The Bradleys' Emotional Debt

Psychotherapist Dr. Robin helps the Bradleys figure out why they really spend. She says that the Bradleys aren't just tackling their debt—they are recovering from an addiction. "Whether it's food, whether it's debt, whether it's alcohol—detoxing sucks," says Dr. Robin. "I know that's a nonclinical word, but we all know what it means. It does not feel good when one starts to clean up their mess."

Now that Lisa is coming clean, she says she's having a hard time dealing with some unsupportive—even critical—friends and family members. "I can't get them to accept it, and it hurts," Lisa says.

Oprah isn't surprised some people have had a negative reaction. "We attract to ourselves the mirror of our lives," Oprah says. "When people are looking at you and you are like them, they like that. There's a comfort zone. Then, when you are no longer like that anymore, they're no longer comfortable with you."

Dr. Robin says that when people see the Bradleys confronting their problems, it forces them to take a good, hard look at themselves. "If I'm shopping and spending money and perpetrating a lie, everybody's happy that's doing it," says Dr. Robin. "When I step out of that and I then become real, I condemn without even knowing it. I shine the light on someone without even knowing it—on their addiction, their fakeness, their phoniness."