A new season of A&E’s Intervention premiered this week and, as The Ashley previously told you, this season features a different format than seasons past.
To mark the new season’s premiere, interventionist Ken Seeley took to Reddit for an AMA session where he answered viewers’ burning questions about the show and the intervention process.
With this season focusing on opioid addiction in the “Heroin Triangle” of Georgia, Ken explained that it’s a particularly difficult addiction to break; however, he’s confident that it can be done when the right steps are taken.
“ … if you do an intervention and get the family on the same page, the success rate jumps 50 percent according to recent studies,” Ken said. “That’s our job as interventionist is to help the family learn to move forward appropriately.”
Ken added that he believes the United States can overcome the opioid crisis by following doctor diversion programs and aftercare.
“We could make a huge change,” he said.
Below are Ken’s answers to some of the most-commonly asked questions he gets about the show.
Q: The show has been on for years. How do the addicts still not know that they are filming for ‘Intervention?’
“They don’t [know] because of the way it’s set up,” he wrote. “They don’t think it’s a production. It doesn’t seem like TV, they don’t connect the dots.
“They have no idea that they’re on the show ‘Intervention,’” Ken added. “If they do we shut down production. They have agreed to be filmed and are approved by a doctor.”
Q: How do the producers decide which of the show’s interventionists to match with each addict?
Ken explained that all participants on the show are seen by a doctor prior to the intervention process to ensure they are stable enough to handle it and each one is matched with an interventionist after producers get to know the addict’s family and more about the addiction.
“Each [interventionist] is picked by the producers after getting to know the family and getting information about the addict,” Ken wrote. “It’s like picking the treatment center, knowing the family and the addict, which treatment center and interventionist would be best for that family system.
Q: How do the producers decide which addicts to feature on the show?
As for the severity of the addictions and choosing who to intervene, Ken said the selection process can be difficult.
“Anyone that is asked to come in and intervene on someone, it’s that bad,” he said. “If there’s a question at all, it’s that bad. It’s difficult to select who to intervene because so many people need this help.”
Q: What’s the hardest part of being an interventionist on this show?
While he’s been part of many ‘Intervention’ success stories, Ken acknowledges the difficulties that come with what he does, including knowing there were individuals unable to break their addictions.
“The hardest part of my job is helping families understand that they have a problem,” he wrote. “If they change their behavior, they can get a different result from their loved one. Most families believe it’s the addict that has the problem and don’t want to look inside.
“I have many moments and people that stick with me,” he added. “The ones that stick with me the most are the successful ones that have years of recovery, like someone who I intervened just celebrated 11 years sobriety. And some of the difficult ones stick with me, like when family members lose loved ones.”
Q: What’s your most-memorable ‘Intervention’ story?
“One of the ones that I’m proudest of is the episode where he fought us really hard and refused to go to treatment to the bitter end,” he wrote. “But when he surrendered he was able to spend his last few days before passing away from cancer with his loved ones clean and sober.”
Ken admitted he does have some regrets, though.
“Regarding the ones that I would do over, are the ones that may not have been successful and didn’t go into treatment,” he wrote. “I would like to go back and see what more I could’ve done to get the families to get their loved ones to surrender and into recovery.”
Q: How successful is ‘Intervention?’
In a Q& A session on the ‘Intervention’ Facebook page, Ken’s fellow interventionist Candy Finnigan gave some stats on how many of the addicts they help on the show actually stay sober.
“Over 78% of the people stay sober which is incredible. I am very grateful for that,” she wrote.
While Ken admitted that addictions to opiods are hard to break.
“I think the worst [addictions] to detox from are Suboxone and Methadone they have the most painful detox physically,” he added.
Ken stated that for an addict to stay clean, a longer rehab stay is often required.
“I think the treatment industry is changing, where they’re not looking at treatment as 30 or 90 days they’re looking at 1-5 years of case management and supportive help to gain long term recovery,” he wrote.
Ken, who is a recovering addict himself, revealed that he still works to maintain his sobriety, even decades after getting clean.
“Even though I have over 28 years sober, I still have to work a program and do things myself,” he wrote. “There is no destination; recovery is a process.”
To read Ken’s full Reddit AMA, click here!
(Photo: Facebook)
13 Responses
Your delusion that these folks have a camera in their face, and don’t know it’s for Intervention is hilarious. This show is as fixed as those storage shows. I don’t believe that they don’t know.
this, honestly, is such crap..there is NO way, that any rehab or treatement can provide 78 percent success rate – unless we’re talking about for 6 weeks or so..and thee’s no way Intervention can track and verify a user’s sboriety , so where is this absurbd number coming from? I would guess it’ more likely in the ten percent range.
Furthermore, I’ve been sober for 13 years, no slips, and went to inpatient treatment twice. The seconmd one did wonders…but i was also ready to quit. I did 6 months of AA after then gradually stopped after one year. Don’t get me wrong; AA is a great and other rthings are, as well.
But don’t listen to the crap that if you aren’t still in treatment, you’re not really sober lol..My life has never been better. While many poeple need continued treatment, there are others that don’t. Willpower plays a huuuuuuge part of recovery, but you never heara that word being used. Addicts are addicts….cigarette addicts quit and don’t need follow up treatment..
Now, many and most drug and alochol addicts have problems which require attention. But learning how to deal with one’s problems in a more productive way than drinking or drugging for some people does NOT take a lifetime of aftercare. Sorry, just telling the truth.
Wasn’t he “Christy’s” interventionist? That girl was/is batshit crazy, as in truly mentality ill, if she’s still alive.
You mean the Huffer? I think that was Jeff. They checked in with her and she was clean years later and in school to become a therapist. I think most of the smart ones that go back to school end up going to be a therapist or interventionist.
I love Jeff but I’m I wish he’d change up his lingo sometimes. It’s always “they live you like crazy and are willing to fight for your like and today were asking you to join the fight”. I thought it was a brilliant thing to say the first 60 times I heard it.
Ken is so weasley he kinda makes me wanna punch him. Especially if I was strung out and pissed off.
Crapo! Please excuse the typos. I need an intervention on my damn illiteracy (ala Charlie Kelly).
Was addicted to suboxone (non prescribed but there’s no difference really). VERY hard to kick.
Oh. So 21 days isn’t sufficient?
Ryan will relapse, its only a matter of time. I’m sorry, but 21 days with no aftercare, will not cure a years long heroin habit. His family is delusional and desperately needs therapy as well. His ‘wife’ is even more delusional. He is coddled. He thinks everything is Maci’s fault and not his. All these factors are telling signs that he will not stay sober.
I believe he already has.
Last week’s episode made me think he already relapsed. His manner of speech was off, he kept grilling M abt money left after mall, looked swollen in the hands..and was just mean. Idk, i think he relapsed that day on the boat w prob a beverage but H def back in the picture…
I agree.. His behavior during the scene with Mack and getting ready for the engagement pictures (vomit) was strange. My father was an addict. If they aren’t acting sober, they aren’t.
Agreed… the look Mack was giving him was the exact look she has given in the past when it was blatantly obvious he was high, like she knows something is off but wasn’t going to say anything with cameras on. She knew something was up with him.
Love Intervention. I think I’ve seen every episode. So many sad stories but they’ve helped so many people. And it will always seem odd that the addicts don’t know it’s the show Intervention!
I love the show too. It’s worth it to save even just one life. I don’t find it odd that they don’t figure it out. These are addicts who are so out of it.
I did see one episode where the woman figured it out and never went to treatment though