Okay, I know this review is extremely late. What can I say? Having no followers has taken the thrill out of this blog already. I made notes about last week's show; but, of course, I left them at home, so I will attempt to write what I remember and add more later if things come to me. So check back all you lurkers if there are actually any of you here.
Last week's show was about two 30-something people, Cindee and John/Graham. Cindee over exercised and barely ate (alone from 3-4 a.m., if any) Graham was an excessive washer, taking about 10 showers per day. He went through three bottles of hand soap in five days.
I probably won't write much; you've probably already seen the episode. This show just isn't as interesting anymore since I have been watching The OCD Project on VH1. Obsessed tries to cram too much into one episode, twelve weeks of therapy for two individuals. I would rather see 60 minutes of one person. And leave out all the repetitive dialogue, would ya? I get so tired of seeing the same scene before the show starts, before a commercial, and then after a commercial. The OCD Project is also guilty of this infraction.
What I found interesting about Cindee's major exposure, walking the treadmill for 32 minutes (where the heck did the therapist come up with that number?), is her physical reaction to not being able to get back on. Her right hand was shaking so much so could barely hold her water bottle. It was neat to see her husband's reaction to this. He never realized how deep her obsession went until after seeing the physical manifestations during the exposure. Other than this one major exposure, we really didn't see much of Cindee until the end when she miraculously led one of her two treadmills out of the house and went on a mini-camping trip with her husband and five previously neglected kids. It was touching to see her eating carrots, playing badminton, and blowing bubbles with her kids. Oh, man, was she ever chowing down on that yogurt or whatever it was at the picnic table!
Graham's contamination issues came from the thoughts that he would do drugs again if he associated with anyone who presently does or did drugs in the past. So he invited a friend over, one who had a shady past and possible present. As soon as his friend left, Graham had to take a shower. The constant scrubbing and reddening of his skin was alarming. He got out of the shower and went to wash his hands, then it was back to the shower again. You could almost feel him trying to scrub the intrusive thoughts away. Reminded me of that scene in the movie Silkwood when they are scrubbing that woman down with steel brushes to get the nuclear contaminant off her skin. After the shower, Graham set himself to scrubbing and decontaminating the entire house, room by room. He even asked his wife, "Did you just come into contact with him a little bit? You should be okay, then."
His daughter, Skye, had asked Santa to make her daddy well and was upset when Santa didn't come through on Christmas.
Graham later went to a jail where he went about touching items of inmates' clothing, a breathalizer, etc. The show ended with him going to a water park with his wife and daughter. He seemed to have no problems with it and is now a surfing dude again.
My gripe about this show is we see very little of the exposure therapy due to time constraints and the above mentioned repetitive scenes. I understand that these people would never be candidates for something like The OCD Project because they are basically housebound; but, boy, I can really see the benefit in the group therapy part of The OCD Project which I will discuss more in that review.
One other thing to note is that when asked about their level of anxiety, Obsessed uses a 1-10; The OCD Project uses a 1-100 range. Not a problem, just an observation. Both Cindee and Graham, when asked about the anxiety levels, often replied 6 or 7, except for during Cindee's major exposure, of course. This leads me back to - why are we not seeing other major exposures on this show?
This past Monday, I forgot to set the DVR for Obsessed. I'm not sure if it will repeat or not. Maybe I'll try to find it online somewhere.
Peace,
~b~
My son is a hand washer. We go through a lot of hand soap when he's here, but it's not as bad as it used to be. He used to go around with red, chapped hands and could not bear to have lotion on them. I was constantly fretting over that! He also got in trouble regularly at school for either (a) using the hand sink too much or (b) sharpening his pencil too much. We finally switched to mechanical pencils (though the teacher objected to that, too) and packed a lot of them, as he would press too hard and break the lead. You would think that a kid with clean hands would be preferable!
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched these shows yet, but they sound really interesting. Will be watching...D