It reads like a catalogue of crisis and despair, but one with a potential silver lining.
Tales of drug and alcohol addiction pile up like empties in a boozer's recycling bin. Demons threaten to destroy the lives of addicts like Kent, a young Alberta family man with a 17-beera-day habit; Lyndsay, an award-winning dancer whose OxyContin addiction is derailing a promising arts career; and Travis, 20, a nomadic dude who had a rough childhood and is hooked on booze and gambling since the apparent suicide of his sister a year after she was gang-raped.
They're just three of millions of Canadians who struggle with addiction, albeit at the extreme end of the spectrum.
Even boiled down into synopses of Season 2 episodes of Intervention sa国际传媒, their back stories are so horrific and heartbreaking, you wonder how addiction counsellors such as Sue Donaldson do what they do day in and day out.
"If that was the end of the story, I wouldn't have survived in this field," says Donaldson, a certified interventionist and founder of Victoria's Pegasus Recovery Solutions. Although she admits she's been to a lot of funerals, she says the upside is she's seen many people recover and lead fulfilling lives after an intervention - an outcome many didn't think was possible.
"Often, an intervention is the last resort for a family, which is unfortunate," says Donaldson, who facilitates one such intervention during the second season of the series, which premi猫res Monday at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Slice.
Each episode culminates in a dramatic confrontation with the help of interventionists Donaldson, Andrew Galloway, Maureen Brine or Joey Marcelli. It offers the subject a path to recovery in one of sa国际传媒's top addiction treatment centres, including Cedars at Cobble Hill, Fresh Start Recovery Centre (Calgary), Baldy Hughes (Prince George) and Renascent (Toronto).
"You can intervene earlier in the progression of disease and once you engage the whole family, changes can be made," says Donaldson, who has done addictions counselling since 1995. "They talk about things they never talked about, like secrets or family members who are enabling or turned a blind eye."
It's that sense of hope - and witnessing firsthand the transformation of addicts after potentially life-saving interventions - that prompted Donaldson to do Intervention sa国际传媒.
"I met [producer] Karen Wookey when the show was in the concept stage, and I got that her heart was in the right place," said Donaldson, who certainly didn't have any illusions of becoming a Canadian "reality TV" equivalent of Dr. Drew.
"It did occur to me that people would question that, and that the whole idea is possibly offensive to some people."
She says it was the show's "educational component" and how it shows the difference a family can make that intrigued her. "I admired [Wookey's] commitment to using it as a vehicle to help individuals who suffer with addictions and would likely never be able to pay for an intervention," Donaldson said. "It provides treatment for those people."
In episode 7, which airs Oct. 8, Donaldson comes to the aid of Jessica, a 22-yearold Lower Mainland woman who has been partying since she was 14, was sexually abused as a child, began doing heroin at 19 and parties with men twice her age.
An attractive, self-absorbed young woman, Jessica has descended into such an abyss that she has alienated herself from her siblings. With an alcoholic but well-meaning father illequipped to help her kick her expensive habit, and a mother who enables her, the self-destructive party girl is deep into the danger zone.
She jokes that "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and leads what someone calls "the most selfish existence ever."
The footage of Jessica's deterioration is unflinching, and both her and her family's candour can be shocking, setting the stage for a wake-up call in the form of the family's intervention, led by Donaldson.
"This young woman's situation was dire," said the interventionist. "She was headed to what likely would be death, or close to death."
Donaldson said Intervention sa国际传媒 is instructive in part because it helps convey how what has often been regarded as a moral or behavioural issue is now accepted as a disease.
"Once a family can be educated and understands that loved ones are in the grips of something out of control, and can consolidate the caring and concern they have, they can really change it up."
She said the series also underscores how families need education, support and possibly some help themselves. And it dispels the idea that individuals with addiction problems are a specific group.
"Addiction doesn't discriminate," says Donaldson, a strong advocate of 12-step recovery programs. "They're from every walk of life - judges, lawyers, pilots, anesthesiologists."
Is facilitating an intervention with the cameras rolling much different than doing one privately?
"Very much so. It adds to what can already be an anxiety-producing experience," she said. "But as I engaged with individuals, I forgot that the camera was there."
With her nationwide TV exposure ahead, don't expect Donaldson to give up her day job.
"I'm not a celebrity," she said, chuckling. "I'm not used to cameras. It's not what I do."
