Oh, yes.
It's an intense year.
Oh, man.
So two have aired.
Right?
Two episodes have aired.
That's right.
OK.
Because I just watched them.
I don't want to be a spoiler, so don't ask too much.
I won't because I like to keep up in real time.
I don't like to get things ahead of time.
So it's all done?
You've already finished.
Yeah.
We actually did it last spring.
We did Sober House following that too.
And this was one of the tougher groups we've treated.
There's a lot of people with deep resistances.
There were severe addictions.
Poor Tom Sizemore, who's just--
I don't know if you ever met Tom.
He's one of the greatest guys when he's sober.
Yeah.
And when he's using, he does some wild stuff.
So Tom Sizemore, who we just saw in that clip.
And then it's Mackenzie Phillips.
Mackenzie.
And there's been some news about her since we treated her.
Right.
And Heidi Fleiss.
Heidi Fleiss.
And Dennis Rodman.
Yeah, Rodman.
Who was court ordered to treatment.
I would really bring out the quarters.
But Dennis, helped me understand.
You don't want to do this, but you have to, man.
I have to write a report to the court saying
that you satisfactorily completed treatment.
I'm not going to do that now.
But he doesn't think he needs to be there.
He doesn't.
I actually end up getting some brain scans
on him to show him the alcohol related damage that he has.
And he does.
Make no mistake about it.
He's got a severe problem.
And what kind of damage is that from alcohol?
Like memory?
Or denial?
Or what?
Well, in particular, I actually did what's called a spec scan.
And we showed him that surface of his brain
was gone from the injury related.
That's what alcohol does.
I mean, alcohol is one of the drugs of abuse.
We don't think about it as one of the only drugs of abuse
that really is damaging to all human tissue.
So when he sees that, does he then take that in?
Or does he?
We slowly eroded away.
I mean, at no point did he have any kind of an aha moment.
I mean, Dennis has got a lot of stuff going on.
I mean, he does.
I like Dennis.
And I eventually sort of forge a relationship with him.
We actually bring his mother in later on in Sober House.
Really?
And she's a wonderful woman.
And that has a dramatic impact on him.
Well, I can't wait to see.
Because right now, it looks like he's
got no interest in being there, or participating, or anything.
He really doesn't.
And you know what?
This has been one of the interesting experiences
with all of this.
A lot of these folks would not have come to treatment.
Their motivation is limited.
They want to be on TV and get paid.
That's their primary motivation.
And yet, in spite of those sort of distorted motivations,
once we get them into this environment,
we really can make a difference.
I mean, Lisa D'Amato was one of the cast members
from this year.
You didn't mention her.
She's from America's Top Model.
That's right.
There's a few more.
A few more we haven't mentioned.
Yes, Lisa.
And she really didn't think she had a problem.
And she was profoundly ambivalent
the entire experience.
I mean, even towards the end, I thought I didn't get anywhere.
Now she texts me all the time saying
this was the most important experience I ever had.
I really see how my disease operates now.
So we get through to them.
Yeah because she said she only drank when it was around.
And it wasn't like--
She's a kid.
And then Mindy McCready, who is a country star,
and she again thought she didn't have a problem.
And yet, this last episode she has a seizure.
In the middle of talking, she has a seizure seizure.
And Mackenzie thinks it's a joke and starts laughing.
And so the next episode coming up
is you dealing with that seizure she has.
Yes it is.
And then we talked about Mackenzie since she has--
because that show was shot earlier,
we have learned that she says that she
had a sexual relationship with her father.
And that was what she probably whispered to you
that you cut out of the show.
She did.
She pulled me aside and said, you know,
I'm not prepared to talk about this just yet.
But you need to know this about my history.
And I must tell you that in the world of opiate addiction,
opiate addicts-- particularly heroin addicts,
and particularly long term heroin addicts like Mackenzie,
Mackenzie is a wonderful woman.
She's having a really wonderful sobriety right now.
But she's a hardcore junkie.
Hardcore for many, many years.
And when you see stuff like that there's usually
some kind of very severe childhood trauma.
And sexual abuse is very common.
The perpetrators are commonly family members.
And so this was in her perception
of it being consensual, was really a perception.
Because the fact is, a child who gets himself in that situation,
it gets so spun.
So distorted.
All the motivations get completely distorted.
Yeah.
I feel bad for her because a lot of people
are really-- they don't believe her.
And it's just a horrible--
Let me look right down the barrel
and say there's absolutely no doubt this is a true story.
I mean, this is the kind of thing I listen to all the time.
It fits completely with Mackenzie's story.
I know Mackenzie.
She is a very truthful person.
She wouldn't be sober all this time.
She's been sober almost two years now.
She would not have any possibility
without rigorous honesty.
She wanted to be seen for who she is.
Not just, oh, she's just that drug addict.
She wants her full story to be understood.
Yeah.
Well, like I said, I feel sorry for someone who is finally
brave enough to come out and say something,
and then to not be believed.
It breaks my heart frankly.
Me too.
And we asked some audience members
if they had any questions.
And one question was, what do you
think about the recent deaths of Casey Johnson, Brittany
Murphy, people that young?
Yeah.
I mean, look, whenever you hear in the press
that a young person is hospitalized for dehydration,
or suddenly drop dead of natural causes,
young people don't die of natural causes.
I don't know these two people or their cases.
But you always have to wonder about addiction.
That's what takes out young people.
And right now, we are in this epidemic of the abuse
of pharmaceutical medications.
And it is taking out my patients.
It's taking out celebrities.
These are serious life threatening conditions.
And we have to take them as such.
So please, when you hear about people struggling,
understand it's a very painful and dangerous condition
that we're sometimes sitting in disdain and judgment of.
But it's a serious business.
And do you think because celebrities
are surrounded by people who aren't going to confront them
and say you're looking like a fool, they're supporting that,
is it harder to get to a celebrity
and say, I've got a problem?
It's exactly right.
It's why they sort of spiral out of control so far.
They have power, they have money,
and they have people who aren't willing to risk
their access to the celebrity by actually standing up
for the person and going, look, this is enough.
And that person says, get out of my life.
No one's willing to risk that around a celebrity.
And so they progress to a much greater degree.
And their lives are endangered by that.
I mean, Anna Nicole died because she moved and kept
people around her that allowed her to perpetuate her disease.
Well, I think the press kind of-- we watched.
A lot of people watched it.
And thinking it was interesting, fascinating,
to watch someone fall apart instead of saying this
is not OK to watch.
This is a young--
I don't know if we can get away with people not watching it.
People are just are fascinated by drama.
And addicts create drama.
But you need to understand what you're watching.
You're not watching somebody who is having a good time.
You're watching it, and you need to evaluate yourself.
It's really about us.
We sit in envy and disdain.
We need to develop empathy and really say
prayers for these people.
And then move on.
Don't sit-in fascination and continue to consume this.
You know what I mean?
A little bit I understand people are just
fascinated by the stuff.
But to really spend our time with magazines, and tabloids,
and whatnot, that's not so good.
Yeah, absolutely.
And do you have advice for people that may know someone
in their life right now that is having a problem that they're
in denial?
For sure.
The thing I tell people about addiction
is if you're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem.
I liken it to-- remember the musical Little Shop Of Horrors?
The Audrey 2, the big plant that eats everybody?
Well, that's addiction.
You walk in the room with the plant, it takes you in.
Which is why I, for instance, never go in a room
alone with an addict.
I always have somebody with me to pull me back out
of the plant in case I start getting sucked in.
So you need that too.
You need this program called Al-Anon,
which is another 12 step program for people that
are involved with people with addiction,
so you have that lifeline.
That cord.
And you can grow while your loved one is growing hopefully.
And if they don't, you can disengage with love.
Not disengage in anger or disengage in resentment.
You disengage, and you gain support, and you stop dancing.
You stop dancing with the disease.
Because you are part of the problem when you're not
part of the solution.
Thank you so much.