By Reality Zen With Jenn (Reporter)
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Like I said, there are two types of addicts in my opinion. The genuinely good, yet tortured souls that just need to get out of their own way, and there’s the self-involved entitled brats that really do it because it feels good, and it’s the easy way out. The latter was Tiffany’s story last night. 

Tiffany was everybody’s Gelden Girl once upon a time…winning beauty pageants, dancing, cheerleading, and what seemed to me to be the indulgence that ensued. At around 16, Meth came into the picture, she dropped out of school, had a baby and cleaned up for a minute, and then went back to using. 

I guess her dad did a number on her because he was a bit of a violent drunk in the past, and I’m not discounting the pain of that in any way, shape or form, but she sure does hold onto that like a crutch and a reason to use. He seems like the only level headed member of that bunch and the only one that doesn’t enable Tiffany the way the others do. 

So let’s talk about the others, shall we? What a mess that family is. Mostly anablng messes in denial. Decent people, except for that jerk step-father Jerry. Mom is naturally a mess because she is as codependent as they come, but the real problem are her grandparents Memaw and Grandpa. 

Memaw and Grandpa are raising Tiffany’s baby, helping Tiffany skirt drug tests from DCFS, and are basically 9ft deep with their heads in the sand. Not all that surprising after you saw that Tiffany had a couple of uncles in the state pen for trafficking after Grandpa said that no one in his family is an addict. 

Blah, Blah, Blah…enable, enable, enable, Tiffany’s playing these poor people like a string quartet, and it’s finally time for the intervention. Thank the Holy Angels we have Jeff VonVonderen to handle this mess, because these people need an iron hand. 

Jeff do what he do and calls everyone on their enabling BS and explains codependence to them. He also tells Memaw and Grandpa that this whole thing is pointless if they’re just going to be an easy out. It’s at this moment that Grandpa doesn’t know what an ‘addict’ is, but refers to Tiffany as a ‘user’…okay…whatevs, dude. 

So her majesty Tiffany arrives and of course as the entitled addicts do, she flipped out and went bananas insisting she wasn’t on drugs. Nope. She’s totally clean. Mom held her bottom line, which kind of surprised me about sending her to jail if she didn’t go, but it was Dad that got her on the plane. Again, I find that very telling that it wasn’t so much that Dad was an abusive monster, but more of Dad didn’t validate her enough. 

Hi-ho-hi-ho off to rehab they go, and shock of the century, Tiffany bounces after a little over a month in treatment. Who bought that plane ticket home? Grandpa. Shocking. Again, very surprised that her Mom held firm to her bottom line, and hasn’t had contact with her. It’s all very sad that Tiffany is said to still be using, and that her Grandparents can’t stay firm and hold to their bottom lines, and especially sad for little Tylee, her daughter. 

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