HBO's 'Rehab' Shows Dark Side of Addiction April 18, 2005
News Summary
Many movies portray people with addictions as noble or tragic, but a new HBO series sends the message that addiction ultimately makes people boring and self-absorbed, the New York Times reported April 18.The documentary follows five young people in Santa Cruz, Calif., as they struggle with addiction, recovery, and relapse. Each is a resident of the Camp Recovery treatment center. Unlike "Intervention," the current A&E reality show, "Rehab" pulls no punches when it comes to relapses and overdoses, and it demonstrates the role that mundane issues like low self-esteem and having easy access to cash and drugs can play in fostering addiction.
"It not fun to even get high anymore," says one subject of the documentary, 21-year-old Tiffani. "It hasn't been fun for the last year and a half. You just do it because you can't think of anything else to do."
"Rehab" viewers see Tiffani and the others living out an essentially boring existence, with treatment sessions and cafeteria meals interspersed with scenes of petty theft, sleeping in cars, and shooting up in dingy hotel rooms. By the end of the documentary, only one of the subjects has managed to stay clean.
"Intervention," although more melodramatic, offers another important lesson: that addiction can happen to anyone from a traditional housewife to a welder to a gay man.
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