Drop Dead Diva

The show Drop Dead Diva premiered last night. The show centers around the question of brains versus beauty. I had read some good reviews of this show, so I was interested to see how it would play out. My other reason for watching the show is because I am a fan of Maragaret Cho, though I do admit some of her stuff can be a bit on the raunchy side for my taste.

Quick case of characters:

Jane, played by Brooke Elliott--Plain, plus-sized woman who is a kick ass lawyer and very smart. She suffers from insecurity and self-esteem issues.

Teri, played by Margaret Cho--Jane's assistant who seems to know everything about Jane. We haven't seen if she has a quirky side yet, but she seems to provide stability for Jane.

Deb, played by Brooke D'Orsay--Thin, blonde, and shallow. She is an aspiring model for the Price is Right show.

Grayson--Deb's boyfriend who loves Deb.

Stacy--Deb's best friend who is like her identical twin--thin, blonde, and shallow

Kim--works in the same law firm as Jane. Seems to feel second fiddle to Jane. Thus, she tries to sabotage her. She is a wannabe "diva" personality.

Fred--Jane's guardian angel who looks out for her.

Parker--The boss at the law firm who feels Jane has insecurity issues.

A brief synopsis: Jane takes a bullet for Parker and gets killed. Meanwhile, Deb dies in a car accident, distracted by talking on the phone with Stacy. Deb, then goes to a holding station to determine whether she goes to heaven or hell. Fred who checks her in says she is a "zero," having done no bad deeds but also no good ones either. Deb, mad, hits the "return" button which sends her back to Earth.

As divine intervention goes, she winds up in Jane's body, taking on the traits of Jane, including her smartness but keeping hold of her own memories. Fred has now become her guardian angel to help Jane with this transition.

Obviously, it is hard for Deb to be Jane, as Jane lacks everything she aspires to--nice figure, good wardrobe, always craves food, etc. It's very much the stereotype of how many people see "fat" people in society. However, Deb really does enjoy the fact that she has acquired Jane's brain and is now smart. There are several moments in the show where you see she is absolutely astonished by this new trait.

The rest of the show revolves around several court cases in which Jane wins, partly by brains and partly by her knowledge of the "shallow" world of people. There is also of course the irony of boyfriend (Grayson) now working in the law firm. Thus, he and Jane will see a lot of each other. Romantic sparks, anyone? However, they will have to get past Kim, the co-worker who we know probably has some tricks up her sleeve. The issue of women and competition is played out between these two characters.

As you can see, there are a variety of themes here. Perhaps, the one that most intrigued me besides how we view body image and stereotypes is the issue of self-esteem. There is a scene in the show where Jane has a client who is getting divorced from her cheating husband. The woman, is a bit dowdy, obviously lacking a lot of self-esteem, and would rather the divorce go away than go through with court. Jane convinces her that she needs to fight and get half of the settlement, that she deserves that. Jane asks her: "How much do you think you are worth?" The woman, unsure, eventually decides she is worth at least half of the settlement. From there, there are some ups and downs, but in the end, the woman allows her self confidence to grow, realizing she does have self worth and is a strong woman who can stand up for herself.

Though the show is cliche-ish, light-hearted, andpredictable, I'm all for showing how society works, how body image is portrayed, why self-esteem is important, etc. Although we know this as a society, I don't think it truly gets ingrained into people's heads why these issues matter. The show reminds me a lot of Ugly Betty but with different career paths.

In general, I think there is some promise for this show. There are humorous moments as well as moments that make us take a look at ourselves and society. The cast is good, but Brooke carries the show for sure. I'll be interested to see how the episodes fare in this season.

Anyone else watch it? What are your thoughts?

Obsessed

After I watched Intervention on Monday, I watched the following show, Obsessed, a new docuseries from the creators of Intervention. From the website:

A&E's true-life docuseries Obsessed examines the lives of everyday people imprisoned by unmanageable, repetitive behaviors and sometimes debilitating fear. Whether it is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, Hoarding or a variety of phobias, the unscripted series gives viewers a chance to see first-hand how an obsession can radically affect a person's life. By using cognitive behavioral therapy, each subject is taught how to understand the thought process which contributes to his or her symptoms and is coached on how to change these thought patterns, manage their anxiety and avoid the resulting debilitating compulsions. The show explores the stories of sufferers as well as the adverse effects their disorders have on their friends and family.

I normally don't quote as much as I did there, but I thought this show really captured all these elements so nicely, at least in this episode I watched. I'll try to give a brief synopsis of the two characters. (Brevity is not my forte)

Case 1: Nidia is in her late 20s, has been married for eight years, and suffers from OCD, manifesting in the form of excessive hand washing and showering due to fears of germs, "cleanliness," and fecal matter. She rarely goes out of her house, avoids foods with fiber, like vegetables, and has daily rituals. The most pronounced and dangerous are her shower rituals which take anywhere from 1-3 hours, always after a bowel movement. She has literally scraped the insides of herself through use of instruments in order to feel "clean" enough. On several occasions, she has had to go to the ER due to severe blood loss.

Case 2: Rick is in his late 40s, is married, has one daughter, is working on a novel, and in general very "mathematical" and obsessed with numbers. He has several compulsions, like spinning in only one direction, adding up numbers on a license plate, however, his excessive exercise has hindered him the most. Rick's exercise habits started as a way to become healthier. He felt the more he did, meaning multiple times a day, the healthier he would become. Because his root fear was in aging and death, he felt like if he could control X and Y, he would obtain the outcome of Z that he wanted. Along with the exercise, he takes 40+ pills/supplements a day in the name of "health." He has not missed a workout since 1997.

Both of these individuals sought treatment, realizing how much they and their loved ones were suffering. With Nidia, her marriage was at a "rocky" point due to her OCD. Although her husband loved her and tried to be supportive, he felt frustrated in not being able to help her. Nidia's OCD was affecting the life both of them had envisioned and wanted together.

With Rick, he was missing out on spending time with his family and not being as productive as he wanted with his writing.

The treatment for both of them was exposure therapy, a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with the purpose of reducing anxiety by exposing the individuals to their specific fears gradually. Although exposure therapy has been successful, especially for those suffering from OCD, it is not for everyone either.

Both Nidia and Rick received 12 weeks of exposure therapy. The hope was for them to not only face their fears, but also to "sit" with their feelings, gradually reducing the anxiety. Though both had difficulties, Nidia had more success with hers. She learned to overcome her fear of germs through picnic and nature outings.She learned to lessen her shower rituals and feel okay about not being "clean" enough. In the end, her marriage stayed intact, and she was no longer imprisoned by her OCD.

For Rick, he was successful in eliminating his spinning and reducing the number of times he exercised to a point. He and his therapist disagreed on the criteria of "excessive," but Rick truly felt like he had accomplished quite a bit in a short period of time. He found he had more time to spend with his family, however, his wife still felt like he had somewhat of a problem.

Personally, I found myself relating to both of these individuals. With Nidia, the thought she deserved to be in pain was heartbreaking to hear, yet so familiar. With Rick, his ambivalence of wanting to reduce his exercise but not give it up completely was familiar as well. Something else he said was that feared dealing with his issues, because he was afraid of finding out who he was. That deeply struck a chord with me.

Besides these relatable factors, what I liked most about this episode was how it showed the crippling effects of living with OCD and obsessive thoughts. I think people tend to forget it isn't just about performing a compulsive behavior repetitively, but rather that there is far more to it--that these individuals are severely suffering.. I'm sure a lot of us can certainly empathize or sympathize, but I'm not sure how much of the general audience can. This reminds me a lot of the people who tell victims of eating disorders to "Just eat," "just stop purging," "just don't exercise," etc. Unfortunately, if we could completely, and our brains worked with wondrous off/on switches, well, we'd all be cured then!

Any thoughts on this show? Do you think there is still misinformation out there on illnesses like OCD or other anxiety disorders?

The nature of an eating disorder

The show Intervention recently kicked off their new season at the end of May. I don't watch every episode, but I do catch one every now and then. Last night's episode featured identical twin sisters, Sonia and Julia, both in their early 20s. I found this episode quite interesting, as there were many different issues displayed: biological factors, IDENTITY, family dynamics, co-dependency, and competitiveness.

Most of us already know that genetics has an influence on eating disorders, so I'm not going to discuss that at length. However, since these two girls were identical, there was a higher likelihood that if one developed an eating disorder, the other would as well. (study here) The interesting thing was that their sister, the eldest of the three, did not develop an ED.

From the family standpoint, the biggest issue I saw was never treating the girls as separate individuals. Thus, they never truly were able to develop their own IDENTITY which can be a core issue of an eating disorder. As teenagers, the two physically developed differently, Sonia, the younger of the two, was thin and slim, while Julia was more curvy and considered the "chubby angel." This seemed to be when anorexia first reared its ugly head, starting with Julia who began to exercise and get into karate. Then, Sonia became interested in the sport, and everything escalated from there, having a snowball effect in illness and further competitiveness between the two. Each one wanted to be recognized for something of their own, especially Julia.

Then, they developed a major co-dependency issue, especially when both were attending the same college and living together. Eventually, they both left college and came home. This only further exacerbated their rituals and rules, leading to the two of them to "feed" off each other. I thought these scenes between the two of them really showed the effects of the nature of the illness. You saw how both were incredibly isolated, never leaving the house, declined visits to their older sister's house, saying harsh words to their sister and parents, their daily rituals, etc. It was incredibly sad for their older sister to hear the things they said to her, like that they were never close. But it truly did show the mark of the illness in how they were so void of emotion, feeling, and attachment from anything other than their disorder.

There was something else Julia said that I found startling. She said how she felt like Sonia was copying her in her anorexia and other behaviors, but at the same time, she was her nightmare too. Just imagine, being an identical twin, living together in the same environment, with an eating disorder. It's like waking up to see she shadow of your nightmare in living form as the anorexia. How that must be so difficult.

At the intervention which the girls had separately, you could see how clueless, helpless, and distraught their parents felt. They simply did not understand the disorder nor how raising of them as "one" versus separates impacted the girls' lives so much. Even down to the letter they were supposed to write for each individual girl, they wound up writing the same letter for each girl. By the end of the show, they did realize this mistake.

Sonia and Julia did agree to treatment, although they worried about being separated. But it seemed for Julia, there was almost a sense of relief actually, at least that is what I saw. Both girls were treated at Remuda Ranch in VA, though their treatment was separate except for dealing with their co-dependency issues. At the end of three months, they had reached a healthy weight and were maintaining it. They plan to go back to college in the fall and live in separate apartments.

I'd say my only real discrepancy was whether the "tough love" approach should have been taken. It's something Intervention is known for. In many cases, it works, since there is usually an "enabler" involved. The interventionist said how the parents were enabling this, because they allowed it to go on. Clearly, Sonia and Julia were not doing well in the home environment together, so something did need to change. Whether it was exactly their parents is questionable. I think the dynamics did need some revising, however.

Did anyone else see this episode? What were your thoughts?

Smorgasborg of weight in television

Sometimes, I get so tired of all the weight loss shows on television. Though the shows all claim that it is about health, there is always a focus on numbers.

We'd all agree that the The Biggest Loser finale certainly focused on numbers. Many bloggers, including myself, have talked about this show and the misappropriate message it is sending to the public. Last night was the season 7 finale. Helen Phillips, a 48-year old woman from Michigan, took the prize of $250,000 after losing a percentage of more than half her body weight. Looking at those finale photos, my eyebrows raise, reminding me just how much someone will do for a cash incentive. Of course, I cannot say this was her sole motivation, but clearly, there wasn't much of an appearance of "health." This also included the at-home winner, Jerry, the oldest contestant, who looked like he had aged 20 years.

So this begs the question, does the Biggest Loser finale cause eating disorders as the tvsquad suggests.

The sad thing about all this is 1) I couldn't believe I kept thinking, "well, crap, she weighs less than me" and 2) The Biggest Loser is slated for another season next year.

Since the Biggest Loser has become popular, another new show coming to the Oxygen network is hoping to prove to be just as successful. Dance your ass off combines both the aspects of the Biggest Loser and Dancing with the Stars. In this show, contestants are paired with a professional dancer and nutritionist. Each week, they perform a dance and receive scores from judges. Combing the judges' scores with how much weight loss they had during that week, determines elimination. Hmm, I just don't think this is sending the greatest message either to a general audience who craves weight loss.

On a positive note here, I caught a few episodes of the Wetv show, I want to save your life with Charles Stuart Platkin, aka the "Diet Detective." Platkin, a nutrition and public health advocate, performs health interventions on various individuals/couples each week. Platkin spends a week with the individuals, educating them on nutrition, exercise, and general well being. He leaves it up to them, and then returns 3-4 months later to see how they have progressed.

What I liked about this show was that there was a general less overall emphasis on weight. It did seem to be more geared towards a healthy lifestyle. In the show, he did not advocate for 6-8 hours of exercise a day but a much more reasonable amount for weight loss. There was more a realistic approach to getting exercise any way you could then simply hours in the gym. With eating, there wasn't an extremist ideology, but instead making health conscious choices. I wish more people watched this show, as there was much more of a realistic approach to weight loss.

Lastly, today's Dr,. Phil had an episode on eating disorders. I didn't see the entire episode, but did read through the show. In general, Dr. Phil did seem to have a little of an understanding on the plight of eating disorders. This specific show focused on a set of twins, one of whom had an eating disorder. Cynthia Bulik, researcher and author of Crave, was also in the audience to help both the eating disorder individual and the family with informative, helpful insights.

Thoughts on any of these shows?

The highlight of my week

We all know that my social life is pretty non-existent. This just further shows the point. The highlight of my week is tomorrow. It's the Lost premiere. I can't wait! I'm really dying to see what happens. So much so that I'm thinking of turning my cell phone off, making some black jewell popcorn and pretending to be in some dark movie theater. Okay, now who's joining me.

Wikipedia

Sneak peak previews can be seen here and here. These are *spoilers*, so if you do not want to know, don't click the links.

*Other posts are in the works, but I'm still recuperating from my parental units' visit. Now, I must go make my bed.

Intervention: a look at dysphagia

I'm not sure how many of you watched Intervention on Monday, but it was a very interesting case with a young woman with dysphagia, a swallowing disorder. Dysphagia can occur at any age for a variety of reasons. It can be due to a congenital abnormality, a structural problem or damage, a medical condition like Parkinson's, or for a psychological problem.

In this case, dysphagia was psychological. This episode featured Nicole, a woman who had been molested at a young age. This prompted her descent into anorexia where she became very malnourished and eventually had to have a feeding tube placed in her stomach. The feeding tube has been in her stomach for fourteen years. During this time, she got married and had two beautiful children.

Her family has become increasingly worried about her children as they feel she has neglected them. They also fear that Nicole could overdose on the many medications she's on for depression, anxiety, and I believe her heart. Since Nicole fears swallowing food so intensely, stemming from her childhood molestation, she chews and spits her food as well as mashing it up and dissolving her medications through the feeding tube. Her rationale for the feeding tube is that without it, she would not live at all, simply starving.

Nicole has been in various treatment centers, including those specific for eating disorders but did not feel they helped her. When she reaches the point of talking about the molestation, she has much difficulty dealing with it and shuts down. Thus, she has not gotten that far in therapy. In the intervention, her family's and husband's hope was that she would accept receiving treatment at a residential eating disorders clinic. At the end of the show, it said she stayed in the treatment program for two months, and then went home. She learned to swallow baby food and had gained over 25 pounds.

What I found interesting about this episode was not only the fact that it presented dysphagia psychologically which I've known has occurred in some abuse cases, but also the reliance of the feeding tube from an eating disorder perspective. I've personally never experienced this, but I have heard of people both refusing a feeding tube and also fearing the removal of one as well.

In the case with Nicole, she had had the feeding tube for fourteen years which is an extremely long time, especially evident by the sores around her feeding tube site. Feeding tubes' initial purpose has always been as a temporary measure to help individuals with eating disorders or any other ailment receive the nourishment they needed for a short time. After that, it was to be removed with resumed feeding/learning to eat on one's own.

The other aspect I found surprising was how forthcoming Nicole was about her feeding tube. She publicly fed herself through the feeding tube. She figured this was how she was going to eat, and if people were repulsed by it, then they needed to not watch. In general, this goes almost completely against normal eating disorder characteristics. Eating disorders have always thrived on secrecy, but she puts hers out on display. It gives a feeling of "attention seeking" even if that is not her intention.

The show also featured the toll this swallowing disorder has taken on her family. Her oldest child felt like she did not love her, while the younger one held out hope but was still clearly hurt.

Overall, I'm glad that she accepted treatment and has found some success. I hope she continues on with recovery and will be able to overcome her abuse issues and mend her relationship with her daughters and family.

If anyone saw this episode, what were your thoughts?

How much role does cash play in weight loss?

Tonight is the finale of the popular television show, The Biggest Loser. If you're not familiar with the show, basically, it's where obese individuals lose extreme amounts of weight in a short period of time through excessive hours of exercise and supposedly proper nutrition. I believe the show starts out with 14 or 15 contestants and one gets voted off per week depending on how much weight they have lost. The person who has lost the most amount of weight, aka "The Biggest Loser" receives a cash prize of $250,000.

I find this all so fitting, especially with a recent article that came out last week in the Journal of American Medical Association about the financial incentive for weight loss. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied 57 obese, but otherwise healthy individuals and randomly assigned them to three weight loss plans: a lottery incentive program, a deposit contract program, or monthly weigh-ins (control group).

In the lottery incentive program, individuals received money if they reached their weight loss target. The deposit contract group consisted of participants investing a small amount of their own money per day. If they reached their weight loss target, they would also receive a bonus, otherwise, they lost their money at the end of the month.

At the end of four months, the incentive groups lost more weight compared to the control group with about half reaching their target weight loss. However, seven months later, when there were no longer financial incentives, weight loss was not sustained among the incentive groups.

The idea behind the research was based on the loss aversion theory. Researchers say they wanted "to create a mechanism where loss aversion would help drive people's motivation...we wanted to create a reward system which gave them rewards in the present."

I'm not sure how to feel about the financial incentives for weight loss (for those who may need to clinically speaking). It adds such another factor into the mix of real motivations for weight loss or anything for for that matter. Rachel at The F-Word wrote a post awhile back titled The Biggest Loser or the Cash Cow? which made you think twice about the show.

What I find even more interesting is turning the tables--instead of weight loss, weight gain. How come we don't give cash incentives for that? Even so, it wouldn't matter, because weight gain is looked down upon in society, except for those with eating disorders or other medical illnesses where weight restoration is important. Even if those with EDs were given a cash incentive to gain weight, it is highly doubtful that they would embark on it. The motivations are different and money, objects, etc. aren't powerful enough.

In the end, however, for most with eating disorders, their motivations to gain weight (and I say this lightly as weight gain is difficult) and hopefully recover actually turn into more intrinsic values. The value of health and vitality, the motivation to (excerpt activity here), the ability to self nurture, and the list goes on and on all become more important than living a life with an eating disorder.

"Let them eat cake"

Since I am unable to watch House during the week, I like to watch the reruns on the weekends. Some of the cases are quite fascinating. The one I watched last night was from a few weeks ago, titled "Let them eat cake."

In this episode, a personal trainer comes in after she has collapsed from a fitness infomercial shoot. As usual, House and his assistants go through a battery of tests to figure out the right diagnosis. They wound up scanning her for a tumor and realized that she had gastric bypass surgery since her stomach was stapled. Some of the assistants ask her about the ethics of her career choice as a fitness trainer yet having medical intervention. She replies with that she is helping her clients to get healthy as she did once she had the surgery.

Anyway, this post isn't geared towards the contradiction of her career choice and previous lifestyle. This post is about what happens at the end of the show. After many tests, House finally makes a diagnosis of hereditary coproporphyia, a condition in which the liver lacks an enzyme that interrupts heme production. There is no cure for the condition, however, the treatment protocol is to reverse the gastric bypass surgery and implement a diet high in carbohydrate and sugar.

When House tells the patient, there is a look of mortification with her pleading for another way. The only other thing was medications for pain control. In the end, she chose the medication, and refused the surgery. House's final statement is, "Most people don't have the guts to admit they'd rather be pretty than healthy."

Now, I think that statement is slightly shallow, but I do get the point he is making. For this patient, having the bypass surgery helped transform her life so that she wound up living a healthier lifestyle. Therefore, I'm sure she felt like if she reversed the surgery, it would all be for nothing, or there was a fear she would regain all the weight lost, or simply unsure she could trust herself.

If I was in that position, I'm not sure what I would have done. I'd like to think that the "healthy" rationale would win out, but would it really? If you were placed in a medical situation of being thin or healthy (excluding weight restoration), which would you choose? What if your diet had to drastically change to all your fear foods, how would you react?

Transcript for episode