I am the only ex addict that thinks this show is stupid?

Wow ... If you can't wrap your brain around this show and understand it then apparently you may need to go for an 8th time or maybe you're brain is just too late . This guy is the real deal , This guy is a real guy and his crew is real people who have experienced going through it and If you would watch the entire season I think you would get that.

This show isn't like intervention , All intervention shows is that the people have a problem and there family is supporting them . You have to understand that this is a dramatic Hollywood twist show of a drug attic who went through an experience and found god on the way little by little . I am sure that everything that happens on the show isn't 100% true and it needs that Hollywood twist too make it sell but in fact this man has a family that had its ups and downs and his work is helping other addicts get better , He even clearly states that its a 25% chance that it works , That other 75% means it's back to addicting .

This show is not stupid in anyway , But it can reach an audience of addicts and understand other peoples situation like them or it can attract other people who are doing it but not addicted yet and seeing what could happen to them or its just a show for people to experience that this is not the way they want to go and they need to completely quit before it gets to late or just don't do it .

Justin:

Nobody on the series of The Clean claims it is easy to kick the abuse habit. William (based on the life of Warren Boyd), often says it is difficult to beat addiction.

There is one episode, I forget the season or the epi but it is the one where Banks and a "professional" interventionist go toe to toe over the same case. The mother hires the Interventionist whereas the sister hires Banks.

Throughout the entire episode this interventionist is seemingly pissed because Banks does not have a degree in psychology yet Banks continues to help those who come to him. One of the lines in the series is that Banks does not go about looking cases; he's not in the phone book. Much of his work is by word of mouth. There is another episode when he is talking to his creator around the time he is approached by someone in need of help. He talks to his creator asking him/her if this creator is sending him cases now.

In the case of the interventionist vs Banks there is a mention of both having only a 25+/- % of helping those that come to each of them to get clean and stay that way. The interventionist seems peeved about Banks' determination to help addicts that come his way. The interventionist claims that with Bank's connection to his higher being then he should have a better record yet he still has the same record of continual treatment of the "professional shrink."

This episode made the professional shrink appear as if he had this jealousy streak a mile wide. It is also IMHO that the professional shrink seems to have lost his compassion for the person with the addiction as well as the connection with the family members pleading with him for help. Banks has yet to put his own needs or desires above those of the clients he assists when it would clearly help his family become more of a cohesive unit without all the complications his job; however, his desire to help others rarely if ever waivers.

Banks does his homework on the addict and family along with the help of his crew to find out more about the client in order to figure out the best manner to approach the problem and the addict to give them the best chance of survival from addiction.

BTW, all Banks & Co does is work to detox the patient if possible or takes them directly to the hospital when the level mf medical care is much higher than Banks & Co can handle.

Detoxing is never easy. As Banks' character said once to parent of an addicted son when she asked if he was going to get better he responded that it was all "uphill from here." I interpret this as being the equivolent to the fact that before the intervention of Banks' team, the young boy couldn't see the hill let alone realize he could climb it and go beyond the other side; however, w/ all he's been through, at least at this point he can actually SEE the hill where before, it was not even visible.

Sure, there is a bit of Hollywood in the program; however, I have to give props to the writers, directors, producers, and the actors - not all their interventions end with the fairytale ending. Remember Mikey? Remember the mother of the alcoholic parents of that little girl? The husband wanted sobriety yet the mother didn't so she left...

Not all of Banks' cases are the happly ever after - including Banks' own family as it relates to his addiction, recovering addiction.





"My stories propel mundane lives into magical worlds where all is possible." -Paisley

No such thing as an Ex addict. Once an addict always an addict anyone who's been to rehab 7 times should know that.

"I've been blessed by having a family with enough money to provide me with top notch professional help. 7 times I might add"

Wow you're lucky. Not many people have money to go to treatment once much less 7 times. Where I live there really aren't many places, if any, that are any good to get treatment. That's for drugs and any mental issues which often go hand in hand. A friend is Schzophoeffective(sp)and an alcoholic and now on pain meds for his back and he goes thru those more and more as time goes by. There's no place left around here for him to go as he owes money and doesn't have it being on disability and all. It can be rather grim.

I spent 17 yrs in the disease, DEEP in the disease. Using, muling, collecting. First alcohol, then weed & cigarettes, shrooms & acid, pills & coke, then finally, speed & heroin. This all came on the heels of classic extreme dysfunctionalism in my home and family of origin environment. Then the capper: I was in front of a judge looking at 25 to life.

Then it came to an end, I went away for 14 1/2 months, came out and started my life over again. From scratch!

Today, nearly 20 years later, I am a Certified Counselor and Crisis Interventionist. I do what the Cleaner is all about.

I also do a little bit of acting. Yes there is a bit of 'Artistic license' taken by the Producers and Directors who make the show. But that is for the expediency of making an hour-long weekly show. However the essence of the interventions depicted are solid and they do range in variation across the full spectrum from what I consider fairly simple and on the easier side to interventions which can put peoples lives in the crossfire of the disease and everythiing that goes with the lifestyle it breeds.

Let's not forget that Warren Boyd IS REAL and he is a Producer on the show. Warren has lived the story the show is based upon. Many of the stories are constructed from excerpts of the experiences he's had as an Interventionist.

I can tell you too, that many of the "Degreed and licensed professionals" who work in the field of addiction and WHO ARE NOT recovering addicts are not very gracious nor respectful toward those of us who ARE! There is a chasm between the "Self-Help Recovery Community" and the "Professional Recovery Community" which very few people from either side have made much effort to bridge and close.

The disease lives anywhere it wants to and therefore we need to be willing and able to hunt it down and kill it wherever it rears its ugly head. This requires all of us in all our diversity.

The disease and recovery from it will present as many differed experiences as there are addicts out there in the world.

Ever wonder why there are over 800 different versions of 12 step recovery out there? That's only 12 step! It's becasue there are so many people with one version of the disease of addiction or another who are all convinced they are "Terminally Unique". Try looking for the similarities from time to time and not TERMINALLY focusing on the differences. They will kill you in the end. I've seen people with over 20 years get loaded and die because of them!

Until next time, May you live in interesting times! Rock C C Conway Jr

7 times? So much for "top notch" treatment. lol I also see the OP hasn't returned after 5 pages of comments. Nope, nothing top notch going on here except this show.

I had to laugh at the OP who said it looks like you don't care enough about this thread to even come back and comment. 7 times, eh? I had a close relative who only got 2 three day weekends because that's all she could afford and that was 10 years before she died. She died from alcoholism at age 41.

I watch this show even if it is a little cheesy and sometimes unrealistic but I find many of the comments made about addicts and their effect on family and friends to be very realistic. I find it also realistic in the types of comments made by addicts to their family when they're drunk or high.

In point of fact, this show has helped me heal, because in most cases of death by addiction, the addict's family members have an awful time coping with guilt that they should not bear.

It's not as if we don't know we should feel no guilt, but it's there, anyway, and lingers for a long time.

I'm not sure why you find it "utter nonsense" unless you're a troll or lied about being an addict. Or maybe you just don't like seeing what you looked like.

I suppose I'll never know the answer to that, will I?



"As the Philosopher Jagger said, you can't always get what you want."

?Don't you still consider yourselves as Recovering addicts? 'Cause you'll be an addict the rest of your life if ya slip. Cause Bratt still says addict and/or recovering. Also in Social work and probation they refer to the as recovering addicts...


-X