In America, we have the Dr. Phil Show. He's a TV psychologist who has these people on and he makes people get "real" about themselves; I actually am quite enamored with the show.

Anyway, three weeks ago he had this two-part show on this couple named Jeffrey and Jennifer. This guy Jeff, who's in the picture above, wrote the show because he recognized he had an obsession with his wife and said he wanted to get over it. However, what he was really hoping was to manipulate the system and Dr. Phil to kind of agree with him and maybe say he needed a little bit of counseling. But Dr. Phil always sends cameras to the house, and you should have seen this stuff. This guy, for instance, had cameras and microphones all over the house and the car. He also had multiple tracking devices so he could track the car his wife drove, and had set up programs that would tell him every single phone call that went to his wife's cell phone or from her phone. Oh yeah, the phones were all bugged also. He'd already gotten her fired from her job because he'd call her multiple times during the day, then he started calling all the men who worked at the company and accused them all of sleeping with her; a real nut job.

So, Dr. Phil got him to agree to go away for counseling for two weeks, leaving her in the house on her own. Well, almost,... she had lots of peace, but he found ways to still call her all the time, though he wasn't allowed access, and snuck to get access to a computer (he was in another state) so he could still track his wife with all the stuff he had on the computer. Meanwhile, Dr. Phil sent guys into the house to scope out where all the spy devices might be, and you wouldn't believe how many this guy had; it was amazing. They also, obviously, couldn't find all his spy stuff on the computer. He was also still able to check all messages that were being left on the answering machine, and would then call her and, being dichotomous, would alternate between angry and being regretful; just weird.

Anyway, he makes it through the two weeks, but she'd already decided she wanted the divorce. Well, to say he freaked would be an understatement. He said he'd go back to counseling, but he bolted from the limo that was taking him back when it stopped at a light. Next, they learned that he's jumping into a bunch of cabs, borrowing their cell phones and calling all over the place looking for his wife, who was still at the studio. He would jump out of a cab without paying and look for another cab, because he had no money. He finally got one of the cabs to take him to a pawn shop, where he pawned his wedding ring so he could buy a plane ticket, and beat her home, where he'd already started setting up other tracking things on her in the computer and the house by the time she made it home. She calls the police, and they come, stay while she packs things up and leaves, and stay there at least another hour to make sure he stays in the house while she goes somewhere; she heads for Iowa and her mother's house, whom he'd never met because he was Mr. Controlling, so he couldn't follow her there.

Or so we thought. He said he would go back to counseling, but suddenly went missing for two days, and when he was finally spotted he was within two blocks of her mother's house, violating an order of protection she'd gotten against him. So they finally arrested him, and, because of all the other stuff he'd been doing, he's now sitting in jail, no bail, awaiting a trial.

I tell you, we hear about how these types of guys can decompress over time, but this was the first time we ever saw it live, so to speak, and I have to say that it was frightening just how obsessive some people can get. I now have a better understanding of what women go through with these very controlling men; I'm glad I'm not one of them, and I'm sorry for the women who have to go through mess like this.