Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Rehab For Anxiety - That's A New One


I remember the days when I was a kid there wasn't even rehab. What you did then was if you had a booze or drug problem and wanted to stop was that you would go find some motel and check in for a month and lock yourself in until you were dried out. Then Betty Ford came along and changed all of that. Instead of paying $20 a day at a no-tell motel, you could pay Betty $20 a minute for your drug and alcohol drying out needs. Of course she did provide meals which was a big improvement on ordering pizza or eating motel vending machine candy.

At least though you could see the similarities between Betty's rehab and the original. I don't even recognize rehab anymore or even understand it. Chynna Phillips entered rehab over the weekend. Why? Well, according to her publicist it has noting to do with drugs or alcohol and is just about anxiety and trying to get rid of the stresses in her life. Now, granted, Chynna probably has her share of stress. Being MacKenzie Phllips' half-sister will do that to you. Getting crank phone calls from your in law Baldwin brothers would also probably cause some stress, but is rehab the place to go? To me you need a vacation. Some place tropical where you get drinks brought to you and your stress melts away. So, forgive me if I don't buy the story about why she is in rehab. Also, I find it funny that she made an announcement. I think she could have gone for a year and none of us would have noticed. You don't get a People Magazine cover story though unless someone notices. So, you make an announcement.


37 comments:

  1. I'm in a bad mood today. I think I'll check in to rehab.

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  2. What kills me was her publicist's statement asking "for privacy and respect". Um, you HAD privacy before you went and told an entire world that you were off to rehab. What makes anyone think that people wanted to know/care?

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  3. rehab is a poor choice of name for it....but i know a few people who have had to go to rehabilitation for intense therapy to overcome anxiety. it's no joke.

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  4. I am with you who cares if she has a drug problem. The only thing that matters is she is getting help. I am so over publicist feeding us bullshit about their clients.

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  5. I want to go to rehab for being too awesome. I have to tone it down a little. Please respect my privacy at this time.

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  6. ENTY: Can you do a post about Rob Pattinson's interview saying how he hates vaginas and is actually allergic to them???? HAHA That cracked me up! He's not gay tho..

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  7. LMAO @ Christine!!!

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  8. exactly, 0! if she wanted privacy they wouldn't have put this out there, it's not like everyone was looking for her!

    anxiety...yeah.

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  9. b*tch please...I have a friend with anxiety issues and all you have to do it's calm down and he does some breathing exercises. I'm so sick of people going to rehab for this and that, just grow up! It would be serious if there were some mental issues or a disorder

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  10. of course he is not gay but we know the cure for being allergic to vaginas and it requires him slurping on a penis. BUT HE IS NOT GAY

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  11. I doubt it's rehab, more like mental health care. good for her for getting it. Bad for her for having a publicist announce it, that's just ridiculous.

    @Jess, suffice to say: you are incorrect, sir.

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  12. Remember when she was on GMA and was asked about MacKenzie's incest allegations and she started to sing a song that is on her new CD. Well, I guess that didn't sell enough so now they are going to use the old rehab story.

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  13. "Rehab" sounds better than a "psychiatric facility"

    Either way, it's important to get help. She has a family that needs her.

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  14. maybe her problem is drugs for anxiety and this is just a clever way of saying that.

    i have a friend whose mother was an alcoholic in the 60's. they hauled her off to mental hospitals when it got real bad. she never got sober and died choking on her own vomit.

    modern rehab---thank you betty ford---is a good thing. it doesn't just dry you out. it helps you see the reasons you were doing whatever it is you were doing and learn to live without it. it helps a lot of people. having said that, my beef with it is the cost---a lot of people who need it simply can't afford it and their insurance doesn't cover it.

    for those who say 'why SHOULD insurance cover it?' i say because those people may well cost the system far more if they don't get clean. it's money well spent.

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  15. I think Rob P was refering to the fact that he was with a bunch of nekid ladies for about 12 hours on a photo shoot. I don't think he meant it seriously.

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  16. wow..nice compassion people. the more time i spend here,the more i realize how shitty people really can be.

    way to trivialize an issue that is quite fucking terrifying.

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  17. I'm with you Jax. Anxiety is a valid and often debilitating disorder. I don't know what the deal is with Chynna, nor do I really care, but anxiety is a valid health concern.

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  18. I had terrible anxiety when my OCD relapsed a few years ago (this was before I went on meds for it), so I know firsthand how debilitating it is.

    However, if she's actually going to rehab for drugs or alcohol, NOT COOL to use anxiety as a cover.

    Yes, some people use anxiety as a crutch to sit on their asses and not do anything about their sorry lives, but like obesity, it really does affect people.

    Someone on a message board I used to belong to claimed that I was making up the fact that I had OCD and was only using it as a cover to get on meds. I went absolutely ballistic on him. I also challenged him to go through one day of the hell I went through. I said he wouldn't last an hour. That shut him up...

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  19. Anonymous10:55 AM

    So Jax, were you joking about two weeks ago, when you committed that 'fat people are depressed'? Were was the compassion then?

    I'm sure many in the CDAN community have compassion, WE just don't need your moralizing for the masses.

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  20. I'm not trivializing anxiety, just don't think you go to "rehab" for it. I guess, as Patty said: "Rehab" sounds better than a "psychiatric facility."

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  21. I had severe anxiety for years. I still have some issues ( like not being able to drive over massive bridges! ) but with time and my own form of therapy I was able to overcome 80% of it...but before that anxiety was completely out of my control. Panic attacks that would send me to the hospital or having to pull over because driving was too scary..fear of leaving a 2 mile radius ..all sorts of crazy phobias developed. If I had the option of checking in someplace to help that wasn't a mental hospital I would take it. At least in rehab you try to get to the root source of the problem instead of masking it with prescribed 'balancing' medications.
    To each their own I think..

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  22. Because of my own issues I was relieved to read this article. I didn't realize there was rehab for anxiety. I know admitting you need help is the first hurdle and I can't quite get to that place because I'm supposed to be the strong one. Just typing that is stressing me, so I'll stop now and go back to my usual smartass comments.

    Good luck Chynna.

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  23. to each their own indeed, isn't that the nature of OPINIONS? i understand that not all of you think what i think is important, and i also know you won't all share my opinions, beliefs, etc - and that is okay with me. i don't think any of you (even you, judgy jax) are shitty because of it. this site is a great big vent for a lot of us a lot of the time and anyone who takes comments on a celeb gossip site seriously maybe needs to go to rehab too. just sayin'.

    i for one think that it's trivializing anxiety to use it as a cover for rehab. i have dealt with anxiety and it's not fun, but it is not something for which rehab is necessary. breathing techniques and medications are all available to utilize at home.

    i am sick of celebs having their crack and smoking it too. if you are a drug addict, come out and be honest - drug addiction is rampant in this country, why not bring attention to it and show people how to deal with it instead of making up some lame excuse like anxiety or exhaustion.

    sorry, rants over.

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  24. I agree, rehab sounds better than mental institute.

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  25. Not trivializing anxiety or other mental health issues at all. As someone who spent two years completely lost without the help of Klonopin, I understand how much it sucks.

    What I take issue with is celebs asking for privacy in the same breath that they are giving private information that no one asked for. You can't have both.

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  26. If she needs help, I hope she gets it. I just don't understand why her publicist would release a statement.

    Didn't Ashley Judd claim to have gone to rehab for her perfectionism? Anxiety is more believable but it would have been more believable if she said spa instead of rehab, which still sounds better than inpatient psychiatric treatment facility.

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  27. Maybe sibling rivalry? Mac's on Celebrity Rehab this season. But because good little Christian girls don't do drugs/alcohol, maybe she opted for "anxiety"?

    What throws me is the word "rehab". I have anxiety. Panic attacks are terrible. But in severe cases, that's a psychiatric hospital situation not a rehab.

    She has been very supportive of her (and rightly so). Maybe the rest of the family is giving her hell and this is her way out of the labyrinth?

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  28. Years ago I had a relationship end that really put me through the ringer. I was horribly devastated, depressed, nearly suicidal. Not to mention it was just after Valentines Day - ugh. I called American Airlines at 3 in the morning after downing a bottle of wine, and told the ticket agent I wanted to go anywhere - somewhere - to forget. He booked me on a flight to Grand Cayman Island. 12 hours later I was sitting on a sandy beach, sun beating down on my skin, listening to waves crash and letting some cute cabana boy bring me Pina Coladas and occasionally a sandwich. For five days I baked in the sun, read trashy romance novels, floated in clear blue water, and spent my evenings lying on a beach chair sipping rum & coke and listening to the Barefoot Man. Total cost of my rehab - about $1200. Best money I ever spent. I came home rested, refreshed, with a clear head, and ready to move forward with my life. And not a single counselor was needed.

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  29. Sue, I honestly believe a person can die of a broken heart. But, IMO it's one thing when a person can pin point the cause for their depression and another when a person has everything great going on in the world and yet they still don't want to leave the house, deal with people, afraid to get mail out of the mailbox, write a check to pay a bill, drive on the freeway, battle headaches, blood pressure, heart palpitations...

    Oy vey, I got a little carried away there. My list is too long.

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  30. Yaaaaaay Sue! Been in the same situation and wish I'd have been able to afford that too, sounds wonderful. :-)

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  31. Her publicist is Lizzie Grubman. I've always wondered if people hire her to take the conversation off themselves. A little drug problem is nothing when it's being announced by a woman who tried to kill people.

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  32. Would mental hospital be better? Geesh. Three years ago, I was in a residential treatment facility for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. I preferred to call it "rehab", as it was a rehabilitation center. It allowed me to get myself and my medications straightened out, and prevented me from doing "something stupid." Granted, I only got a week of in-patient treatment (then followed up with my therapist and psychiatrist.) She'll probably have a month in-patient. Must be nice to not rely on insurance to cover treatment.

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  33. Reminds me of "Walk the Line" when Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) was getting of drugs and they let him sweat it out while chasing the drug dealer away with shotguns..I leaned over and whispered to my niece..."Redneck rehab" she shot pepsi through her nose.

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  35. Hugs & smiles to John,
    well said...

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  36. When I was a teenager, I developed an anxiety disorder that culminated in such terrifying episodes of extreme panic and agoraphobia, that my life basically stopped for a few years. I couldn't go out because of the fear and the humiliation of having a panic attack and it got to the point, I had them round the clock, so I wasn't sleeping or eating much. I was a mess :( It was brought on by a bad situation at home coupled with witnessing the death of a friend when I was 16. I felt that I had nowhere to turn and I had no support from adults. I bounced around for years after that just 'coping' (the UK at that time didn't really have great mental health care) but it left a scar very deep and it has taken YEARS of therapy to get to the point where I am in control of my anxiety. I only wish there had been some sort of 'rehab' for me so that I could have enjoyed my teenage years instead of wishing I were dead. It's that cut and dry for some people.

    As for this woman, I have no idea why she made that statement (and in my case, the LAST thing I wanted was any attention) but it highlights a serious mental disorder and for that, I at least hope it makes others feel that they are not alone.

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