History Series / Intervention

* ShellShockedVeteran: Adam and Brad both suffer from this trope after serving in Iraq. A non-addict example is Amanda's father.

* ManipulativeBastard: Many of the addicts, while in their various altered states, are rather good at tricking friends, family, and others into giving the addict money and drugs. For example, Linda - who was addicted to a painkiller 100 times more powerful than morphine - was able to get her parents to spend half a million dollars on her for prescriptions, jacuzzis, and a four-bedroom house. How? She had a delusional disorder, certainly not ''helped'' by the painkiller, and was able to get her parents to believe the delusions too.

* PushoverParents: Quite a few parents on the show. The most extreme example was Katherine, whose parents let her smoke crack openly in front of them and line up johns, all in their home. [[spoiler: Despite the interventionist's attempt to push them to stop enabling, at the end of the episode that they didn't hold their bottom lines and Katherine is still in their home using.]]

* ShaggyDoggStory: In one episode (season 15, episode 13), Brittany managed to get sober from heroin. [[spoiler: Only to return home from treatment and suffer a fatal overdose]].

* WhamLine: In the episode about Andrew suffering from bulimia, "It's my intervention!". He knew he was being filmed for an intervention and refuses to seek help for his eating disorder.

* AdultFear: Plenty in the series.
** Someone you love dying from a drug overdose, or alcohol overdose, driven to suicide, being killed for money or drugs, suffering through domestic abuse or sexual abuse to gain more substances or suffering from an eating disorder.

* BadassMustache: Sported by interventionist Jeff [=VanVonderen=]. More recently, he's grown a BadassBeard to go with it.

** During a binge, Jessie would eat ''three days worth of food'' in three hours.

* BigEater: Several patients (Amber, Adam, Salina, ect.) suffering from bulimia are filmed stuffing their faces and hiding it from loved ones. One patient(Salina)voluntarily devouring ''four'' plates at an all-you-can-eat buffet before going home to purge in secret.

* BigEater: Several patients (Amber, Adam, Salina, ect.) suffering from bulimia are filmed stuffing their faces and hiding it from loved ones. One patient (Salina) voluntarily devouring four plates at an all-you-can-eat buffett before going home to purge in secret.

* DrugsAreBad: Surprisingly less {{Anvilicious}} here than in a lot of other media - probably because this series actually ''shows'' the effects of drugs, from consumption to high to crash.

*** One addict was given alcohol by his mother whenever he wanted, starting from the time she got divorced - when he was 8 years old. He was alcoholic by age 9, and using and selling meth with her by age 13. He also blamed himself for her fatal overdose even though he was a grown man with a wife and children when it happened.

** There are many addicts who come from families that are not overtly abusive, but have such controlling tendencies that similar damage is done. They might not beat or neglect their child, but their inflexibility on some issues amounts to emotional abuse. Typically, this is shown through overly critical parents, parents with misogynistic tendencies (such as pushing their daughters to marriage/children rather than any non-familial achievements the child might want). The show also features a number of gay or lesbian addicts who initially start using to deal with their family's refusal to accept their sexuality.

** {{UsefulNotes/Abuse}} -- physical, verbal or sexual--is the root cause of some 60% or more of all addictions on the show.
*** Less commonly the addict themselves are creating an abusive environment for their children. This is not featured as frequently because the show needs the audience to root for the addict, and usually they are only shown if the children are old enough to express their feelings about the addiction. One memorable, very heart-wrenching episode was "Sandra" in season 4, who had been addicted to pain pills for 10 years. She had two sons, one who was 17 and could not control his anger, and another who was 11, who had never seen his mother sober and seemed on the verge of tears at all times. His intense fear about her safety seemed to have gotten worse after finding her unconscious, and every time he appears in the episode he cries openly about her addiction. It's so hard to watch that you want her to get better for his and his brother's sake more than anything else.

** A couple addicts were famous before being featured on the program. Among the most notable was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Meeks Travis Meeks]], lead singer for [[TheNineties Nineties]] [[AlternativeRock alt-rockers]] Days of the New, who threw away his successful career for his methamphetamine addiction.

** Being addicted to alcohol or drugs like cocaine or meth, all of which can alter moods significantly, don't help.
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Quite obviously, a great number of the alcoholics.

* NothingButSkinAndBones: Seen either because the person has been consuming mostly drugs and little food, or has an eating disorder.

** A handful of the addicts have been tipped off to their family's intentions by their more genre savvy "friends".

After 13 seasons, A&E announced in May 2013 that the series had been canceled. However, a 14th and 15th season aired in 2015.

** Also, a handful of subjects (though fewer than you might expect, considering the subject matter) have been revealed to have died after appearing on the series.

* ParentalFavoritism: Another common thread, where many of the addicts at least accuse their parents of playing favorites. Some of them were enabled by their parents favoritism ''towards'' them.