The second of two parts; previously, "Win, Lose or Die: 11 Reality-Show Players Have Committed Suicide."
Katie Gold made it to the final four on the first year of “Survivor’s” Australian edition. Throughout the program she received a continuous stream of letters saying, "You’re a disgrace, you disgust us."
When the show was done, Gold (pictured below) continued getting hate mail, suffered clinical depression and had to undergo years of psychotherapy to deal with, as she put it, “serious trust and abandonment issues.”
Mental-health workers have discovered that often people who compete on shows like “Survivor” and “Big Brother” -- even those who win -- suffer severe and often long-lasting psychological trauma as a result.
“The obsession to be on TV is like the obsession to use drugs and alcohol,” Miami psychologist Dr. Jamie Huysman told TheWrap. “It’s just a symptom of a much deeper emotional problem, and the sufferer’s malaise infects the entire family.”
Huysman, who has a special practice in which he treats victims of reality shows and their families, says he has treated over 800 people since he founded AfterTVCare in 1992.
He started the practice when the producer of a TV talk show asked him to intervene in a case where a man who had appeared on the program was threatening to kill his daughter and himself because of what he revealed about lusting for her.
“Reality shows open wounds which no one can suture, so after your appearance, you’re left to bleed to death,” he said. “In effect, everyone who appears is thrown out of the lifeboat when their segment ends. “For everyone who appears -- winners and losers alike -- the lights go down, clinical issues remain. (See more on the interview with Dr. Huysman.)
People don't have any idea what it's going to feel like to have so much of their life exposed to the camera, said Dr. Michelle Callahan, who recently served as a co-host and life coach on the mean girl makeover reality series "Queen Bees" on The N network.
"They underestimate how much stress they can deal with,” Callahan told TheWrap. “They think, 'Oh, we're cool, we'll have so much fun and it's gonna do great things for us so it's worth it for the exposure.' "
Callahan added that often contestants don't realize how much scrutiny they will have to endure even after their time on the show has ended. "Your persona on the show extends back to your real life," she said. "If you're on 'The Biggest Loser' and the show ends and you're driving down the street and you stop at Popeye's, people are gonna say, ‘Hey, you still look fat.' Your weight issue has become public. That's a lot of pressure to endure."
Weight, especially, can bring out the insults.
Jade Goody (pictured below), a 21-year-old dental nurse from London who died from cancer earlier this year, was dubbed "the most hated woman in the United Kingdom” during her 2002 “Big Brother” stint and was routinely called out for being bitchy, two-faced and fat.
