When I was 8 years old my uncle went into rehab, so I learned at a young age the negative effects of drugs. But most people don't have that luxury.
Tonight on Vh1 at 10p C
elebrity Rehab with Dr Drew premieres and shows you what rehab is like. Jeff Conaway is the worst and the main focus of the first two episodes as well as he should be. His extreme downfall scares everyone including the celebs who are in rehab. He is so far gone after doing $1,000 worth of prescription and recreational drugs the 24 hours before going into rehab. As he enters he is drinking champagne in the car. He is so bad that his speech is so slurred even subtitles can't capture what he saying and he needs to get around in a wheelchair. He looks and sounds like someone who has last-stage ALS or Alzheimer's it makes you want to cry and this is before the first commercial break. He gets worse and worse as the show goes on and he is taken to the hospital because his withdrawal is so bad he had a seizure. The other rehabbers watch him being taken away in horror.
Brigette Nielson, Mary Carey, Chyna are all in for alcohol abuse, Jamie Foxworth is in for pot, Seth Binzer and Jessica Sierra coke and alcohol and Daniel Baldwin is there for a check-up I guess you can say.
The show starts out with the celebs just before rehab, entering rehab and telling Dr Drew why they are there and then getting checked out. Seth Binzer in the before asks the cameras to stop rolling because he wants to buy some drugs after showing us him smoking crack. We see Jessica Sierra partying to the point of hurling, Mary Carey slur her words saying she is not drunk and Jamie and her friends getting high before they leave for a party.
They enter the facility, choose their rooms and have their stuff inspected. Mary who came in drunk is bummed because they take away her porn, dildos and a strap-on.
Next we have group meetings and they get to know each other and one-on-ones. The group meetings are extremely intense and touching. We see a whole new side to Brigette who becomes the resident mother and helps the others through their mother issues. It will make you cry.
We also see a much different Brigette and Chyna who are nothing like they were when they were on The Surreal Life, but we see the same screwed up Jeff Conaway we saw on Celebrity Fit Club. I have to say I do not remember Daniel Baldwin on CFC and I can live without him on Celeb Rehab. He is all preachy and acts like he is better than everyone else because he has been sober for almost a year.
Also on the show we watch as they go through the stages of rehab. The just entering rehab still a little intoxicated to withdrawing to trying to live life sober and it is quite amazing.
This show does not glamorize rehab, but shows you what it is really like. And in a day when celebs are getting busted for DUI every week, and making it look cool. A show like this is mandatory to show it is not cool and a lifestyle teens should not look up to.
We know that show did not work for everyone. Jessica Sierra was arrested while intoxicated and has been sentenced to a year of rehab, some of which she will do with Dr Drew when she is allowed to leave the Florida. And the reality is not everyone gets clean the first time they try rehab like Daniel Baldwin who was in 11 times before this and Jeff Conaway who was in at least one other time.
So tune into Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew tonight on Vh1 at 10p and see the other side of celebrity drug use. Or if you have a teen watch it with them so they can see the pit falls of drug and alcohol abuse.
