When Does Passion Become a Problem?

May 29, 2008 -- For two women, simple hobbies -- watching TV and playing video games -- have become serious problems, interfering in their lives so much that family and friends want to stage interventions.

Candi Kalp admitted that beneath a veneer of responsibility, she hides a deep secret, an obsession that consumes her life.

She is addicted to reality television.

"I'll just keep watching. Then I'll watch another one, watch another one," Kalp told "Good Morning America." "I'm a reality TV junkie. ... I need reality rehab."

Do you have a secret addiction? Click here to send 'Good Morning America' a video.

Every week, Kalp said she watches an average of 20 reality TV shows.

"It's so pathetic, yet every week I have to see these people," Kalp said. "[It's] like they're my friends, like I know them."

Her obsession has gotten so bad that she can't just tune in to the shows in the evening. Instead, Kalp, 36, said she plans ahead, recording four reality episodes daily on two televisions.

She can't wait to watch the shows, so Kalp has several television sets -- some are used to record, others to watch.

"I have two DVRs going on two different TVs, so that means four show tapings," Kalp explained. "Plus, I might need to go to another TV to actually watch a show."

And no room is off-limits to reality television -- Kalp even has a TV in her bathroom.

She owns her own home in Easton, Mass., and works part time in her mother's stationery store, occasionally picking up shifts as a waitress to make extra cash.

But Kalp's real-life friends said they are somewhere between concerned and appalled.

"She needs a huge intervention," said friend Wendy Whiteside.

"She's got a problem," agreed another, Jennifer Nosalek.

While her friends might tell her to get a life, Kalp said she does have one and has no desire or intention of changing it.

"The reason I watch reality TV is because it makes me feel better about myself," she told ABC News. "You're looking at all these other people, and they're really a bunch of losers. So, it sort of validates yourself, like, 'Oh, I'm not that bad.'"

As for Lori Shaffer, this mother doesn't watch a lot of TV. Instead, she wakes up in the early morning hours and creeps downstairs to get her fix of computer games.

"I try to wake up early sometimes so I have plenty of time to play before I get the kids ready for school," she told "Good Morning America." "And even then, sometimes they're late because I'm sitting there playing and I don't get them dressed."

"It's not all that uncommon for me to wake up in the middle of the night, roll over, and she's already gone," said her husband, Mark. "I can hear the computer downstairs."

"I'm addicted to playing games on the computer," Shaffer, 32, confessed. "It's just a really nice way for me to just go and sit and be in my own little world and forget everything else." She estimates that she plays six to seven hours a day.

"It got so bad I finally had to buy a laptop just to check my own e-mail because she was never getting off the computer," said Mark, a Las Vegas firefighter and paramedic.

The stay-at-home mother admits she is always behind on housework.

"The laundry doesn't get done, the dishes will stay in the sink. Things will get a little dusty," Shaffer said, "but playing computer games is my favorite thing to do with my free time."

Shaffer said she downloads games and is a member of Big Fish Games online.

Suprisingly, nearly 80 percent of Big Fish Games' players are women over the age of 30, according to CEO Jeremy Lewis.

"Women find our games enjoyable because they are easy to play and hard to master," Lewis told ABC News. "They are addictive in a healthy way because they are meditative, relaxing and stress relieving, and they provide women with a sense of accomplishment."

Big Fish Games offers free games as well as selling downloadable games.

Shaffer spends about $100 a month on games, but she said she has it in check. Her kids are her top priority, and playing games is merely a healthy complement to a happy home life, she said.

"I love to do it. It makes me happy. It relaxes me," Shaffer said. "I see it as kind of therapeutic."

Has your hobby become a habit? Are you nursing a secret addiction, something that started out as fun and diversion, but became an obsession over time? "GMA" is looking for viewers with secret -- even silly -- addictions to video games or reality shows, to dozens of Diet Cokes or daily pedicures.

Click here to submit your video comments by June 11, and we may contact and use your submissions on "GMA."