Did you watch the Bernie Madoff movie?
I know it sounds like a strange question. But, if you haven’t heard of Bernie Madoff, he has been getting a lot of media coverage over the years. In fact, Hollywood recently made another Bernie Madoff movie. Bernie ran a Ponzie scheme that was the largest financial fraud in U.S. history. Thousands of people invested and lost their money with him. The size of the fraud estimated to be $64.8 billion. The government uncovered the scandal in 2008. In 2009 Madoff received a sentence of 150 years in prison.
Bernie Madoff Movie
In 2016 a mini TV series was made and in May, 2017 an HBO movie aired. The reason I bring this subject up is for several reasons. The first one is about those people affected by the movie and the second is about you. I know most of you reading this have also suffered a different kind of grief. Those people who had invested their money with Bernie have lost it and their lives abruptly changed due to financial loss. That is also grief!
The other reason it is about you is because if you are currently grieving it’s important that you protect yourself from triggers. You have heard me talk about self-care in the past and the importance of it as you process your grief. Well, this movie made me realize that being selective with TV programs may be something you want to do as well.
I am fortunate to not have watched much TV my entire life but I do watch a movie from time to time. I have learned to be very careful as to what I watch. The Bernie Madoff movie sparked my interest because I live on the east coast not far from his Palm Beach, Florida home. I watched the 2016 movie, therefore I also chose to watch the 2017 HBO movie because big name actors, Robert Di Nero and Michelle Pfeiffer were in it. I also became interested in it because Madoff’s son, Andrew had a rare lymphoma called Mantle Cell. It happened to be the same cancer that my husband was treated for five years before his suicide. Also, Madoff’s other son, Mark died by suicide. All of these made a very strong connection with me, therefore I wanted to watch the movies.
Is TV good or bad?
I bring this up because I feel that Hollywood is insensitive to those who have lost loved ones to suicide. The suicide scene was much too graphic and I had to turn away for several minutes, thus the reason I am writing this. I want you to be aware that TV can trigger your emotions and cause a setback so it’s important to be cognizant of what you watch.
In my opinion TV portrays too much extreme violence and sex. Think of all the people that have been victims of sexual abuse and addictions and Hollywood throws it in your face. This is true of suicide as well. There is no need to have such graphic scenes.
If you want to be on the road to recovery it’s important to keep those images out of your mind that remind you of past tragedies in your life.
I hope this has reached you in time to make a choice if you want to watch, “The Wizard of Lies” HBO show or not! As a grief coach I understand how important it is to take care and be gentle with yourself during the grieving process, thus the reason I published my book.
Love and Light,
Please share this so others can be informed. I look forward to your comments either on this blog or my Facebook page.
Robin Chodak
P.S. I know some of you reading this have gone through your healing journey and feel that you are in a position to help others but don’t know where to start. You are in the right place: Start here at the Grief Healing LLC where you can be trained to become a certified grief healing coach.
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“Grief ~ A new way of thinking”
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“Moving to Excellence, A Pathway to Transformation after Grief”
Certified Grief,Life, Spiritual Coach, Master NLP Practitioner, Reiki Practitioner, Mindfulness Meditation Teacher
