NARRATOR: This program contains subject
matter and language that may be disturbing to some viewers.
Viewer discretion is advised.
AMBER: My name is Amber.
I am 32 years old.
I've used pretty much everything there is out there.
I like to use cocaine above anything else.
In a typical day, I use $500 to $700 a day.
OLIVIA: Where is my bank card?
Do you know where it is?
AMBER: No, I gave it to you.
I'll double check.
I can't find it.
Amber gets her money by stealing.
She's stolen my bank card.
I've changed my PIN code about 10 times now.
If Amber doesn't stop using drugs, she will die.
I know that.
STEPHANIE: She was a very inquisitive kid, always
wanted to know what was going on in the world
from a very young age.
I was a single mom from the time she was 11 months old.
Amber's father had issues.
Drugs, drink, who knows what.
So I thought about it long and hard and decided to leave.
AMBER: I always had fantastic grades,
big, big, big, big athlete.
NADINE: So she started to play hockey when
she was about 11 years old.
Watching Amber play hockey was something to see.
STEPHANIE: She was a goalie, and a pretty phenomenal one.
And not much got by her.
I once watched a game where she stopped 32 goals
and got a shutout.
AMBER: My dream was to play for Team Canada.
And I was on the right track, on a fast track there.
I was playing in the biggest girls hockey
tournament in North America.
But that was the season where I was injured.
I remember waking up to the scratching of the metal
of my face cage on the ice.
And the referee was going like, [SNAPPING]
They didn't take it seriously.
STEPHANIE: She was recovering from her injury,
but she was just complaining about more and more pain
all the time.
AMBER: So I was prescribed morphine.
I wasn't allowed to play any type of contact sport.
I really lost like a huge, huge sense of self,
like, a huge sense of self.
I struggled with a depression after the accident and a spike
in anxiety.
There was a person in my family that I was always
very close with, always outwardly
appearing that he really cared.
But there was something that was making me uncomfortable.
And instincts are instincts for a reason.
One day, he came into the house, and he closes the door,
and he crosses his arms, and he goes, so,
you know, we need to have sex.
And I was like, that's a hard no.
Absolutely not.
No way, no how, not happening.
And yeah, he eventually-- he did--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
STEPHANIE: She left home so she wouldn't have to face him.
It hurts me as a parent because she's my daughter
and I love her.
And I really do believe that [BLEEP]
was doing things with Amber that he shouldn't have been doing.
But she just kept telling me, Mom, it's over.
I want to go on with my life.
I tried to think, all right, Amber, well,
what do you want to do?
What have you always wanted to do?
I didn't end up graduating from high school,
so I made the choice to travel to New York.
I made a killing in New York modeling.
I did a lot of wonderful things, and it took
me to a lot of cool places.
And I met a lot of cool people.
But I was busting my ass for an agency that
was taking half my paycheck.
I tried to stick it out, but I couldn't focus.
The pain from the hockey accident was relentless.
It felt like it was a jackhammer just
right at the base of my skull.
STEPHANIE: So she finally just came home.
AMBER: I had doctors who just wanted to tell me that this
is all in your head, but, you know,
here's some pain medication.
But the thing about pain and pain medication
is you always need more.
STEPHANIE: And over the course of about three, four years,
she was right at the limit as to what she could take.
She kept telling me, Mom, the pain is getting worse.
Literally, I watched her lose the use of her left arm.
AMBER: I was losing hope.
My mom found a new doctor.
STEPHANIE: And she found the problem.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It was a long, long recovery process from that surgery.
I mean, I couldn't do [BLEEP] all.
Nothing for the solid two years.
Half of her life has been cheated because of this.
AMBER: I didn't care anymore.
And the morphine I was on, I was abusing the medication.
I had no idea she was using that much, until she got about
$2,500 out of my bank account.
She was lying, cheating, and stealing.
It was terrible.
I met Amber through social media.
We really did click on a lot of different levels.
My feelings for her got very strong very quickly.
AMBER: And she loved me back to life.
And I went without morphine for a whole year,
until the pain was just too chronic and too severe.
So I went right back to morphine.
But like, this time I was taking the prescribable dose.
But I needed more.
I was never a drinker, but I found
alcohol helped with the pain.
But you know, I don't like feeling drunk.
That's where the cocaine came in.
I could drink endlessly.
But there was a big turn.
So she started selling coke, thinking that she
could make a lot of money.
But she started doing all the coke she was selling,
which was her first debt.
And then I noticed money missing out
of my purse, $10, $100, $700.
STEPHANIE: Me and my daughter's mortgage payment was due,
and I noticed that our account, it had been depleted.
I asked Olivia, and she said, yeah, it was Amber who took it.
And I just--
I just hit the roof.
She knows everything that she's doing is wrong,
but she just can't stop herself from doing it.
OLIVIA: Amber gets her morphine every other day.
By the time that she gets her next prescription,
she's already going into withdrawals.
STEPHANIE: Where did you get the money to buy
what you were using yesterday?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
You took 400, and then you took another 100
out of my purse.
Why would you do that?
ELIZABETH: Liv, I want this to stop.
Amber, I want you out of here.
I don't care.
This is my house.
I know you don't care.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
It's enough!
Get her out of here!
It's enough!
Go, call the police.
You can't [BLEEP] [INAUDIBLE]
I'm calling the police.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
Go ahead.
OLIVIA: I truly believe she hates herself,
and she doesn't want to be the person that she is,
and she wants to change.
And so I give her opportunity to do that.
I'm just waiting, I guess.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMBER: I'm going to do them right now
because I'm in a lot of pain.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Jesse.
This is your intervention.
Hi.
Welcome.
OK.
NADINE: I'm very concerned how one prescription for pain
morphed into years of substance abuse,
turning a vibrant, incredibly intelligent,
magnificent soul into a shell of her former self.
I love you.
STEPHANIE: In the event you do not accept help today,
I will be forced, with the assistance of many others,
to exclude you from my life until you get the help
you need and are worthy of.
I love you more.
Amber, I want you to stop choosing drugs over our family.
I love you so much, but if you don't take this help,
I will no longer speak to you.
Our relationship will be over.
JESSE HANSON: So are you ready to accept this help?
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Yes? AMBER: Yeah.
100% in?
AMBER: 100%.
STEPHANIE: Awesome, darling.
OK?
Thank you so much.
You did a good job for her.
Thank you so much.
You saved my daughter's life.
AMBER: Hi, how are you?
Good, how are you?
Welcome to Trafalgar.
Thank you.
The first day I got to Trafalgar,
I mean, I felt pretty nervous, obviously sick
because I was coming down from a lot of stuff.
But just getting out of bed in the morning
and having a purpose, having something to do,
and having community, too, has really been strong in helping
me stay sober.
Liv and I are going to stay together.
And we're going to continue to work through things.
So I'm excited to see what that brings for the future.
Just normal life, really.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Veins swell.
You know me [INAUDIBLE] and enough to tell.