My
Do you have a marijuana pipe?
-I do. -Okay. I'm a real nice gal.
Bye, kitty. A little naive, and I think I'm funny.
Maybe not. I get my jokes. All right. All right. All right.
It's hard for me because basically I have a secret life.
I'm addicted to pretty much
whatever I can get my little sandwich grabbers on.
But lately it's not about any other drug.
It's mostly about getting high on some meth.
At this point, she can't keep a job.
She can't keep a car. She has no income.
She's just pretty much hit bottom.
When Mindie was born, we were very excited.
Oh, Mindie was an adorable little girl.
After having Jasen, we were ready to have another child.
I wanted a daughter.
I was an only child for 6 glorious years.
I was not thrilled to have a sister.
Middle child, two brothers, one older, one younger,
so I got beat up on both sides.
Mindie and I are less than a year apart.
You would think we're really close, but we're not.
When the kids were young, I wasn't home much, probably.
I would be gone 13 to 14 hours a day
and left a lot of that pressure on my wife to be with the kids.
My mom was always doing her own thing.
I was just too busy for my children.
She took college classes for like 10 years.
Are you kidding me? And she has her bachelor's.
We didn't do things right as parents, is what we always hear.
They gave us everything we ever wanted
but nothing I really, really needed.
So when I was like 3, 4, 5, there was a teenage boy
who used to babysit me and my brothers.
He was a real big creep. He would just ...
He ... I don't like talking about this.
-You can say whatever you want. -He was just real, I guess,
Chester the Molester type.
I don't know what brought it up, but I told my mom
that this guy used to touch me. And then I told my dad.
He was just pretty much like, "What can we do about it now?"
It's hard to understand how a 3-year-old
could be molested, I guess, in my view.
Just my thoughts are how she would even recall at that age.
I wasn't really sure
as a 3-year-old what could have happened.
Is there anything else that you feel like you want
to say about this topic while we're still on it?
Back when kids are small, mothers are just tired.
They're just tired.
-I just needed someone to care. -It seems like
that's when we started seeing a different Mindie.
That's when I started smoking weed.
I can remember doing rails of cocaine for the first time
in the girls' bathroom at school.
When I was 16 years old,
I pulled my first bottle of Vicodin
out of my mom's medicine cabinet.
My sister took pills because she thought it kept her even.
Pills ... They take the pain away.
What she didn't realize is her life struggles
were mainly caused by herself.
I got real depressed, and so I just got [BLEEP] up every day.
Mindie ... Mindie is living with her friend right now
that has been most generous and said,
"You get clean. You can stay here rent-free."
And my sister is not living up to her end of the bargain.
Mindie ...
She has no clue how deep and dark the rabbit hole will go.
Why she insists on fighting the bottom is beyond me.
Yeah, I haven't even cleaned or anything yet.
You guys can't do this right now.
-Hi, honey. -Mindie looked really bad.
She looked very pale, very ghostly.
-Give me 2 minutes. -I can't hear what's going on.
She's really not in the mood for company.
So what did she decide?
She wants to wake up and get cleaned up a little bit.
She gets very worked up, seeing you.
I don't understand it.
-Okay. -I'm her mom.
-You get her worked up. -How?
Just seeing you makes her ...
-Why? -... anxious.
I don't know why. She's amiss.
-Mindie, why? -"Why" what?
Why do you get frustrated with me?
You never understand. What I need you to understand,
I need you to listen and accept it, and that's it.
I don't need you to understand why.
-Okay. Okay. -Okay. Okay.
Well, don't talk to me like that.
-I'm trying to understand. -I don't need you to understand.
Whenever I try to talk to her, she always shuts the door.
I have to ask. I have to know. I'm her mom.
I thought you said that you were going to stop this.
-I am going to stop this. -But we don't know
how much you're going to take accidentally.
I'm not dumb enough to [BLEEP] overdose.
But if you don't take any more, won't you ...
It's not as easy as not taking it anymore.
You always say, "Just don't do it again.
Just don't do it again." If that were the case,
I wouldn't be here 10 years later still [BLEEP] up.
It's not about you, Mom.
You were raised by us.
Maybe you shouldn't be so self-centered.
I would love to have a mother I could talk to.
-I'm here, Mindie. -No, you're not.
Why, because cameras are here?
-What did I do wrong? -All you can do, Mom, is listen.
You just think I'm a drug addict piece of [BLEEP]
who doesn't want to do anything for herself.
That's not true.
-I don't say that at all. -You don't have to.
I don't know how to talk to her. I don't know what I did wrong.
I don't need pointed fingers. Sometimes I just need a hug.
-[Indistinct] psychos. -Hey, Mindie. What's up?
-Hi. -How are you?
Oh, fabulous.
Is there any possible way you can come sit over here?
-Sure. -I appreciate it.
My name is Donna.
I should have known something like this.
It will ...
This makes me extremely uncomfortable.
-It's all right. We don't ... -I don't want ...
-All you have to do is listen. -For the past 15 years,
I have seen you change, and it hasn't been good.
As your father, I want to apologize for not being there
when you needed me the most. I want to always be there
for you even if it doesn't seem like it.
I want you to go and get help. I love you.
-Mom ... -I really miss the days
when you were 4 and in dance and ballet.
You needed me then.
I thought when you were older you didn't need me anymore,
and so I got busy.
When you were 3, you felt traumatized.
I just didn't know how to ask. Honey, at this time,
I will begin by working on myself
and to become the mom you never had.
I love you and want you to get the help you so deserve.
Please take this help,
and become the person you were meant to be.
So, Mindie, you know what's going on here.
All we're trying to do is get you some help.
It just makes me really want to do things out of spite.
All right. I could take that. I can understand that.
You don't have to intervene. I don't like surprises.
You alright?
What's going on?
I just went to the bathroom, just wanted a minute
where there was not a camera in my face. See what I mean?
Do you want to talk to me for a second?
Not really. I'm just pissed. It's whatever.
Whatever. I don't [BLEEP] know.
-All right. Yeah, Mindie. -When I first got to AIA,
this girl with purple hair came up to me and said,
"Hi, I'm Sam. I'm from 'Intervention,' too."
And I just remember being so relieved
because there was one other person
that knew exactly how I felt.
You have come so far since the first day that I met you.
It's like night and day.
You're actually happy now. You seem more at peace.
I am happy. I feel free, and the grass is greener.
It's greener than I ever expected.
♪ [Lyrics] ♪ Five steps. You're over.