Dr. Phil Takes Cues From 'Big Brother'

McGraw Will Monitor Families 24/7 In Wired House

(CBS)  Robin McGraw said she has been to every taping of her husband's show, and said that watching the episode about addicted parents took her back to her traumatic childhood.

"When you grow up with an alcoholic parent, you really have to choose to move away from that and not bring it into your adult life," she said. "That's what I did."

The families Dr. Phil deals with are truly in crisis. One couple is embroiled in a violent struggle and the wife feels she might have to get an emergency protection order against her husband. The husband admits to grabbing "her ankle and flip(ing) her leg from under her and she landed on the table and it broke."

"Now, these folks were abusive to one another and sometimes in front of the kids," McGraw said. "They have two children that are just great kids. They are watching all of this, so we bring them to the Dr. Phil house and they are not in there 10 minutes before they are in plight and total meltdown, everything is falling apart."

McGraw said he was able to make a U-turn in his car when it became apparent things were out of control, and knocked on the family's door.

"This is what's happening behind closed doors all across America," he said. "We are putting the cameras in, if this is what to do in that situation. So often I had people say I wish you would have been here when our kid came home with drugs in his pocket. I wish you were here when he was drunk. I wish you had been here when she confessed the affair. Well, now I can be and I am."