Relationship Advice
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Usually someone who has obsessive behavior has something in their life that they're not settled with. The brain sort of "gets stuck" trying to redress the imbalance of the unmet need; the coping behavior (in this case the trashy shows) doesn't actually fulfill the need, but the brain's still latched onto it as what might help if you just get enough of it, so the consumption grows out of all proportion.
What's making her unsettled could be anything; could be work, or something in your relationship, or stress about money that's making it so she can't get settled mentally, or what have you. No way to tell from the outside. She may not even be aware of it. But I would try to get to the bottom of what it is and make it a priority. Trying to address watching the shows without addressing the underlying issue is going to be largely fruitless I think. Conversely, my guess is that once the underlying issue is addressed to some extent, then she won't be walking around with the phone or similar. She might still like the shows but it won't be to this obsessive level.
Plus then your wife will be happier, which is no small benefit.
Edit: So to address the I-think-pretty-reasonable question of how actually obsessive her watching of these shows actually is: How much does your wife do this? Like how many hours a day is she watching her shows? Does it actually interfere with other activities, or is it only something she's doing during "downtime" or chores or etc?
This is interesting.. My dad died back in May and I started binging bizarre/paranormal stories on YouTube at work. Like, all fucking day. I wasn't supposed to be listening to earbuds either. Nobody said anything (likely because I'm a manager) but I chose not to give a shit and just did it anyway at risk of my boss or my team calling me out. Then all at once I realized I was being a giant hypocrite, as I knew that if someone else did the same thing, I'd likely have to ask them not to wear the earbuds. I stopped wearing them entirely after that, apologized to my team, and moved on with my life.
I know it's not excusable to just give myself permission to break rules, especially in a position of authority.. But I think it was a weird coping mechanism that you just put into words. I didn't even know it was a thing.
Yeah. I know because I've dealt with the same type of thing. I think the people telling me that I'm armchair-diagnosing this guy's wife based on very little maybe-unreliable information and may not know what I'm talking about may well have a point, dependent on how much time she actually spends watching stuff on her phone.
But yeah that nature of the brain and the powerful draw of self-soothing with stimulating things is very real, irregardless of whether that's actually what's going on in this particular relationship.
I'm not sure accusing your wife of addiction for enjoying a popular genre of TV show will be productive.
Yeah, I have no idea how this will be received, or how accurate any of it is to the guy's situation. But what's going on from the way the guy describes it goes a bit beyond enjoying a popular genre of TV show.
Wow, this struck such a chord with me. It suddenly highlighted periods in my life where I've obsessively consumed (media, substances) with a feeling of no control, and those were often times where I was struggling with an underlying (often unrecognized) issue.