Scene from a reality show - Could it possibly be legitimate? OCD-related

Mean_Mr.Mustard
Sat, 05 Oct 2024 11:53:06 +0000
Cafe Society

The show is called “Obsessed” and it’s on Amazon Prime. Its focus is obsessive compulsive disorder, and each episode features a couple of people who have specific obsessions and compulsions.

I’ve only seen episode 1, in which one woman has a thing about other peoples’ hands (and whenever her mother makes the “k” sound when speaking), and another woman has constant fantasies about killing other people.

The program shows the treatment aspect as well, with a therapist conducting cognitive behavior therapy as their treatment.

The woman who fantasizes about doing murder is afraid of going out in public, being terrified that she may actually turn her thoughts into acts. It is her CBT that raised my eyebrows. In it, the therapist brought out an array of knives and directed the woman to hold one to the therapist’s throat.

She hesitated, fearing that she would slice her throat. The therapist insisted. Then, with a very sharp looking knife to the therapist’s throat, she asked the woman if she felt that she was going to kill her, using a 1-10 scale to quantify her compulsion. Her answer: “ten plus”.

I cannot imagine that a therapist would actually do this. Or that a television program would allow and film it. But it sure did look real. The woman was shaking and sweating as she held the knife against the throat, and the therapist sort of egged her on, telling her to press it more firmly and demanding that she keep it there much longer than the woman wanted to.

Ick.

mmm

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