I spent my summer filming Celebrity Rehab 4 with Dr. Drew Pinsky and a host of professionals I respect very much–plus a cast of very courageous people who were willing to expose to the world the pain of their addiction and their passage to sobriety. The new season airs on VH1 starting December 1, and it’s been an emotional, rewarding journey for everyone.
If ever you think, “If I just had more money, more excitement, more opportunity, more something, I would be happy and sober,” Celebrity Rehab will set you straight. The people on it have had the money, the fame, the cars, the clothes, the house, the fans, the glamour–all the things they thought would make them happy–and none of it has erased the pain they grapple with–many of them since childhood.
One of the clients on this new season, Janice Dickinson, is a perfect example. Janice seems to have lead a charmed life. She became an international supermodel at a young age, routinely charging 10 times as much as other models were making for a shoot. She appeared on the covers of Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle and Playboy, and worked with the very top fashion designers, including Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Valentino, Halston, and Calvin Klein. She has been the face of ad campaigns such as Revlon, Alberto VO5 and Orbit Gum.
When she aged out of the modeling industry, Janice reinvented herself as a photographer and author, and then as a reality TV star. She was a judge on America’s Next Top Model for several seasons, then got her own show, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency. She was on several other shows, too, including I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me out of Here!
That’s success by anyone’s standards. But Janice has been struggling with alcohol and drugs all her adult life. All that excitement and fame and money hasn’t been able to soothe the terrible pain she suffered as a child and teenager at the hands of her father. He sexually abused one of her sisters and, when Janice refused to give in to his demands, he verbally and physically abused her.
And nothing in the outside world–no amount of wealth, fame, excitement, success–can heal that hurt. The healing has to come from within ourselves. When we don’t know how to heal ourselves, we numb ourselves instead with drugs or alcohol. But even that numbness doesn’t really make the pain go away.
Janice Dickinson has come to Celebrity Rehab to learn, finally, how to heal. I respect her pain, and I respect her courage.
Sherry Gaba is a Psychotherapist and Life Coach on Celebrity Rehab on VH1 with Dr. Drew Pinsky from Loveline. She is also the author of The Law of Sobriety: Attracting Positive Energy for a Powerful Recovery.” Order your book today and receive free bonus gifts. Contact Sherry for Life Coaching by phone anywhere in the world, her teleseminars, speaking engagements, and one on one Psychotherapy anywhere in California by phone or in person. She can be reached at sherry@sgabatherapy.com.
