Sober House

Really liked the little bit they showed with Jennifer/Penny Flame...it looks like she gets an entry level job with Warner Bros. She's the resident that I have the most hope for, it's just a shame that they didn't show more of the person in the house who is most committed to getting sober?

They showed Steven Adler as well. Can't believe he's still managed to be sober, but it looked like he was in a great place.

The fact that Heidi and Tom almost kissed was just :ohno They have NO hope at getting better unless they stay far away from each other.

This is really cruel of me to say, but doesn't Will Smith (the Resident Tech) look exactly like Chaz Bono?:wow

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Originally Posted by RealityLovesMe;3881926;

I actually agree with the "doctor." His morals are clearly skewed but Lindsay is probably going to die. Have you seen her lately? If I was her mom or dad, I'd try to save her at all costs.
The thing with Dr. Drew is that he pretends to have some sort of authority on everything. He isn't an expert at everything but he still goes on all of these shows as the "expert." He can't say things like that and maintain that he gives educated advice. You are either an expert at everything or you are not.

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I agree-I think Martin Sheen had his son arrested so that he would be sent to jail for his drug use-when it looks as if your child is going to die from an addiction soemtimes you do whatever it takes, imo.

Apparently, he is an expert on everything:ohno because he's the host of every single `follow-up' show out there and as you say his advice isn't based on anything other than opinion.

I was so happy to see Steven. He looked good and I was pleased thast he may have turned the corner. That gives us some hope tor Mike if he continues on with some deep help. Everything we saw on the finale just repeated my original judgement---that he never outgrew his adolescent stage. If you closed your eyes during his talk with Drew, you coul swear it was a teenaged boy and a very young one. His plan was to get an apartment but nothing else. He doesn;t want to go to continued aftercare becasue he doesn;t like being told what to do, or authority. Even his agreement to finally go hinged on getting something from the KISS guy.
Jenny is the bright spot in all these shows. Hope she continues to grow.

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Originally Posted by socalledchaos;3890488;

They showed Steven Adler as well. Can't believe he's still managed to be sober, but it looked like he was in a great place.

The fact that Heidi and Tom almost kissed was just :ohno They have NO hope at getting better unless they stay far away from each other.

This is really cruel of me to say, but doesn't Will Smith (the Resident Tech) look exactly like Chaz Bono?:wow

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It was really good to see Steven doing so well. I hope that continues. I also hope Seth follows in Steven's footsteps. I really like him and hope he stays sober.

As for Tom and Heidi, I couldn't agree with you more. They so need to stay away from each other. If not, they'll both being using again. :sad

And now that you mention it, I do think Will looks a lot like Chaz Bono. :eek

I think the return of Seth was fake. He didn't look like he was in bad shape; he didn't appear to go though any withdrawal difficulty while he was there. I think the whole "we have grieved for you already" was Drew's chance to do some drama. I think he came back to collect some money since Kari Ann was gone. Their shared agent arranged for him to go in as her paid replacement. He looked too healthy the whole time.

I think you're right, ibot. That sleazy agent seems to use these recovery shows like cash cows. I remember toward the end of Sex Rehab that Kendra started talking about how her real addiction was alcohol. And I thought, oh she's angling to get on the next Celebrity Rehab. I was surprised when she didn't appear in that cast, but sure enough, Sober House rolled around and there she was.

What's really disappointing, though, is that Dr. Drew appears to complicit in all this. You can argue that, well, they're all addicted and they all need help. But if he's making decisions based on ratings rather than professional ethics then he's going to lose all credibility, if he hasn't already.

Apparently Dr. Drew is trying to make Celebrity Rehab more A-list. There are reports that producers offered Lindsay Lohan $1,000,000 to appear on the next season, followed by Sober House. Lindsay turned it down because she doesn't think she has a problem, and doesn't want anything to do with Dr. Drew after his comments to the media.

They've also approached Heather Locklear, Jenna Jameson, and Charlie Sheen, all of whom turned it down (although Jenna passed her drug test when her husband accused her of being addicted to Oxycontin, so her decision is justified).

Wouldn't be surprised in the least to see Puck (Real World SF) on the next season, considering that he was recently arrested for a drunk driving accident with his 8 year old son in the car.

I'm so addicted to this show.

What disturbs me most is that most of these people have really deep psychological issues beneath their addictions that don't seem to be dealt with properly. Perhaps more is done than we see, but most of the time we only see the Dr. scratching the surface and not getting to the base of it.

Kari Ann.
Someone mentioned upthread that she seems to hate women. I'd like to qualify what I'm about to say by stating that there are many girls and women who compete in pagaents who are fabulous people; they get a lot from the experience and form great friendships. But much depends upon how being a part of pagaents is approached. I suspect that Kari Ann's entire sense of self-WORTH is based on her competition with other females and how men view her. She has sex because it's validation of her worth. If men are attracted, then she is something. If they're not, she's nothing. I suspect she had the worst kind of pagaent mom living. Her mom probably saw her OWN worth contigent on Kari Ann's success. Of course, viewing yourself as Kari Ann does doesn't make any person feel good about themselves... so self-destruction with drugs and casual sex ensues. Kari Ann has DEEP rooted problems that need to be dealt with. The best thing they could do for this girl is find her something else she is GOOD at... some talent, something that she can draw value from and start seeing other good parts of herself.

Tom and Heidi
Need to be apart, and now. There's no side to pick here. Being physically abusive is NO worse than being mentally abusive. There were a couple on my street that were into drugs and had a similar relationship. He was physically abusive towards her at one point, they broke up, and then a restraining order was put against him by her. But that didn't stop her from showing up at his house at one o'clock in the morning , stoned, and standing in his driveway screaming at him, trying to goad him on. She was TRYING to get him going, pushing him, almost like she was hoping he'd hit her again. It was insane. Now, he should have just stayed in the house. But of course he didn't... fortunately, the cops were called before any physical abuse happened again. This scenario was played out many times.
You can see Tom's blood boil just hearing Heidi's name much of the time... that doesn't just go away. He has SEVERE anger problems that need to be dealt with properly and independantly of his drug issues. I think Heidi's problems are actually quite similar... her passive aggressive ways of goading Tom are a result of anger as well... she's just far more manipulative and less outwardly emotional and seems to be in more control. She isn't.

Mike.
Like Kari Ann, Mike needs to find worth in something, ANYthing. He needs to be doing something!! I think half the reason he's so manic/depressive is that he spends every minute of everyday in his own mind, and not filling his time with something useful to do. This guy would REALLY benefit from finding work that he enjoyed and found worth in.

I'm sure many of these addicts suffer psychological problems, whether personality disorders, or manic depressiveness or depression, psychosis, etc. Addiction is a problem, but so often, it is a symptom, not the real problem.


As an aside:
I would love to send the whole lot of them to a third world country and have them build a house or something... :lol they desperately are in need of perspective, and I think not only seeing how much of the world lives (and how good these addicts actually have it... many seem to just wallow in the self-pity) coupled with doing something WORTHWHILE for another human being would be good therapy for many of these people. Eh, it probably wouldn't be effective, but a little reality certainly wouldn't hurt them. I'm sure Haiti is always in need of some helping hands. I'm probably wrong, many of them would maybe shut down completely and demand to be pulled out of there. But you never know.

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Originally Posted by spockwhat;3891434;

I would love to send the whole lot of them to a third world country and have them build a house or something... :lol they desperately are in need of perspective, and I think not only seeing how much of the world lives (and how good these addicts actually have it... many seem to just wallow in the self-pity) coupled with doing something WORTHWHILE for another human being would be good therapy for many of these people. Eh, it probably wouldn't be effective, but a little reality certainly wouldn't hurt them. I'm sure Haiti is always in need of some helping hands. I'm probably wrong, many of them would maybe shut down completely and demand to be pulled out of there. But you never know.

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What a GREAT idea that is!!!!! And what a great show that would make! The producers could even send them to New Orleans or some other severely depressed area right here in our own country, and let them do good for some folks who are really in need of some help!!!!

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Originally Posted by Imperfect1;3891946;

What a GREAT idea that is!!!!! And what a great show that would make! The producers could even send them to New Orleans or some other severely depressed area right here in our own country, and let them do good for some folks who are really in need of some help!!!!

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It's a great idea, but I suspect they have too many whiners for that. No fresh orange juice served chilled in the a.m. and cell phone reception is not good. I'm just kidding, but really. I doubt the people we have seen on Sober House could hang in that environment.

I'm trying to remember who on the show, I think it was on Celeb Fit Club that said that Cari Ann had a borderline personality? Was it Shelly or McKenzie Phillips?