The document discusses the TV show Shameless and the character Sheila Jackson who suffers from agoraphobia and OCD. Sheila is unable to leave her house for over five years due to her crippling agoraphobia and displays common OCD behaviors like excessive cleaning and ensuring shoes are removed. Her mental illnesses negatively impact her ability to participate in her daughter's life but she is shown to be a caring person. The show aims to shed light on mental illness and depict the challenges of overcoming such illnesses.

1. Shameless
Agoraphobia and OCD

2. Agoraphobia
The fear of inescapable spaces
❏ Often develops into a fear of crowded spaces
❏ Those afflicted can become confined to their homes

3. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessions- irrational, uncontrollable thoughts
Compulsions- ritualistic actions as a response to the obsessive thoughts
-Often shown as a fear of germs in media

4. The show
Sheila is an average suburban housewife,
who is unable to leave her house due to
crippling agoraphobia and OCD. Other
characters on the show display mental
illnesses, including alcoholism and bipolar
disorder. The characters struggle from
external factors as well, including poverty
and relationship woes

5. Sheila and Agoraphobia
Despite trying very frequently to leave the
house, Sheila does not step foot outside
for more than five years
Attempts to do so leave her cowering in
terror (see image below)
She is left hungry for details of the
outside
world, but is unable to experience it
Ex- “Will you please tell me what they
said one more time? I want all of the

6. Examples
When the child she is caring for escapes
outside the house, Sheila anchors herself to
the banister before going into the yard to
retrieve the baby (see image on the right)
“I have not been out of the house in five
years. I can’t. I have this overwhelming fear”
(Sheila, season one episode six).

7. Sheila and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
❏ Always keeps the doors locked until
she is sure who is outside
❏ Immediately makes all visitors take
off their shoes before entering and
place them inside a plastic bag
❏ All furniture is covered in plastic
protectant that is easy to disinfect
❏ Obsessively cleans the house

8. Examples
“You’ll have to take your shoes off. I will get
you a plastic bag” (Sheila, to a visitor, season
one episode six).
“She’s got this thing about people bringing
dirt into the house. Some kind of phobia”
(Karen, Sheila’s daughter, season one
episode six).

9. Negative Repercussions
Sheila misses out on many of the important moments of her daughter’s life: “How
am I supposed to help her be the woman she is supposed to be in I am locked up
in this house?” (Sheila, season one, episode six).
She misses parent’s night at school which is very important to her daughter. She
desperately works with her therapist leading up to this night, but is unable to go
(see treatment attempts)

10. Treatment Attempts
She regularly sees a therapist who comes to her house and has her wear virtual
reality glasses to work towards going outside from the safety of her house
-She is unable to even leave a virtual room, and rips off the glasses in a
panic
She also often claims that today is the day she is leaving the house, gets dressed
and ready, but never actually makes it outside

11. Video clip demonstrating agoraphobia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VByc6iAxDI
Watch from 4:04 to 5:40

12. Finally, a breakthrough
Sheila finally leaves the house in a rage to chase her
husband out of the house and beat his car as he drives
away. This is due to him being cruel to her daughter and
causing her to be extremely distraught. The only things
leading up to this point that brought Sheila out of the
house were children in danger or emotional distress. She
is truly a caring woman, and her mental illnesses do not
change that.

14. Interpretation
The show sheds light on mental illness and how the challenges that those suffering face can
seem truly insurmountable
Despite knowing that she was hurting and disappointing others, she was unable to overcome
her illness
Those who are ill are not so due to a lack of trying
She was finally able to make progress with her illness due to her love and compassion for
others, and finally making it outside showed her that it was not as scary as she made it out
to be in her mind.
However, she does not seem to make progress with her OCD, and still uses many locks,
bags shoes, and cleans constantly. Progress with one mental illness did not translate to
another

15. References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VByc6iAxDI
http://rebloggy.com/post/gif-shameless-shameless-us-sheila-jackson-shamelessedit-s2/81724509749
https://www.charactour.com/hub/characters/view/Sheila-Jackson.Shameless
https://openpathcollective.org/topic/agoraphobia/
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/index.shtml