Season 3, Episode 2
Kim
Age: 34
Location: Northern California
Addiction: Anorexia
What’s Memorable: The extent to which Kim hates herself is truly disturbing. She is clearly mentally ill, just completely drowning in her horrible thoughts.
Official synopsis: Kim is a beautiful 34-year-old make-up artist who grew up a cheerleader and popular. But fearing her good looks and slim figure were deteriorating, Kim turned to bulimia and anorexia. Now Kim’s weight issues have taken over her life. She is entrenched in a divorce with her high school sweetheart, who she still loves dearly. She’s moved in with her mother and stepfather, with whom she can’t get along. Kim’s needs have taken over the household and no one believes it can get better unless Kim agrees to get help.
Original Air Date: March 2007
Interventionist: Candy
This episode was very hard to watch. Kim’s pain was very clear – that is unmistakeable. However, I think it was also hard for me to watch it because of how manipulative she was toward her family – her mother especially. Having her mother leave work to care for her when she was feeling suicidal and then saying later that she didn’t need her mother’s help was incredibly hurtful. I seriously hope she received the help she needed and that she is still in recovery.
I feel like there was something missing from Kim’s story possibly, like maybe sexual abuse. I say that because Ive seen the effects it can have on someone (myself) and Kim seems to have similar effects. Hopefully that’s not the case. I’m glad her mom knows where lots of the problems started and seems to show compassion on her. I was disappointed that her biological father didn’t show up to the intervention. I hope she is doing well today!
I agree. I wonder if her ex-husband did something or if she was abused while in college. Her mom was amazing – she is a nurse, too. I would find it difficult to live in the same house with Kim because of her suicidal/homicidal ideations (the way she talked about how she wanted someone to give her “a gun with a silencer” in front of her stepfather gave me the creeps). I don’t know how they live with her.
Not necessarily sexual abuse but she certainly does show a lot of the signs. Thank you for saying this.
This episode is the one that made me question the show’s validity. I really had the feeling that most of the family were actors (especially Kim’s mother) because they were so overly dramatic. Or maybe so much of it was staged it just didn’t seem to be genuine? I never had that feeling with any other episode, but this one had my radar up that something wasn’t sitting right with the way the people acted.
I do agree that it did seem a little bit over dramatic, but I think Kim’s narcissistic personality overshadowed everyone. It felt a lot like a soap opera.
agreed, 100%
except that the photos are of the same people from 30 years prior.
I think it is Kim. She’s faked this entire episode. She hasn’t had a single real emotion. It’s all a show for the cameras and her family. That’s why the step father left dinner. He couldn’t take her acting. She obviously has a serious issue but I don’t think any of the real issue was shown
Her Stepfather essentially said what I was thinking, her behavior was performative a costume. And he was right, she was manipulating everything and everyone if you grow up around a master manipulator it’s scary how very real that level of drama is.
How utterly dysfunctional everyone in the family was with the exception of the step dad. Then the neice starts exibiting the similar eating behaviors. Jeez Louise
Just watching this epidode.
I wonder how she is? This is clearly a mental health issue more than an eating disorder.
She needs meds.
Eating disorders ARE mental illnesses.
I just watched on Amazon. Wondering about updates
I Don’t know about Eating Disorders so please excuse my ignorance. But couldn’t she be suffering from some kind of sexual abuse. When she was a child maybe that she has blocked out, or maybe she was raped in her pre or early teens or at college… I don’t know. And even if she says nothing happened to her like that, (I missed Half the Episode). Maybe she is blocking it out of her Memory some how. To me mental illness is mainly a Fault in the Brain that is a Physical “Brain” problem that can occasionally benefit from antipsychotics and or an antidepressant. That delivers or reroutes chemicals to an area of the brain that is not currently receiving what it requires to function properly. I think this is a result of some kind of PTSD I don’t know if that can be described as a mental illness. Because it was a result of a situation that an individual could not deal with not necessarily that her brain was damaged before entering this world when something like this happened. I have family members that have been to war one of which has PTSD and was in really bad shape for a situation. This girl to me seems like everything was functioning great until something traumatic happened like a great or a memory surfacing from being molested or something to that effect. This is a very very sad story. Because she is unbelievably gorgeous. She definitely could use a few pounds to look healthy. But she is a very beautiful woman I watch the remaining episode when I had turned the TV on and wish I had seen the entire episode. But honestly I was blown away that this girl had any issues at all. Some people put up a good front I guess. But my heck she has a lot of things going for her just looks alone she’s absolutely stunning.
I’m pretty sure this was the first episode of Intervention I ever saw, and wow did it disturb me. Probably because I saw a lot of myself in Kim.
Eating disorders ARE mental illnesses. They are not being overly dramatic. People think they know what anorexia is but … let me tell you… you don’t. It kills 25 percent of young people who have it and nearly 50 percent of adults who have it. We have been struggling to keep our daughter alive for 4 years. It is a nightmare of “unreality”. There is little than can be done to help after they turn off 18. I sometimes wish she had cancer because then she would want to get better and we would have a chance. She wouldn’t lie and lash out at the people who want to help her and love her. Hard core mental illness. Devastating. Kim is not the worst… fairly typical. My heart bleeds for people who suffer from this and their families. Little help, little understanding, little support for adult sufferers and their families.. Believe me, it isn’t staged. It isn’t.
Hope you’re doing okay Sandra. My son has anorexia too and it’s a hideous disease
I’ve been where you have been Sandra. ED is a horrible illness and a deadly one at that. I hope things are looking up for your family.
Her family is horrendous
I can’t believe how much of a difference 16 lbs made, she looked really good. I hope she’s doing well but in all honesty I’d be surprised if she is.
How guys dare you guys judge her or her family? They suffer bad enough. If you had this disease or knew someone who had it you’d never say ” horrendous ” or ” narcissic ”.
Just noticed they are Mormon! This explains a lot! Total respect for Mormons —don’t get me wrong. But there I a pressure for perfection in the culture, and it accounts for a lot of this behavior being prevalent in the Mormon community.
As far as I’m concerned the only good Mormon is a former Mormon. That’s not a threat of death mind you but they should leave that cult.
I feel this way about most religious fundamentalists. I used to work for a Catholic who was ultra conservative. Home schooled his kids so they didn’t have to interact with people who weren’t Catholic. Mail order will from the Philippines that he controlled with money and manipulating the kids. And a bizarre and disturbing obsession with his oldest son who he brainwashed from an early age into wanting to be a priest. Oh and he named all of his kids after himself girls and boys. He was super controlling and narcissistic, only hired catholics or people who he knew he could control so they would do his dirty work. He tried to convert me and another young woman to Catholicism and frequently questioned why I was single and didn’t have kids. What was the most disturbing was how he interacted with his children.
At a company picnic his young sons had to follow him around. His wife wasn’t allowed to talk to any of the other women at the party, probably to keep her from realizing how bizarre her husband was. When his kid wanted to play with some of the other children at the party, he had to stand in front of his father with his face towards the ground and practically grovel. And even then he was only allowed to watch the other kids and couldn’t speak to or interact with them.
The kicker though is he was eventually forced to send his oldest son to regular school, but as soon as it was over he would pick him up and lock him in a spare office until it was time to leave for the day. When I accidentally walked in there one day he was standing with his face in the corner of the room muttering scripture to himself. That was his leisure activity.
I pray for those kids every night because they will absolutely completely go wild the second they are free of his control. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they spiraled into addiction or criminal behavior or both.
I agree! As a former Mormon, I was raised that my only job was to get married, sealed in the temple, pop out babies and preferably be a stay at home mom.. When our bishop told me that I was the reason we couldn’t get sealed in the temple cause I drank green tea (Meanwhile my ex-husband was addicted to porn and the bishop knew this) and that it was my job to support my husband in his addiction but I could easily stop drinking green tea.
The best thing I did was get divorced and move away from that community and now I have my life.. I can also drink all the green tea I want and go swimming on Sundays XD
Not to armchair-diagnose, but Kim has obvious borderline personality disorder. Her manipulation tactics are clearly subconscious cries for help. She only gets attention when she hurts herself, no wonder she constantly resorts to it. Her family openly resents her presence. Truly painful to watch. I feel so much empathy for her and I hope she found peace.
She might have borderline personality disorder; it’s no uncommon to see that co-occur with an ED. But it may also be the case that some of her borderline traits would abate if her ED was resolved. I did not. know, before my daughter experienced Anorexia, how severe the emotional and psychological symptoms can be. It’s not all about food. Many other aspects of the personality of an ED patient are impacted by the disorder, sometimes in very surprising ways.
Yes for sure! I was thinking the same thing. Sue to the violence and turmoil she saw at a young age she probably has a terrible attachment style and seems like borderline or some type of personality disorder
I hope she has fully recovered now and her niece hasnt been affected too badly by Kim’s illness
Ugh Kim’s episode was hard to watch! I remember seeing it for the first time when Intervention just came out. I agree she has some serious mental health issues along with the eating disorder. She’s beautiful and has so much potential! I didn’t care for the step father he acted like jerk, I know he’s frustrated but he can try to muster some compassion. I wish someone has an update on Kim today! I pray she is alive and well!
I wish there was an update on Kim.I can relate to her,having had all sorts of eating disorders myself,included anorexia,for 24 years now.The illness changes you,changes the person you are from the inside.Healing is a really rocky path,because you can cut out drugs or alcohol out of your life,but can’t avoid food,you need that to survive.it’s a daily battle,multiple times a day,you gotta fight,when you have an eating disorder.I loved Kim,she’s such a sweet woman,I wish she found her way out of the eating disorder.If anyone has an update,would be lovely to see how she’s doing.Kim,don’t know if you’ll ever read this,but you’re a great woman battling your demons,and I wish for you the very best in life.I’ve seen too many eating disordered friends reach the deep end and never come back.I hope that never happened to you.Sending love and support from across the world ❤️
Sorry if I made mistakes,English isn’t my first language.
Eating disorders ARE mental illnesses. They aren’t seperate entities. And good treatment is hard to find.
Kim was acting at the end IMO. She put on a few lbs and just told them what they wanted to hear.
I used to work at montecatini back in 2015 way after her being there. It was surreal. However, they don’t tell the patients how much the gained due to fear of relapse. To me she didn’t look much different and seemed to be still struggling. I hope she’s ok now.
ugh, this one was painful to watch. Kim was in very real pain, nobody can dispute that… but the way she treated her family was upsetting. flipping on her mom who just helped her when she felt suicidal, sitting at the dinner table deliberately not eating… yikes. i really hope she got help, and a LOT of it.
Of course she didn’t eat. She has anorexia. She can’t eat. It’s hard to explain to someone that hasn’t experienced it.
People don’t understand that anorexics are starving and it damages their brains. Many of them are angry, suicidal and say and do horrible things to the people closest to them. Sometimes after they recover, they don’t even remember everything they did. Kim seemed pretty typical of a severe anorexic to me. It looked like she had started a program and I hope she did recover. She will need long term, sustained nutrition for brain healing.
i suspect she had more issues besides her eating disorder, but who knows. regardless, the lack of food definitely didn’t help her mental state…
just watched this and my heart hurts for her. she clearly has borderline personality disorder from the neglect and abuse she suffered as a child. her mother talking about how she clung to her and she didn’t pick her up made me sob. it’s no wonder she ended up utilizing an Ed as a way of demanding attention.
too little, too late on the part of her family – noticed her bio dad was nowhere to be found at the actual intervention. same with ex husband.
I really hope she’s doing okay now. I hope they all found peace and were able to bond again and she stayed in treatment for her Ed and BPD.