Sunday, July 26, 2009

Special Treatment

I knew "Obsessed" would spark certain reactions in me: disbelief, scorn, empathy. What surprised me was the hilarity.

The counselors practice exposure therapy, which forces patients to face their fears head-on. The woman consumed by morbid anxieties? Shut her in an earthquake simulator and don't give her any warning. The agoraphobe? Stand him in the middle of a baseball field. The hoarder who'd kept the paper plates and napkins from her grown son's first birthday party? Hold a yard sale. (She set the prices unreasonably high, then talked people out of buying things or refused to sell outright, even though everything left would be given to charity.)

With the germophobe/claustrophobe, they were able to kill two birds with one stone: They took her into a porta-potty and got her to touch the dirty seat.

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