It's still cold...and I am turning my cold heart on VH1's Sober House!

One...it was NEGATIVE 22 degrees when I woke up this morning. That's crazy bananas, right? When I went to start my car this morning to go to work. Yep, it started...because my car is good to me. But the noise it made was flippin' hilarious. It sounded like a lawn mower when you start it. I was smart and let it warm up for 10 or 15 minutes before I headed out to work. I'd say that it was because I knew it was smart for good car maintenance, but I'll be honest...it was because I didn't want to drive to work in a freezing car with my hands on a steering wheel that felt like a block of ice.

Okay, enough about the cold. It's cold. Brrr. cold.

I just finished watching the first episode of VH1's Sober House. It is the reality spin off show to VH1's Celebrity Rehab. I now officially hate that show. I'm still gonna watch it...but I hate it.

Most people know that I work in the addictions/criminal justice field. I already had issues with Celebrity Rehab. I don't think that it is effective or even ethical to have people to go rehab and have cameras there. I don't think people can get what they need and get to the dark and ugly that is usually behind most addictions when people know that a camera is on them 24/7.

So, I grumbled when I heard they were putting their sober living on tv as well...especially since sober living can be so volatile. I recorded it on the dvr...and just finished the show. Ugh. One, this place is a trainwreck and doesn't function at all like the sober living/halfway houses I know. One, the men and women live together in a house. Umm, what? Not a good idea. I don't know of any successful halfway houses that are co-ed. Why don't you just make it a brothel to make it official. Ugh. Then, Stephen Adler...the drummer from Guns n Roses comes to the place higher than a kite. He comes in with heroin on him. They take what they can find, but they don't get all of it....which he hides and then takes. So, then he is high and with the other residents. He starts to react...and starts throwing up all over the place. Hmm...nice sober environment. Then...the woman in charge calls Dr. Drew...who I like to call Dr. Enabler.

He gets there...and asks the staff member if she would be okay with Stephen Adler staying in the house. Umm, what??? So, she says no...and thinks he should go back to treatment. Good call...she just doesn't win that argument. What is their decision....they decide to send him HOME with another staff member and bring him back the next day to the house. WTF??? He went to a treatment staff member's house for the night. That is just bananas. The halfway houses around here...you have to be 30 days sober in order to be in residence. If you relapse, you have to go back to treatment and show 30 days clean before you can come back...because if not, you are putting yourself and more importantly the other residents at risk.

The show is just about entertainment...and that is sad since people's addictions are not just for reality tv fodder. *rolls eyes* And the scenes from the upcoming season...show almost all the residents either drunk or high and then shows Stephen again being caught with heroin in the house. It shows someone else going into cardiac arrest from using. So, is this show and experience helping anyone??? Dr. Drew runs a rehab facility...he should know better, but sadly he is more interested in being on tv and being famous than he is in helping people battle their addiction.

Ugh....with a side of Ugh.