Ashley Judd: "If I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself."

Ashley Judd reveals in a magazine interview [Glamour, August 2006] that earlier this year, she participated in a 47-day treatment program to overcome lifelong emotional problems including depression, isolation and co-dependent relationships.

“I needed help,” Judd says. “I was in so much pain.”

With a “chaotic” and “dysfunctional” childhood, Judd, 38, says she compensated by becoming a “hyper-vigilant child” who was faultless in every way.

She attended 13 schools in 12 years and alternately lived with her mother, Grammy-winning country singer/songwriter Naomi Judd; her father, Michael Ciminella; and her grandparents.

“Supposedly, my sister (Wynonna, also a Grammy winner) was the ‘messed-up’ one, and I was the ‘perfect’ one.”

During a family visit to Shades of Hope Treatment Center in Buffalo Gap, Texas, where Wynonna, 42, was being treated for food addiction, the De-Lovely and Come Early Morning actress was approached by counselors about treatment after emotional problems became apparent.

“They said, ‘No one ever does an intervention on people like you. You look too good. You’re too smart and together. But you (and Wynonna) come from the same family, so you come from the same wound.’ No one had validated my pain before,” Judd says.

Judd learned that she was using sleep to deal with uncomfortable feelings and that her habit of wiping down plastic surfaces on planes and hotels was all about control. “Now I try to remind myself that if I engage in perfectionism, I am abusing myself.”

The effects of her treatment are profound, she says, and has improved her friendships and her marriage to racecar driver Dario Franchitti.

“I was unhappy, and now I’m happy. Now, even when I’m having a rough day, it’s better than my best day before treatment.”

[Quotes from USA Today usatoday.com article by Karen Thomas, 7/4/2006]

[Photo from the movie Come Early Morning.]
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Posted by Douglas Eby in Perfectionism | | 11.28.06 | Share This