Teen Mom OG Shame On You, Ryan Edwards. And Shame On Your Wife Too.
Rant Time: Ryan is the biggest bullshitter I’ve ever seen and he isn’t even good at it. He said he was in rehab 21 days and graduated early. That’s not a thing. They don’t give you a gold star and tell you to go home early because you showed up to group therapy during detox and frankly, I don’t buy that he was some kind of rehab superstar. Knowing Ryan and his general tendency to do the absolute bare minimum required of him (if that), I seriously doubt he went to group during detox under any circumstance and hypothetically if he did go, he almost certainly would have been dosed him with Methadone, Suboxone, or Subutex to massively diminish or eliminate his symptoms. I mean, he had such a HUGE habit that if he cold turkey-ed it, he would have been vomiting, shitting, and sweating his way through group- not to mention the agony of the muscle aches. If Ryan has some kind of epiphany in rehab, then he would have completed every second of his rehab stint. He would have also made & followed a clear aftercare plan and jumped through whatever hoops Maci asked him to so that he can prove he is ready to be a responsible parent. But he did none of that.
Inpatient programs (especially the high-quality kind Ryan attended) is usually AT MINIMUM 28-30 days and quite often they may be 2, 3, or up to 6 months long because research shows that the longer the program, the higher the likelihood that the patient will stay clean in the long run. Of course longer is better! Habits that took years to create, can’t be erased overnight. There is a lot more to getting clean than just stopping using drugs. You have to learn your triggers, learn new coping skills for stressful situations, build new sober networks, rebuild one’s self-esteem, mend broken family relationships, learn accountability and responsibility, work through past traumas, possibly treat underlying mental illnesses, etc.
I’d bet an arm and a leg that Ryan was not only advised to NOT to leave treatment early but also to go to a halfway house after treatment because the alternative was going straight home to his army of enablers. He needs to grow up and he can’t do that on his mommy’s tit. Or Mackenzie’s. At the very least, the rehab would have suggested Ryan start outpatient treatment, attend community-based support groups (like AA, NA, HA, S.O.S, etc), meet regularly with a counselor, and see a psychiatrist for medication management- all of which he is not doing, by his own admission. Ryan doesn’t seem to grasp that trust is earned and he spent a long time losing it by being an absentee parent. He just thinks he gets to snap his fingers and all is forgotten despite having done nothing to earn back that trust and spending every possible minute of camera time to belittle the mother of his child. The woman who has been there for the last 8 years while Ryan sat around with that stupid vacant expression, doing drugs, and sleeping around. How about you thank Maci for a start?
Mackenzie is either totally clueless or a horrible person. She covered up and enabled Ryans addiction. During the on camera incident where Ryan was clearly driving while extremely intoxicated, she didn't immediately order him to pull over (thus allowing him to endanger lives). As his addiction happened, she made excuses for him nodding out- he's tired, he accidentally took too much medication, etc. Far from being upset about him driving while intoxicated, she rewarded his behavior by marrying him. Mackenzie has a son that she has brought into this dysfunctional marriage which is incredibly selfish. In fact, it's selfish that she didn't allow Ryan to get clean before making such a commitment. They always tell addicts not to make any major, life-altering decisions until they've been sober for a year. It’s like she wanted to lock him down before he got healthy. Again, she is making excuses for Ryan leaving treatment early and not completing any kind of aftercare plan. She tried to diminish his addiction by saying it was to xanax and not heroin. And now she is drinking with him on top of it! She couldn't be sabotaging Ryan any harder if she tried. And the way she treats Maci is disgusting. She lured Maci in and befriended her, then when Maci started to confide in her, she broke that confidence for no other reason than to cause drama. And since then, she has helped Ryan to excuse his absentee parenting by trying to paint Maci as the devil so that he doesn't have to take responsibility for his mistakes. And the thing is, Mackenzie KNOWS all of this and she is doing it anyways.
Addiction is a disease but he has a choice now that he knows he has it. Treat it or don’t treat it. Do the right thing or don’t. Man up and own his mistakes or distract from them by pointing fingers. So far, he is 0 for 3. Maci has every right to demand he pass a drug test. She’d be negligent if she didn’t.
I hope Ryan get’s his shit together for Bentley’s sake but I doubt it.
