The Cast Of "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew"

What's it like treating a celebrity cast?

They all were tremendously courageous, I would tell them every day, we're putting on our space suits now and we're going to go out on the surface of planet that no one has ever been on, and me with you. I'm having an experience here, I'm responsible for you guys, and I have to make sure this doesn't hurt you, that you have a good experience, that your treatment was good. It was very burdensome, let me tell you. So they were courageous, they all participated very actively in treatment, to one degree or another. Some of them waxed and waned a little bit in their level of commitment and participation, but they all really worked hard.

What's happened to Nico Rodriguez since leaving rehab?

Nico Rodriguez, who you'll meet in the up coming shows, again, really seemed transformed by the process, is engaged actively still, and is doing well.

What's happened to Mary Carey since leaving rehab?

Mary Ellen Cook, or who you know as Mary Carey, has transformed in this process, you need to watch, see what happens.

Is there a common abuse that celebrities have suffered?

Listen most addicts have child abuse, I mean the physical, sexual, abandonment, the emotional abuse. The abuse is, if you're sick enough to need my treatment, it's approach is 100 percent that you had some kind of trauma in childhood.

Did Jeff Conaway suffer from major childhood trauma?

Jeff's happened to be horrific, ritualistic abuse, both at the hands of neighborhood kids who used to tie him up at railroad tracks--horrible, horrible things. Then he got involved in a child pornography ring when he was seven years old, just unbelievable stuff. So, yes the reason people do drugs, initiate their relationship with a drug and alcohol is a big what we call affect regulation. Because of the trauma, they can't regulate emotions. The drugs help them do that, but then in the course of exposing their brain to those drugs, they trigger a disease where they can no longer choose their relationship with drugs and alcohol, it chooses them. That's a separate process from the trauma. So the disease operates in a context of a history of trauma.

Do you think that Celebrity Rehab exploits the cast?

You know one thing that surprises me is people look at it and want to call it exploitative. I'm actually confused by that. Exploitation means you took advantage of something, that's there a power balance. Shoving a camera against Brittney Spears consent in her face while she's dying, that is exploitative. Taking a group of people, paying for their treatment, giving them a deeply informed consent that they sign, at least like a 30 page document that we went through a great, great, deal with them. People understood what they were getting into, whose lives were altered by this process, who courageously allowed us to document this process. I just can't see. To me it's surprising that people would call that exploitative. I think what they're responding to is it's intense and it's hard to watch and this is like the early stages of treatment as you watch the course of the show people are...there's some happy, there's some amazing things happen. Amazing things. I was just helping them voice some stuff the other day and I was looking at footage of late in the show and I started crying. Not, it didn't happen to me in the moment. I was present for these people the way I needed to be for treating purposes. But when you really watch what they are experiencing, it was remarkable.

Why do we enjoy watching the Celebrity Rehab cast suffer?

Well, I mean, just think about what people watch on television in dramatic series anyway. We don't watch healthy people doing, making healthy choices, we watch sick people doing crazy things. That's what drama is, that's what its always been and that's what we seem to be drawn to and interested in. It's just we're now documenting it happening to real people rather than pretending with actors and actresses.