chances of gaining good job contacts, for instance, are gone. Everyone who knows about your problems has already judged and labeled you and there’s no getting out from under that. Yes, it’s unfair. Everyone knows that addiction is an illness and that anyone who survives and goes into recovery is stronger for it. But the perception in small towns like mine is that addicts are low-life criminals who never want to do good with their lives and should never, ever be trusted. And that’s probably the same in a lot of towns across America.

There was a family in my town that went on a talk show once, about their out-of-control child. The parents had to lock this teenage girl in her room at night to keep safe from her. They’d sought help in the community, but of course they received none. That’s private family business and she wasn’t technically a dangerous criminal yet. So the family went on this talk show. Of course, everyone in the community knew about it after it aired and that’s when JFS finally stepped in. Not to help the family that asked for it to begin with, but to help the child who they felt was abused. The program aired their story in a way that made it seem as if the parents were at fault. They ended up having to fight for custody of their youngest, not violently ill child and ultimately leave the area.

That’s why I don’t like that show. I see that even when people are screaming for help there are communities like mine that will see that call for help and bury these folks even deeper. I don’t know what it’s like in bigger communities, of course, but those like mine are likely to cause the "Intervention" folks to leave town and quite possibly fall right back into their old life styles. There are a few places around town, like our local branch of a state university, that will offer help privately. They get with some places and everything is strictly confidential. They know that addiction is the devil, not the person suffering from the addiction, and that they will likely be ostracized should their disease come to light in their home town. So, they arrange everything secretly. Parents and relatives don’t have to know. Professors are told the student is going on leave for a while and that’s that.

It’s a sad thing in today’s world that so many things like this have to be “hush-hush” in communities like mine. People are always going ga-ga over “Peoria” and the folks that live here. But honestly, these folks can be hard and unforgiving. They can drive away people that have made mistakes and are trying to make amends. They are very particular about who they want in their ranks and who they want to move on up the road. I think about that every time I see an advertisement for “Intervention”. I wish that a lot of people in my community, where there is growing heroin and methamphetamine problems, would embrace the ideas and help available from these types of shows. But the people who live here don’t want that. They’d prefer not to know if their neighbor once battled alcoholism and was homeless for a time. That way they can still enjoy his company and pretend he’s one of them. As long as the secret doesn’t get out he’s still a good guy. They prefer to believe they’re better than the riff raff and that kind of stuff doesn’t really infect our community. But it does. So, they mark the offenders and stay clear of them until they move away to start a new life. And if the new neighbor shares his story then he too will become marked. That’s just the way it works in my neck of the woods.

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