The death of Mario’s brother and his parents’ drinking have had a major impact on his life. He has been battling a serious addiction for ten years now: cocaine. Ewout Genemans and his team will try to help him. Mario, the youngest of seven children in a blended family, has been using drugs for twenty years. He works in construction, but spends all his money on coke. Up to about seven or eight hundred euros per week.
The first step towards a new future is intervention. Mario is with his parents, where the rest of his family – and Ewout and his team – drop in to confront Mario about his problems. When Mario finds out what time it is, he immediately storms out of the house. His brothers then have to calm him down. Then he falls into his father’s arms. “I’m doing it for you,” says his father. “Please do it for us too.”
In the video below you can see the images of the intervention.
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Then a large part of the family gathers around the garden table. Mario’s father then raises his own heart by saying that he has shown too little love in the past. “We were buddies. And I don’t want to see him slide away now.” And that touches Mario, who is visibly emotional. When Ewout asks if Mario will seize the help, he says that he does so ‘with both hands’. “I don’t want to live like that either.”
Once at the clinic, it’s exciting for Mario to say goodbye to his drug life. He does not know a life in which he is sober and no longer wants to use it. “Everything goes through my head. I also dream about smoking. Two weeks after the intervention, Ewout visits Mario. “It’s great”, he says. “I feel indescribable. It is impossible to describe with a pen. I didn’t expect this to be possible.
When Mario leaves the clinic, his parents are waiting for him. He immediately jumps into his arms, after which all three cannot hold back their tears. “It’s a completely different Mario,” his mother says proudly. “He has gotten a bigger head,” she continues jokingly, after which the threesome start to laugh.
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Two months after the intervention, Mario undergoes the infamous drug test, which would prove that he had used again, if he had. The test result is negative, which means that Mario has not taken any drugs. Then he turns to his family. “You are the most beautiful thing in my life. I’m glad I have your support. I’m very grateful for that.”
In a later update, Mario will let you know that he has bought a new house. “Now I have to keep it up. It’s difficult, but I’m going to show it.”
Addicted! see you every Wednesday at 8.30 pm on RTL 4. You can look back here.
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