Every time we open a newspaper another celebrity is in rehab, from Gazza to Kate Moss and LIVING’s Extreme: Celebrity Rehab, a one-off special in the topical Extreme series, delves into the shocking celebrity trend of the stars we know and love who just can’t stay out of rehab. Are they making it more “fashionable” than ever to binge drink, take cocaine and live life to the excess or is the harsh reality of rehab finally making people realise that the celebrity lifestyle isn’t quite as rosy as it seems? Are the likes of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse finally cleaning up their act, or is it just too little too late? This hour-long programme is a window into what drives celebrities to confront their addictions and their reasons behind their rehabilitations asks who needs to check in before they could potentially check out forever…? Cynics also question whether celebrities’ admittance into rehab really is truly a journey to recovery, or rather a tool to avert scandal and gain the sympathetic public vote after a PR crisis.

Well known celebrities such as model Sophie Anderton, celebrity son of Bond star Pierce Brosnan, Chris Brosnan, and lead singer of The Charlatans Tim Burgess, who have all had well documented battles with addiction, talk candidly about the dark side of drugs, unstoppable addictions and fame. Extreme: Celebrity Rehab will expose how cold turkey actually felt, the first time they were introduced to drugs, the depths it made them sink to and ultimately how rehab has turned their lives around for the better. Lindsey Lohan ex-bodyguard, Lee Weaver, also comments on Lindsay’s partying: “LW: She loved to party and most of time we go into a club she’s all normal, once we’re in the club maybe 20 minutes then her friends come start coming around and start pouring, something is spread on table…”

Former addict Sophie Anderton said: “When I was seventeen I was first offered coke, and it was offered in a way that ‘Oh, don’t worry this will keep you up and you’ll be able to get yourself to work the next day’…It’s amazing how quickly it ravages you…I was lucky to survive the uppers and downers.”

Pierce Brosnan’s son, Chris Brosnan added: “Celebrity kids can be targets”, on how being the son or daughter of a celebrity can make them a deliberate target for drug dealers, who think they have money and time on their hands.

Former editor of Heat magazine, Mark Frith, says in the documentary: “There’s something very schizophrenic about the celebrity world and you have to be able to deal with the down time, as well as the up.” Comparing celebrity lifestyles of old, he adds, “The celebrity world of a few decades ago where Liz Taylor and Liza were at their peak was a very different one to today in that it was a lot less stage managed. You knew if you were going to go in, you knew you had problems and you knew you had to face them. These days a lot of things are stage managed and image is all.”

Dr Mike McPhillips, Medical Director, The Causeway Retreat also highlights the problems in today’s society as a whole in terms of addiction: “Younger people are drinking more, women are drinker more and it’s a growth industry with a body count. It’s very sad to see young people; sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years old coming into residential rehabilitation centres. So, there is no doubt in my mind that more people are using drugs, that more people are getting addicted to drugs and they’re getting addicted at a younger age than we’ve ever seen before.”

Earlier this year, the death of Heath Ledger sent shivers down the spine of Hollywood, and opened up a whole new argument about drug addiction, highlighting the increasing availability of prescription drugs. Extreme: Celebrity Rehab talks to some of the UK’s top celebrity journalists, such as ex-Heat editor Mark Frith, Kiki King and Ashley Pearson who discuss why they think that rehab has become such a part of celebrities’ everyday lives, especially in light of the worrying increase of prescription drug use. Doctors and rehabilitation specialists expose what drugs, prescription and illegal, are doing to peoples’ hearts, lungs and brains and the potential effects the public display by celebrities and their problems are having on today’s youth generation.