Where Do You Draw The Line Between Alcoholism And Partying?

Last night’s Intervention featured a 24-year-old woman named Brittney, whose family believes she’s an alcoholic. But whether or not she actually had a problem was murky, at least as far as her portrayal on the show was concerned. It was mentioned that she drinks every day, but that she binge drinks three times a week. The cameras never caught any untoward or alcoholic behavior, which might be a first for the series. The only time she’s even shown drinking was when she was toasting with her sisters—the ones who orchestrated the intervention—over some glasses of wine. She was never drunk on film. The only thing that came close was when her mother used a home video camera to film one of Brittney’s hangovers, in which Brittney just seemed really cranky.

When Brittney is talking about the consequences of drinking, it’s hard for most of us to not relate to some of those antics, especially considering her age: “There have been times when I’ve gotten so drunk that I don’t even remember what happened.” Perhaps her biggest downfall is that she relies on her family too much to get her out of sticky situations, like having her sister come pick her up because she passed out on the floor of someone’s house. That’s the kind of shit you deal with on your own, and when you do deal with it on your own, you learn from the situation. Your family is really not supposed to be involved in your drunken debauchery. She eventually agreed to go to treatment but left after 11 days. She still drinks.