Farrah Abraham is calling out MTV for allegedly failing to provide mental health support to Teen Mom cast members and families, despite the former Teen Mom OG star revealing that the network provided this help to her years ago.
On a recent episode of former Teen Mom 2 star Kail Lowry’s Barely Famous podcast, Farrah and Kail discussed how some things (in this case, book deals) may have been handled differently throughout the franchise. During the conversation, Farrah also went on to mention the “disparity” between the cast when it comes to mental health support– something Farrah claims she “always advocated” for over the years.
“There’s something that’s not equal, there’s something that’s not right, when I see from [‘Teen Mom] OG’ to another level of ‘Teen Mom’ coming in, and also the other women on ‘Teen Mom’ from the franchise internationally that have reached out to me,” Farrah said, in her signature “Farrah Speak” mode. “I feel like they’ve just been dropped in disarray … ,”
“I think that I’ve always advocated when I’ve been hired, fired, fired, hired, like, back and forth, I’m like, there has to be something that helps people bounce back and go into life in a normal way,” she said.
Farrah, who was fired from ‘Teen Mom OG’ in 2017 but later returned to terrorize the franchise in 2022 for a brief stint on Teen Mom Family Reunion, credited the time she spent in an intensive trauma healing center back in 2022 for helping her “bounce back,” before revealing that MTV actually paid for her to receive this support.
“ … MTV did pay for [it] after I was fired I think like, three times, and then they needed me back for their family boot camp thing to be picked up,” Farrah said, referring to ‘Teen Mom: Family Reunion.’
Farrah then spoke about why she decided to seek this treatment, explaining that she couldn’t keep returning to the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise “and getting attacked.”
“ … It’s like, financial abuse, it’s work abuse, it’s stress on someone’s mental and identity wears,” she said. “And lots of people on this show have disabilities, so it definitely affects people.”
According to Farrah, intensive trauma therapy is something that should be offered to moms across the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise, as well as to their children, partners and parents.
“ … There’s just a history of people not believing in mental health here and that is very toxic in a work environment,” she said. “But I do feel like the disparity of different generations of filming and teen moms, there’s a lack of support completely throughout the entire franchise.”
Farrah confirmed that she was offered the opportunity to seek treatment at a facility, but implied that it was only because she had pushed for it to happen. She also told Kail that she’s “pretty much no longer allowed to be brought back” to the ‘Teen Mom’ franchise because she’s “intelligent now.”
Meanwhile, Kail, who announced she was leaving ‘Teen Mom 2’ in 2022, told Farrah that in her experience with the franchise, “you have to go beg for help, it’s not just offered.”
“Yeah, I don’t beg,” Farrah replied. “I’m pretty strong with my stuff … I’m tired of repeating [myself]. It’s not if I’m broke, it’s not if I’m wealthy. It’s this is wrong, we need to fix it.
“My identity has taken a huge hit over and over and over again,” she continued. “And how to do you fix that? It’s recovery skills, it’s not money.”
The Ashley would like to note here that, over the years, MTV has, indeed, paid for many of its cast members— including Leah Messer, Amber Portwood, Jenelle Evans and others— to go to rehab and/or mental health facilities. However, those incidents were not standard, and, from what The Ashley was told, were done on an individual “as needed” basis. (As The Ashley told you back in 2015, the show’s producers basically forced Leah into a drug rehab, under the guise of her going to a mental health facility, by threatening to boot her from ‘Teen Mom 2.’)
Still, mental health therapy was not normally offered or facilitated for the cast members and their relatives. The Ashley would also like to note that this is the case on most reality TV shows, where cast members acknowledge when signing their contracts that they could, for instance, suffer emotional distress or mental illness as a result of being on the show. They state that they are aware of this when they sign their contracts.
Since the cast members are independent contractors (and not employees), they are not given health insurance through the show, and the show has no obligation to provide any type of mental health services or counseling.
Watch a clip from Farrah’s Barely Famous interview below.
Farrah says MTV should offer help, intensive trauma therapy for all cast
byu/bobcrab inteenmom
(Photos: MTV; Instagram; Reddit)
17 Responses
what really needs to happen is you pay for that yourself. You made tons of money use it wisely
The kids should sue there parents for lack of consent..and financial and emontional abuse
> think Farrah is right.What has Dr Drew ever done to help ANY of these girls.Nothing
No Farrah, the truth is you were way too unstable to be on reality TV.
Luckily, MTV FIRED you for VERBALLY abusing the cast and crew and yr porn you were warned not to do, as we all shockingly witnessed.
And you are still making coins off talking negative about teen mom all the time. You should be thanking them, because what else would you talk about?
Laughing at the thumbs down on comments calling Farrah out, does anyone else wonder if that’s Farrah herself, lmao
No, I don’t. I’ve seen people sway her way. I don’t have a problem with it. I have relatives & friends who think she’s doing good now and I have family & friends who think she’s nuts. So I’ve seen both sides. We all have opinions and of course they’re never gonna all be the same. Everyone has a right to post their own opinions in the comment sections and I’m not going to say that every person that doesn’t think like I do, is the actual subject who we are talking about, pretending to be a fan or someone else. I’m not saying that sometimes it’s not them, though! Bc it might be! But not always. And maybe it’s never them. Who knows!
I don’t understand how Karl sat through this “interview” without losing it on Farrah.
Or laughing her ass off while listening to the shit that comes out of Farrah’s mouth.
How about instead of spending money that MTV paid you on flashy cars, comestic surgery etc pay for your own counseling, as everyone other person has to while earning a lot less money and dealing with real problems
No Farrah, employers are not required to provide mental health services and send you to rehab and all the other things that you’re saying they should be responsible for. Try taking a poll people that work in the real world and see how many of them can get mental health services and rehab paid for by their employer. I’m sure some, but by far the majority of us have to figure that out for ourselves.
And financial abuse, seriously? With the ridiculous amounts of money they paid all of you? You want to hear what financial abuse is Farrah? When your husband hides all financial information from you, when he keeps all access to your bank accounts and to any money from you. When he won’t tell you who the mortgage is with, or the car insurance or the home insurance. When you have no idea how many credit cards he might have or how much debt he’s put the family in, because he tells you it’s none of your business. When he makes changes to your mortgage, without telling you, even though your name is on the mortgage and he shouldn’t be able to do that legally. That’s financial abuse, that’s what my husband does to me. So before you try plurving out that your financially abused, try using your brain for once!!!
She’s as fixable as Jax or Ted Bundy.
No.
MTV’s job is not to raise these children into fully functioning and well adjusted adults.
That was Deb, Suzi, Mikehole, Dawn and whoever else’s job and they failed their teens miserably.
Please let us see all the pages! I can’t keep reading until I catch up!
@Clara— I attempted to fix that issue! What part of the site are you on that still limits you to five pages? I will get it fixed! -The Ashley
For once she isn’t wrong.
I completely agree. Although I’m not completely understanding what she’s getting at. All of these young women were not the brightest bulbs. They spent money foolishly, incurred heavy debts and are in for a rude awakening. They will not be able to sustain their lifestyles. They continued to make babies for whom they are clearly not mature enough to provide adequate and fulfilling childhoods. There are few true family units. I will continue to read the Ashley’s snark because I have questionable ethical standards at times. One thing you have to say about good ole Jim Bob. He knew how to stash that money away.
I agree with Christie. The one I’m not totally understanding is Farrah.
“They needed me to come back for Family Reunion to be picked up”…… Never used the therapy sessions to work on the delusions Farrah?