Dr. Phil Episode Notes: Kimm Returns
Here are the notes I took from today’s Dr. Phil episode: The Dr. Phil Housewives: Kimm Returns.
Segment 1
Summary: Gloria is comforting Michelle. Kim has some sort of breakdown. Alana and Michelle describe through tears Kimm’s situation. But Jennifer is not moved by Kimm’s breakdown. Rachael is pregnant, and Michelle is looking for a man. Some big secret is to be revealed today; one of the housewives has been married five times before, unknown to the group.
They’re summarizing yesterday’s episode, where Kimm was taken by ambulance to the hospital. They’ll reveal what actually happened with Kimm. The remaining women are expressing their feelings about the incident.
Kimm’s husband says that this has happened before.
Kimm is being sent to rehab.
Alana’s scolding Michelle for mentioning Kimm’s drug abuse problem to the group yesterday, complaining that Michelle’s abrupt way of divulging the information in front of everyone was over the top. Alana thought that Michelle might have first taken Kimm off alone to talk with her, before doing it in front of the group. She’s still shocked about Kimm.
Michelle broke down and cried as Alana griped at her. Perhaps she did announce Kimm’s issues to too broad an initial audience.
Jennifer feels relaxed now that she no longer has to keep quiet her own suspicions about Kimm’s issues. Jennifer thinks Kimm drinks excessively, and that Kimm took the entire bottle of Xanax to avoid having to face the group about her drinking. Jennifer sees alcoholism as a weakness, and to quote her, she “can’t stand weakness.”
Gloria says that she’s seen this sort of abuse occur among people she’s know well before, and so, knows the signs of it to look for. They showed a six month old clip from Gloria, where she told Kimm that she felt that there was more going on with her than Kimm has revealed to the group. Gloria is crying and upset because Kimm got the help that so many of her friends were not fortunate enough to receive. To me, this made Gloria sound a little selfish, particularly will Kimm still in the very early stages of rehab. Alana grumbled in response.
Dr. Phil is reassuring the girls that not one of them is to blame for Kimm’s meltdown. Kimm chose on her own to overdose on Xanax herself. He’s suspected Kimm’s drug problem for quite some time now. He believes that Kimm intentionally cried for help by committing this overdose. She took the medicine in the presence of people, and then she told them that she did it.
Next: Alana says how the girls should not fib in these session either overtly or by omission, because doing so negatively affects the other housewives, who are trying to be fully open.
Segment 2
Creative Care in Malibu is helping Kimm get past her alcohol abuse problem.
Dr. Phil meets with her doctors from Creative Care and thanked them for coming on the show.
Dr. Morteza Khaleghi, the founder of Creative Care, says that Kimm has emotional worry as well as the alcohol abuse. The emotional side of this was present before the alcohol and drugs entered Kimm’s life scene. Kimm’s mother was an alcoholic, and Kimm fears that if she admits to being an alcohol abuser, then she’ll be just like her mom.
Dr. Deena Manion, a clinical director at Creative Care also provides corroborating feedback about Kimm’s condition to Dr. Phil and the audience.
Rachael is absent from this session due to a “work conflict.”
Kimm surprises all by showing up for this session unexpectedly. She huggs Alana profusely.
Gloria however, is not impressed with Kimm’s return. Gloria is exceptionally put off by Kimm’s drug use, claiming to have an emotional hot button where drug-abusing mothers are concerned. But she hopes to see positive changes in the dynamics of this group, now that more relevant information about Kimm is on the table.
Michelle worries that Kimm might harbor anger toward her for squealing to the rest of the group about her problem. Michelle and Alana get into yet another loud argument. Gone is Michelle’s heretofore typical meekness. She stands up to Alana, literally, saying essentially that Alana won’t intimidate her with her domineering and lording personality ever again. Michelle apologized to Kim for perhaps not handling the information of her drug abuse as well as she could have, and Kimm accepted.
Alana cries tears of joy to see Kimm come back, and points out that they rely on each other in this group to be truthful and forthcoming. But when someone withholds or lies, that hurts them all. Alana also scolds Gloria for wanting to call her agent (or something) as the drama with Kimm was unfolding.
Jennifer surmises that by attempting to contact agents and such, Michelle and Gloria have now revealed their true reasons for appearing on the Dr. Phil show: publicity, and not to humbly seek and obtain help for their problems.
Dr. Phil attempts to calm Michelle and Alana down, and keep the group focused on the problems they’re here to solve.
Kim says that she wasn’t expecting Dr. Phil to read the letter she’d written to him yesterday before the group. His public reading of this made Kim feel embarrassed and ashamed, and in my view, might have been one of the factors that pushed Kimm into making the choice to OD on Xanax. Kim likes her rehab at Creative Care so far.
Next: The group is looking at Jennifer while someone accuses her of not being fully open.
Segment 3
Kimm says that she dislikes Gloria, while Alana claps and laughs in the background, apparently agreeing with Kimm. Apparently, whatever truce we saw develop between Gloria and Alana in recent episodes has disappeared.
In this episode, Alana seems to be just as adversarial with Gloria as she every was. Sometimes, you just can’t make people get along if they’re not going to.
Jennifer is glad that Kimm is back, but doesn’t believe that these sessions are helping her. Jennifer’s the one that’s had all these men in her life; five husbands, six marriages, and four children. She says that she hid most of the men from her children until recently, knowing that this would probably be brought up on the show. The number of men involved surprises the group. Jennifer goes on to claim that she cheated on all her husbands except the sixth one, and one of those interlopers was married himself. Odd that she’s been so judgmental about others dirty laundry when she’s been concealing quite a bit of her own.
The group as a whole complains that now, they don’t know who Jennifer really is due to this omission and judging.
Next: Jennifer accuses Gloria of being fake with her analytic and at times, condescending tones.
Segment 4
Jennifer says that all the sadness that Michelle, Alana, and Gloria are experiencing being without a man, has made her reconsider leaving her cheating husband. Though he’s by no means ideal for her, she figures that it’s better to stay with him than to leave him and then experience the loneliness of aloneness that the single women in the group are suffering. Leaving him could mean that she loses her kids (at least in part time). She believes Gloria to shed crocodile tears when she cries, and that Gloria only does this for show but does not really mean to cry.
The group believes that Jennifer resents pretty women, perhaps because she thinks they’ll steal her husband. She seems insecure in her own looks; does not accept herself.
Gloria defends herself to Jennifer, saying that it’s part of her personality to analyze, perhaps to excess. She was hurt that Jennifer came down so hard on her for just trying to help.
Segment 5
Jennifer believes Gloria is not for real when she cries.
Dr. Phil discussed his authentic self concept.
The ladies want to know how they can uncover their authentic selves and thereby improve themselves. They also want to know how to escape the self-fulfilling prophecy of being alone, if that’s all they believe they deserve. How does one change what she thinks she deserves (or not)?
Michelle accuses Alana of always dominating the limelight. This starts yet another confrontation between these two.
Dr. Phil says that Alana interrupts people more than anyone else in the group, and asks her why her “first reaction” is to immediately insult someone with whom she disagrees.
Alana claims to insult only two of the ladies in the room (Michelle and Gloria). She admits that she dislikes both Gloria and Michelle.
Gloria believes Alana to possess insufficient mental ability to respond to people in more civilized ways; she just snaps, interrupts, and excessively dominates the conversation.
Next: Alana asks Gloria and Michelle not to mention her name anymore, to avoid further conflict with her.
Segment 6
The group is still asking Alana why she must dominate them.
Alana complains that participating in this group doesn’t seem to be helping the ones who most need it; namely, the ones that Alana does not get along with.
Dr. Phil mentions that the more accepting we are of ourselves, then the less of what other people say about us hurts us.
Michelle says that she’s okay with not talking to Alana. She wants to avoid the stress of it. Michelle asks Alana why it’s appropriate for her to talk over and verbally bully others whenever she (Alana) knows all too well the pains of being bullied herself.
Dr. Phil advises Alana that if she commits not to behave that way, and really convinces herself deep inside that behaving in intimidating ways is not acceptable, that she’d probably discover other, more appropriate ways to respond to different points of view.
Segment 7
Dr. Phil feels that Jennifer took some big strides toward her recovery by opening up about all those additional men she’s married. He’ll continue to help Kimm along through her rehab at Creative Care. He thanked the Creative Care doctors for their input to this show and their ongoing help to Kimm. He invited his viewers to follow and communicate with the housewives on Facebook.
Kimm feels good about the progress she’s making at Creative Care. She feels stronger and more able to share her real thoughts and emotions, as when she told Gloria that she didn’t like her much.
That’s all for this episode.
March 23rd, 2011 at 2:10 pm
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March 30th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
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