In our final chat with Dr. Drew regarding this season of Celebrity Rehab, we discuss the live reunion show that aired this week (did you hear that it was live?). Drew talks about the state of the celebs: Frankie’s “active illness,” Leif’s willfulness, Jason Wahler’s service work and Janice’s talkativeness. He also tells us what he wanted to cover that time didn’t allow and gives us his final take on this season of the show…
How do you think the live reunion broadcast went?
It was good. We really didn’t know where we were going. As far as the group, the outcome was about what I expected. I keep my finger on the pulse of what’s happening with all of these guys. Frankie was better than I thought she would be, but it’s still frightening to me what she’s flirting with. I don’t think she gets what’s going to happen if she continues to use and how much treatment she needs.
When she said that she was doing aftercare with her family, I thought, “That’s not aftercare.”
Yeah, it’s not, but I didn’t want to get into it. It was like, “OK. Move on.” She knows what aftercare we prescribed. Eric Roberts has been doing astonishingly well, but I knew that. We’ve been working with Rachel and have been aware of how well she’s doing. It was really interesting to see her and Amber Smith connect. They spent a lot of time after the show hanging out, and they’re going to go to meetings together. Beforehand, I wasn’t thinking about how closely aligned some of their stuff is, but they immediately saw it. Janice I knew was doing well and I knew she’d be helpful and not hurtful. Even though it seemed like everyone was anxious she’d be difficult, I knew she’d be fine. Jason Wahler was one I was worried about, because I keep hearing stories, not knowing what’s real and what’s not. The fact that he’s working for a program, I have mixed feelings about. It’s great that he’s being of service and he’s around a program and he’s helping newcomers. That’s a very important thing. But usually, those programs don’t let you do that unless you’ve been sober for five years or at least one year. That worries me. I don’t know what kind of program lets a newcomer do that. But I’m happy he’s doing it.
What about Leif?
Leif I knew was out. He broke his clavicle and was prescribed pain meds and, of course, that’s the end of that. I was still surprised at how willful he was, but I was also surprised at how emotional he was. He knows we’re around, and I just hope he does something one of these days.
Him being all wrapped up and wearing sunglasses seemed like an immediate red flag.
Oh yeah. It really was interesting to me how much he reminded me of Bob when he was using. The disease is so powerful in some of these guys. He’s one of those guys where you can see the person once in a while, and then you see the disease and it’s like, “Aw, crap. I can’t be around that.” It’s too painful.
What about Jeremy?
I knew he’d been doing well, and I was glad to see his dad thought he was doing well. It surprised me how quiet he was during the whole thing. He spoke when addressed, but was not really active. I don’t know what to make of that. Part of it may have been from talks with production. They were so nervous about being able to talk about certain things and not talk about certain things in relation to his kidnapping. There were all sorts of legal issues and landmines, so he may have been instructed to pipe down.
And that leaves Jason Davis.
Jason looked good. He seems to be good right now. Janice was insinuating that she’d seen him drinking. I’d heard rumors about that, but none of it was substantiated. He has been in programs, which has been great, but like I said, he scares us because he gets so sick so fast and the medical consequences are so dangerous that there’s no room to spare. He’s just got to be in a structured environment. I’ve not seen him actively participate in any real recovery yet, but I hope that’s to come.
The weird thing about the Janice story was that while she was taking others to task for going out and partying, the only way she could have seen them doing it is by going out herself.
I think she probably just meant she saw him at dinner or something. She’s really not doing much. She sees Shelly everyday. If not that, at least three to five times a week. She’s really working hard. It’s incredible. She goes to meetings. The only thing she’s not doing is sponsoring other people, but she probably doesn’t feel strong enough to do that yet. She is deeply and actively involved. It’s phenomenal.
What did you make of Jason and Jason’s “sober network” idea?
You don’t work in the field till you’ve been sober many years. I don’t know what that was. I found a way to move onto another topic pretty quick.
After Frankie’s package, you pointed out that people in the audience were giggling at her.
They were laughing! She’s funny! She really is funny. Janice sort of screamed out, “This isn’t funny, she’s sick!” I was going to say, “She’s not a cartoon character.” It was a thought bubble over my head. I wondered if people understood that this wasn’t a cartoon character: this was a person in trouble. But I kind of let Janice say it.
And just to underscore Frankie’s situation, the whole, “I’m not drinking liquor, I’m drinking beer or whatever” is a slippery slope, right?
That’s not a slippery slope, that’s active illness. It’s waiting for the next shoe to drop before it gets bad.
Did you catch that she seemed to imply that she’s been drinking Four Loko? She said she was drinking something they took off the market…
I didn’t hear that! That’s so ridiculous. Come on, Frankie. Going from Hennessy to Four Loko? That’s why I wanted to revisit what Shelly said to Frankie during graduation: “You are the most severe addict I have ever seen.” Shelly, who’s seen everything! Frankie needs long-term treatment if there’s any possibility of real success. She just isn’t up for that. The best we can hope for is that she survives and is OK day to day.
I think this all emphasizes how big of a commitment is needed: Frankie talked about having a situation with her family that she needed to take care of, which is understandable. But it obviously keeps her from investing fully in recovery.
That’s why it’s almost impossible to get people to do this work until they’re really done. It’s hard and it’s time-consuming work. You have to be very, very motivated. If you’re just sort of getting by and you want to stay high, and things are kind of going OK, it’s very hard to be motivated to change. Things have to collapse, and then you say to them, “See where this goes? You tried it. Look where it goes. It goes there every time…Charlie Sheen.”
What did you think of the amount of talking Janice did? She said more on stage than probably everyone else put together.
I appreciated that. It was supposed to be a show with interaction, and I needed that. I was partly responsible for that because I’d go to her because she was piping up. And No. 2 was Rachel. And they’re two that are doing well, so I’m happy to have people doing well piping up. It’s when the ones that are loaded start talking that I have to watch out. Then you have no idea where it’s going.
Was there anything that you didn’t have time to cover that you wish you did?
I was very anxious to get involved with the alumni that were there. I thought Amber was going through some interesting territory and we heard nothing from Jenn Gimenez or Jessica. Jessica’s story is tremendous. Now she’s having her second child. We didn’t get to any of that. I guess the larger point is that everyone was changed by this experience. Everyone who signed up for it.
Any final thoughts on this season?
[My thoughts are] probably less profound than you’d expect. I was happy they all came to the reunion. As Rachel pointed out, that tells you something. I was happy they physically looked better, for the most part. And emotionally, they all seemed in a better place. I was happy that we could tell them one more time that it’s not always a straight line to recovery, but don’t give up and we’re always here. That’s an important thing for them to hear. And it’s just crazy how this program helps people ? Janice said it took her, what? Twenty-seven years? Same with Sizemore: we tried to get him sober for 10 years and then he gets sober on TV. It’s like, wow. This is so interesting. We’ve found something very interesting with all this.
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