I was up until 5 am watching episodes of A&E's Intervention. I watched one thinking I'd fall alseep watching the usual bullshit about stupid people on meth and heroin. Usually these shows are lies about addiction programs pushing God and the people are worthless pukes. I know enough addicted worthless pukes around here. But, I was surprised that that show picked mostly intelligent decent people who had a problem and offered them help. I really liked most of them and was rooting for them.*
All spectrum of addictions was covered too, not just the usual. It was very graphic. The bulimics were strange. One woman didn't just binge and purge. She vomited in gallon plastic zip locks and saved it all. She hid it and threw it out once a week. Like a 100 pounds of vomit a month. Very odd behavior and she hid her problem and covered her tracks, everyone thought she was normal. She was a child care worker.
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Another interesting case was a seemingly fun loving woman who had been kidnapped and violently raped at age sixteen. She's been a virgin who played by all the good girl rules. Her addictions included massive plastic surgery and shopping. Facing felony theft charges for forged credit cards, she just kept trying to buy new things. It was so clear that she'd lost something and thought she was damaged goods.
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It was all very interesting to me that all these addicts were trying to fill a hole left by the way they were raised or a traumatic event they suffered when they were young. And it's so odd that it's easy to see while watching them, but, they couldn't see it or find what they needed on their own. It was just very informative and the people they chose made it watchable. They had a short follow up at the end so you'd know if they made it or not.
19 comments:
I love this show! I watch it every Monday night. I recorded the new one last night and watched the re-run since I had not seen it.
One of the grossest episodes I ever watched was a woman who had an eating disoder. She would put food in her mouth and chew it up, but spit it all out.
She carried a big Mc'D's cup with her to her niece's b-day party and everyone got pissed with her for not only wasting the food, but spitting in front of everyone.
She looked like a skeleton, but she still thought she was fat! I guess I like food to much to ever be like that.
i gotta say i'm free of addictions....never smoked, i do drink occassionally but not on a regular basis, have no inclination for drugs....so i'm pretty lucky having had a traumatic childhood and not having any addictions....
You really are and that's unusual.
Eating disorders are just nasty! Is it that much more disgusting to just be fat?
Tonya - it is not about being fat it is about control.......
guess that's just par for the course with me cuz i'm typically unusual! :P
Eating disorders are about control, not about thin or fat or looking like a model you saw in a magazine. I had anorexia in college and it took a lot to get over it. Even years later I have to watch what I do so I don't slip back into it.
I experimented with drugs in my teenage years but never got hooked on the stuff. Also drank myself unconscious every Friday and Saturday night but quit cold turkey when I met and married my first husband. My drug of choice was always food (as well as cigs). Actually I've just recently come to grips with my food addictions and now understand why I've always felt the need to "fill a void".
Anybody ever read the book (or seen the movie) called Keeping Secrets? It was written by Suzanne Somers and describes what her childhood had been like being raised by an alcoholic father. It took many years and therapy to come to grips with why she deliberately sabotaged her own life after she had left home.
Anon 2:52, I was going to bring that episode up, too. That had to be the all-time strangest/grossest episode ever! I have On Demand with Comcast and in the winter, when I'm not working, I'll stay up late at night watching all the shows, one after the other.
I have watched those episodes as well. I too root for those people, and am glad that i don't have those problems. I cannot remember who said this, most likely on a comment here...
'Everyone says how resilient children are, if that's the case then why are there so many fucked-up adults?'
The show I have a hard time watching is Obsessed. Even though my heart goes out to these people, that show is just gross.
chew chew spit...i remember that one too, it was gross, and she flaunted it, it was nasty....grosser than obsessed is the new show called hoarders...it is depressing
snow
It is a great show. I have been watching it for a couple of years now.
Kudos to all that have overcome their eating disorders. It is my understanding that eating disorders are some of the hardesrt addictions to conquer.
I am kind of fascinated by that show Obsessed and Hoarders. I saw that Hoarders show last week with the woman that was food hoarder. It was incredibly sad and I having been thinking about her all week......it was incredible how attached she was to all of the rotting food in her home, particularly this one pumpkin that was rotted into a glob of jelly. When the cleaners and therapist were convincing her that it had to go, she reached out into the goo and pulled out some of the seeds and held onto them for dear life, mourning that pumpkin....... I felt so horrible for her all around.................
As I have OCD myself, I watch Hoarders (my sister is one of the worst you would see) and Obsessed. It is sort of a comfort to know I am not the only one like me out there. IT's like a train wreck I know i should just keep moving on but can't resist watching.
I have an eating disorder (overeating), and it is about control, exactly.
The pumpkin lady made me sad too, I get anxiety just looking at the conditions those people are living in...on last nights episode the guy lived in this tiny apt filled with trash, and he was a different person when they helped him clean it up.
snow
Oh that poor guy in that tiny apartment. His bathroom had "human excrement" all over the floor. GARBAGE everywhere. It wasn't even like he was hoarding "possessions" but just was thrown all his food and drink garbage wherever he was.
I'm not a very neat person and this Hoarders show is really giving me a kick in my butt. I absolutely LOVE to throw things out. I just have to do it!!
That show lets me see stuff I would never know about otherwise. So many are people in normal households too, with nice family's. Lots of women with nice kids & husbands too. That fascinates me. A woman gone wrong. So interesting. Up till 5 a.m.? No way Jose'. I'm OLD!
rox
I get so sad for the kids involved, but, it is part of their life and the reason the mom's tend to get treatment. I am always so happy when they make it and get back to their kids.
First time I have heard of this show. I am going to check if they are giving it on demand.
I watch that sometimes too. A couple of weeks ago, they had an episode where a girl (she was a twin, and younger sister to a third daughter) had rheumatoid arthiritis, which ended up being Limes disease. Anyway, I couldnt believe how much she sounded like someone I know, every excuse, even bodily movements, it was uncanny.
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