Suddenly Skinny

Linda says her addictions led her to live a dangerous double life. She began abusing alcohol, drinking up to two bottles of wine each day, but she says it was her addiction to attention that nearly ruined her life. She had affairs to satisfy her need for attention. "It was not about the sex," Linda says. "It was an addiction to attention, to something that I had never had before."

She confesses to having 14 affairs in all—including seven one-night stands, five of those with perfect strangers. "I was completely destroyed by guilt," Linda says. "I hated myself. I hated what I'd done to myself, to my kids, to their father, to everyone that mattered in my life."