A&E struck gold back in 2005 when they launched the Emmy-winning Intervention, a docu-style series following alcoholics, drug addicts and those struggling with other disorders from the depths of their addictions through a staged intervention and, if all goes well, off to treatment. Though briefly canceled in 2013, the show was revived just a year later and is now continuing its 15th season. This week’s episode aired as the 18th episode of Season 15 on Sunday, August 14th.
This is Megan
On the edge of 24 years old, Megan finds herself unemployed, living with her father, Scott, cringe-worthy codependent sister, Alex, and hopelessly addicted to “huffing” keyboard cleaner—that is, holding an aerosol can to her lips and inhaling the difluoroethane gas that is expelled when discharged. If this sounds almost as weird as people who snack on couches, it might surprise you that, according to a survey by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, 13.1 percent of eighth-graders have used an inhalant to get high. In other words, huffing is the not-so-new black. (It was also the drug of choice for Alison, the girl featured in one of the most famous episodes of all time.)
Once surrounded by friends and dubbed “just fun to be around,” Megan has managed to alienate the people who love her in exchange for spending long nights, and any money she has, getting high on whatever she can get her hands on—crack, meth, ecstasy, but most often, dust cleaner.
If she continues to use inhalants the way she has been, doctors have given Megan one year to live. And since she has shown no signs of slowing down, her family is consumed by the fear that they are going to watch her die.
What It Was Like
Alex remembers their childhood as being very happy and says that she and Megan were close. Megan’s mother, Sian, claims that her youngest daughter was always full of life, passionate about rescuing stray animals and dreamed of being a veterinarian. But Megan’s innocent and loving spirit was broken after her parent’s messy divorce at the age of five. Megan and Alex were shuttled back and forth every two or three days between their parent’s respective homes and life at each one could not have been more different.
While Scott kept the girls busy with sports—hiking, fishing, karate—and annual vacations to Florida, Sian was going through her own transformation as a newly single mom and undiagnosed bipolar. Whatever stability the girls got at their dad’s house was immediately dismantled by their mother’s unpredictability.
What Happened
At the age of eight, Megan was molested by a family friend. It was this abuse and the lack of protection her parents were able to offer her around it that is at the root of Megan’s pain. Though Scott felt that he had addressed the problem at the time, he later found out it went on for another two years. He now admits that he didn’t handle the situation properly and Megan still holds him responsible for that.
It was at this point that Megan began self-destructing. “I just started saying ‘Yes’ to anything bad,” she says. “My grades started to drop and I started feeling depressed.”
Megan came out as a lesbian when she was 16. Her first girlfriend, Bailey, was her first partner in crime and as Megan recalls it, “drugs were a big part of that relationship.” They spent a lot of time together, going to raves and doing ecstasy. When they broke up, Megan’s drug use took off and in her junior year, she dropped out of high school and moved out of her dad’s house.
What It’s Like Now
Seven years later, the only thing that has progressed in Megan’s life is her addiction. Back living in Scott’s house after being fired for using drugs at work, Megan huffs six or more cans of inhalant a day. Though the high from compressed air lasts less than five minutes and can cause instant heart failure, Megan says that the feeling is so good that nothing else matters— like having a heart attack before your 25th birthday.
“I’ve got two personalities,” Megan admits, “the one I let friends and family see and then the life I keep separate—bad Megan—where I go out and get high.”
If watching Megan use inhalants—her face contouring and twitching into a weird paranoid state—isn’t troubling enough, she reportedly also gets violent. Alex recalls a time it took eight police offers to calm her sister down after she smashed a window when she was drunk and had been huffing.
Megan has resorted to stealing money from her family and prostituting herself for drugs. But the most heartbreaking moment we witness is when she receives a $250 check from her grandpa for her birthday and immediately spends the whole bit on crystal meth, smoking it slowly as to not “have heart palpitations and want to kill myself.” And I suppose that makes sense. Would her grandfather be happy to know she spent her birthday money doing what she loved? Yeah, probably not.
After compulsively picking her skin and “carpet surfing” for drugs, Megan runs into Alex who wants to know why her sister seems “off,” even though she totally knows why. Not surprisingly, Alex doesn’t get the heart-to-heart conversation from her high-as-fuck baby sister that she apparently hoped for and storms off to resentfully bake her a birthday cake—a pretty advanced example of sibling rivalry.
But as you can probably guess, the birthday cake and its affixed candles never fulfill its intended purpose. Instead, Megan circumvents blowing out the candles by sneaking out the back door to blow more birthday money on drugs.
The Pre-Intervention
Scott, Sian, Alex and some of Megan’s oldest friends sit down with Canadian interventionist Maureen Brine to discuss what to expect during the intervention. Brine asks what they think Megan will say is the cause of where she is right now. “She might bring up the abuse that she says her dad was aware of,” Sian says. “And when Megan drinks and her anger comes out, she will say ‘Mom, you’re a skank and you ruined my life,’ so I have to be prepared for that.”
Brine encourages Megan’s parents to acknowledge their mistakes and make a direct amends to their daughter. “Megan is the one who is acting out the family pain,” she says. And though everyone, including Megan, thinks that it’s the abuse that is behind her pain, at this point, it’s probably more about what has happened (or not happened) since. “It’s not so much the disconnect that happen in our lives,” Brine says, “but the lack of repair afterwards.”
Brine encourages Megan’s family and friends to read their letters slowly and from the heart and assures them that even if Megan declines treatment, the intervention is still on.
The Intervention
The morning of the intervention, Megan’s family (dressed mostly in black) gathers while Megan prepares for her “final interview” by smoking meth. When she arrives, Megan reacts to her entire family’s presence by not reacting at all. She behaves overly casual, as if she was expecting this.
Even before the first letter is read—by her high school friend, Claire—Megan is crying and says something that gets bleeped out. Claire is crying too, which is complicated by the fact that she has serious fake eyelashes on. Let’s just hope the glue she used was waterproof. “We’ve been friends for almost 10 years and there has never been a more serious moment in our friendship than right now,” Claire says. “I want you to take this help being offered to you.”
At this point, Brine tells Megan that each letter has a bottom line attached to it so that everyone can communicate how serious this is for them. But when Claire tells Megan that if she doesn’t accept help she will have no choice but to cut Megan out of her life, Megan loses it. “I needed you guys so bad…and it’s not your fault but fuck man, did it ever hurt to have none of you do anything.”
Megan tries to leave to have a cigarette but when no one will let her, she storms out of the room—immediately followed by a visibly hysterical Alex and Scott. Brine tells Alex to stay behind while she and Scott follow Megan outside. Ultimately, it’s one of the producers who is able to reason with Megan and convince her to return to the room and hear everyone out.
After some resistance, and an assurance that she will be able to get high first, Megan agrees to go to treatment. Her friends and family are tearful with joy and relief. Everyone hugs.
By the time Brine walks Megan into treatment at Cedars in Cobble Hill in Victoria, British Columbia, Megan is shaking and going through severe withdrawals—probably the worst I have seen since covering the show.
Three Months Later
Ninety days into treatment, Megan is an entirely different person. Though she looks essentially the same, she has lost the fidgety elusiveness that overpowered her during most of the episode and she appears to be clear, present and much more mature. “I have learned to be compassionate towards others and more importantly, I have learned to have some compassion for myself,” she says.
Alex comes to visit and the reunion is joyful and loving. Megan says her sister is her rock. “Since the few months ago that I saw her,” Alex says, “she has really transformed.” Megan is hopeful about her future and has aspirations to travel and see the world.
After treatment, Megan moved into a sober living facility and has been sober since March 14, 2016.
Photo courtesy of PiccoloNamek (English wikipedia) [GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons (resized and cropped)
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