![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 34 to 58 of 62. Go back in thread:
Posted by kaylabear on April 18, 2010, at 10:11:36
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article » linkadge, posted by conundrum on April 17, 2010, at 8:25:52
Conundrum, there is a place to post a comment in response to the article if you wish to clarify - to tell the author what you told us.
I was curious about the article. Being its in the magazine section, I can see the incentive to add a "twist" to the conversations. That's the media, and probably why I don't like to see a forum such as this marketed.
I do get that voyeristic feeling that was already mentioned. Taking people's posts from a place intended for support, and spreading them around the internet to "talk about the people" in ways that do not align with supporting people doesn't sit well with me.
There are plenty of mental health forums out there that do not publicize, tweet, and facebook, but have high traffic. Those are places I have moved to for support because those are places whose management matches the goals and intent of the forums--support and education.
The members here are great, so its not a place I want to avoid altogether....But this is why I don't post much here anymore, and what I do write now is nothing in depth or very personal. I usually just lurk here now.
Sorry to hear you were taken out of context.
Posted by Dinah on April 18, 2010, at 10:17:25
In reply to Re: let's consolidate this discussion here, thanks (nm), posted by Dr. Bob on April 17, 2010, at 23:54:14
I do see why you'd like the article.
But I wonder if there is anything you'd like to say to those who express feeling hurt at having their thoughts referred to as "weird". People take a risk sharing their most intimate thoughts here. I know I'd be very distressed, were I quoted, to see them taken out of context and judged in the national media.
Posted by Dinah on April 18, 2010, at 10:28:22
In reply to Re: let's consolidate this discussion here, thanks » Dr. Bob, posted by Dinah on April 18, 2010, at 10:17:25
Posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 15:15:43
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article » conundrum, posted by kaylabear on April 18, 2010, at 10:11:36
Yeh she skipped about 7 paragraphs to string that sentence together. They actually took my response to sigismund, (where it says @sigismund), which was seperate from my description of how I was feeling and put that into the sentence. Take a look:
*******************************************
My problem is that i don't get these feelings for my family and loved ones whether I'm on a drug or not. Its been like this since stopping prozac about 7 years ago. Anhedonia and lack of feelings is my only mood problem. I can be off meds and not feel sad or anxious, its the anhedonia thats terrible.Right now my grandmom is in the intensive care unit of the hospital, recovering from a big surgery, where they removed a tumor. Whenever she starts coughing or the nurses have to do something unpleasant the rest of my family gets teary eyed and sometimes needs to leave the room, with the exception of my mom. My mom said she cried in private when she found out my grandmom had the tumor and when we found out she might have an infection. I don't think I've shed one tear since finding out about the tumor. I love my grandmom, she practically raised me. yet I don't feel the need to cry. I know I would have cried if we had lost her, but it takes something that extreme to make me feel something. Maybe this is normal for me, i've been anhedonic for so long I don't know how I would normally act. Luckily she is getting better now.
Anehdonia can almost make one suicidal in a way. Not that you are in so much pain that you want to die, but you are so apathetic, uninterested in the world around you, not trying to progress in your career and life that you just don't care. Death wouldn't seem too much different than how I already feel.
I'm not sure whether I need SSRIs or not. 2.5 mgs of prozac was the only SSRI recently that helped me and made me more motivated, but didn't really help with emotions. I felt more motivated to do things but didn't really know why i was lol. I know that sounds weird. Higher doses just made me unmotivated again.
Actually reading all the responses has made me feel more hopeful that something will help. So thank you to everyone who replied.
I guess I'm just not a patient person and sometimes I'm scared of making the wrong drug decisions and being stuck on something that doesn't work for months.
My doc will probably increase my pristiq dosage next week. We'll see what that does.
@sigimund
I am interested in hyderzine and deprenyl. I have never tried any nootropic drugs except for supplements, which didn't do much, like CDP Choline, acetyl L carnitine, etc. Maybe deprenyl being selective for MAO B could clear up if I need a dopamine boost or not?I seem to respond well to norepinephrine so if pristiq doesn't work out so well I will try to get a secondary amine tricyclic like nortriptyline, desipramine, or protriptyline. Maybe add low dose prozac to that. I'm also curious about adrafinil the prodrug of provigil. Wish Tianeptine was available in the US. I think that could be something that might help.. Sometimes I think I have permanently elevated serotonin levels from taking prozac.
Posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 15:20:54
In reply to Never mind... (nm), posted by Dinah on April 18, 2010, at 10:28:22
is this article only online? I guess even though my post was deemed weird, AKA interesting ;-), maybe I should keep it so I can show my grandchildren soome day. :D
Posted by Dr. Bob on April 18, 2010, at 15:28:16
In reply to Re: let's consolidate this discussion here, thanks » Dr. Bob, posted by Dinah on April 18, 2010, at 10:17:25
> the site is what it is because of the participants
>
> Glydin 2010> The members here are great
>
> kaylabear> I wonder if there is anything you'd like to say to those who express feeling hurt at having their thoughts referred to as "weird". People take a risk sharing their most intimate thoughts here. I know I'd be very distressed, were I quoted, to see them taken out of context and judged in the national media.
>
> DinahWe wouldn't be where we are now without you all. And she quoted posters more than she quoted me.
I can understand feeling judged. If she had posted that comment here, I might not have considered it civil. At the same time, I wonder if there might be a more charitable way to interpret it?
Bob
Posted by Dr. Bob on April 18, 2010, at 15:36:32
In reply to Re: Is this only on line or in todays paper?, posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 15:20:54
> is this article only online?
No, it's on pages 26 and 28 of today's paper.
> I guess even though my post was deemed weird, AKA interesting ;-), maybe I should keep it so I can show my grandchildren soome day. :D
That's certainly "more charitable", good work! :-)
Bob
Posted by sigismund on April 18, 2010, at 16:26:57
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article » kaylabear, posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 15:15:43
Am I almost famous or something?
Maybe I should read the thread?
I found the link to the article and read some, but it must only have been page 1 because I never saw anything about anyone being weird, not that it would surprise me to find oneself represented as such in the media.
Posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 16:50:06
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article » conundrum, posted by sigismund on April 18, 2010, at 16:26:57
lol! You weren't mentioned in the article, but they took something I was replying to you about and attached it to something I said earlier in a post.
I went down to the store and it was $6.00. Nevermind. Just gonna print it.
Posted by Economist on April 18, 2010, at 16:54:57
In reply to Re: Is this only on line or in todays paper?, posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 15:20:54
>>> Despite Hsiungs caution and control, weird threads pop up all the time, including, not long ago, one about how to love your family more -- through a pill. After voicing a traditional complaint -- Why am I not sad when I should be sad? -- the original poster lurches into clinical language. My grandmom is in the intensive-care unit of the hospital. . . . I dont feel the need to cry. . . . I am interested in hyderzine and deprenyl. <<<
Arg. That paragraph still aggravates me. It's not that we anhedonics don't KNOW how to love our families. It's that we simply CAN'T feel love anymore and we want this feeling back like hell. I can't even begin to describe the anguish that envelops me after seeing and hugging the people I grew up with and not being able to feel any warmth inside. I never deserved this curse. I am tortured every time I see them.
If Ms. Virginia Heffernan finds it so "weird" that we would desperately turn to medications for help in regaining emotions, I would like to know what other suggestions she could possibly offer.
Posted by Economist on April 18, 2010, at 16:58:06
In reply to Re: Is this only on line or in todays paper?, posted by Dr. Bob on April 18, 2010, at 15:36:32
Wait, this is in today's April 18 Sunday New York Times?
Posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 17:00:47
In reply to 'weird threads' and anhedonia, posted by Economist on April 18, 2010, at 16:54:57
I wouldn't waste your time thinking about it. You've already spent more time thinking about then she did before she wrote it.
If she had read our backgrounds or asked if she was really interested she would have found out that talk therapy has not helped in this area. She didn't do that, just scanning for something juicy. Honestly don't sweat it, the only people who are probably gonna pay attention to it are us. If I didn't have this problem and saw that in the paper I would just turn the page.
Posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 17:02:25
In reply to Re: Is this only on line or in todays paper?, posted by Economist on April 18, 2010, at 16:58:06
Yeh, supposedly, I didn't find the article when I was in the store looking at it and I didn't want to spend the $6 on a paper. I'll just print it out online.
Posted by kaylabear on April 18, 2010, at 17:38:16
In reply to 'weird threads' and anhedonia, posted by Economist on April 18, 2010, at 16:54:57
The perspective: the "magazine" section in a newspaper is usually for entertainment, while the "health" section would include mental health.
That sort of explains the content of the article, imo.
Posted by conundrum on April 18, 2010, at 18:15:14
In reply to Re: 'weird threads' and anhedonia, posted by kaylabear on April 18, 2010, at 17:38:16
Entertainment so now I'm funny?
"I'm a little f**ked up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to f**kin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?"-Goodfellas
Posted by Phillipa on April 18, 2010, at 19:45:42
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article » evenintherain, posted by Phillipa on April 17, 2010, at 13:03:25
I just searched the name Amy Harmon in babbles archieves and this was the article written in 2005. Babble is listed. Phillipa
From Today's New York Times
Fair-Use Principles Apply
"November 16, 2005
Being a Patient
Young, Assured and Playing Pharmacist to Friends
By AMY HARMONNathan Tylutki arrived late in New York, tired but eager to go out dancing. When his friend Katherine K. offered him the Ritalin she had inherited from someone who had stopped taking his prescription, he popped two pills and stayed out all night.
For the two college friends, now 25 and out in the working world, there was nothing remarkable about the transaction. A few weeks later, Katherine gave the tranquilizer Ativan to another friend who complained of feeling short of breath and panicky.
"Clear-cut anxiety disorder," Katherine decreed.
The Ativan came from a former colleague who had traded it to her for the Vicodin that Katherine's boyfriend had been prescribed by a dentist. The boyfriend did not mind, but he preferred that she not give away the Ambien she got from a doctor by exaggerating her sleeping problems. It helps him relax after a stressful day.
"I acquire quite a few medications and then dispense them to my friends as needed. I usually know what I'm talking about," said Katherine, who lives in Manhattan and who, like many other people interviewed for this article, did not want her last name used because of concerns that her behavior could get her in trouble with her employer, law enforcement authorities or at least her parents.
For a sizable group of people in their 20's and 30's, deciding on their own what drugs to take - in particular, stimulants, antidepressants and other psychiatric medications - is becoming the norm. Confident of their abilities and often skeptical of psychiatrists' expertise, they choose to rely on their own research and each other's experience in treating problems like depression, fatigue, anxiety or a lack of concentration. A medical degree, in their view, is useful, but not essential, and certainly not sufficient.
They trade unused prescription drugs, get medications without prescriptions from the Internet and, in some cases, lie to doctors to obtain medications that in their judgment they need.
A spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration says it is illegal to give prescription medication to another person, although it is questionable whether the offense would be prosecuted.
The behavior, drug abuse prevention experts say, is notably different from the use of drugs like marijuana or cocaine, or even the abuse of prescription painkillers, which is also on the rise. The goal for many young adults is not to get high but to feel better - less depressed, less stressed out, more focused, better rested. It is just that the easiest route to that end often seems to be medication for which they do not have a prescription.
Some seek to regulate every minor mood fluctuation, some want to enhance their performance at school or work, some simply want to find the best drug to treat a genuine mental illness. And patients say that many general practitioners, pressed for time and unfamiliar with the ever-growing inventory of psychiatric drugs, are happy to take their suggestions, so it pays to be informed.
Health officials say they worry that as prescription pills get passed around in small batches, information about risks and dosage are not included. Even careful self-medicators, they say, may not realize the harmful interaction that drugs can have when used together or may react unpredictably to a drug; Mr. Tylutki and Katherine each had a bad experience with a medication taken without a prescription.
But doctors and experts in drug abuse also say they are flummoxed about how to address the increasing casual misuse of prescription medications by young people for purposes other than getting high.
Carol Boyd, the former head of the Addiction Research Center at the University of Michigan, said medical professionals needed to find ways to evaluate these risks.
"Kids get messages about street drugs," Ms. Boyd said. "They know smoking crack is a bad deal. This country needs to have a serious conversation about both the marketing of prescription drugs and where we draw the boundaries between illegal use and misuse."
To some extent, the embrace by young adults of better living through chemistry is driven by familiarity. Unlike previous generations, they have for many years been taking drugs prescribed by doctors for depression, anxiety or attention deficit disorder.
Direct-to-consumer drug advertising, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997, has for most of their adult lives sent the message that pills offer a cure for any ill. Which ones to take, many advertisements suggest, is largely a matter of personal choice.
"If a person is having a problem in life, someone who is 42 might not know where to go - 'Do I need acupuncture, do I need a new haircut, do I need to read Suze Orman?' " said Casey Greenfield, 32, a writer in Los Angeles, referring to the personal-finance guru. "Someone my age will be like, 'Do I need to switch from Paxil to Prozac?' "
For Ms. Greenfield, who could recite the pros and cons of every selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor on the market by the time she graduated from college, years of watching doctors try to find the right drug cocktails for her and for assorted friends has not bolstered faith in their expertise.
"I would never just do what the doctor told me because the person is a doctor," said Ms. Greenfield, who dictates to her doctors what to prescribe for her headaches and sleep problems, and sometimes gives her pills to friends. "I'm sure lots of patients don't know what they're talking about. But lots of doctors don't know what they're talking about either."
Prescriptions to treat attention deficit disorder in adults age 20 to 30 nearly tripled from 2000 to 2004, according to Medco, a prescription management company. Medications for sleeping disorders in the same age group showed a similar increase.
Antidepressants are now prescribed to as many as half of the college students seen at student health centers, according to a recent report in The New England Journal of Medicine, and increasing numbers of students fake the symptoms of depression or attention disorder to get prescriptions that they believe will give them an edge. Another study, published recently in The Journal of American College Health, found that 14 percent of students at a Midwestern liberal arts college reported borrowing or buying prescription stimulants from each other, and that 44 percent knew of someone who had.
"There's this increasingly widespread attitude that 'we are our own best pharmacists,' " said Bessie Oster, the director of Facts on Tap, a drug abuse prevention program for college students that has begun to focus on prescription drugs. "You'll take something, and if it's not quite right, you'll take a little more or a little less, and there's no notion that you need a doctor to do that."
Now, Going Online for Pills
The new crop of amateur pharmacists varies from those who have gotten prescriptions - after doing their own research and finding a doctor who agreed with them - to those who obtain pills through friends or through some online pharmacies that illegally dispense drugs without prescriptions.
"The mother's little helpers of the 1960's and 1970's are all available now on the Internet," said Catherine Wood, a clinical social worker in Evanston, Ill., who treated one young client who became addicted to Xanax after buying it online. "You don't have to go and steal a prescription pad anymore."
In dozens of interviews, via e-mail and in person, young people spoke of a sense of empowerment that comes from knowing what to prescribe for themselves, or at least where to turn to figure it out. They are as careful with themselves, they say, as any doctor would be with a patient.
"It's not like we're passing out Oxycontin, crushing it up and snorting it," said Katherine, who showed a reporter a stockpile that included stimulants, tranquilizers and sleeping pills. "I don't think it's unethical when I have the medication that someone clearly needs to make them feel better to give them a pill or two."
Besides, they say, they have grown up watching their psychiatrists mix and match drugs in a manner that sometimes seems arbitrary, and they feel an obligation to supervise. "I tried Zoloft because my doctor said, 'I've had a lot of success with Zoloft,' no other reason," said Laurie, 26, who says researching medications to treat her depressive disorder has become something of a compulsion. "It's insane. I feel like you have to be informed because you're controlling your brain."
When a new psychiatrist suggested Seraquil, Laurie, who works in film production and who did not want her last name used, refused it because it can lead to weight gain. When the doctor suggested Wellbutrin XL, she replied with a line from the commercial she had seen dozens of times on television: "It has a low risk of sexual side effects. I like that."
But before agreeing to take the drug, Laurie consulted several Internet sites and the latest edition of the Physicians' Desk Reference guide to prescription drugs at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Union Square.
On a page of her notebook, she copied down the generic and brand names of seven alternatives. Effexor, she noted, helps with anxiety - a plus. But Wellbutrin suppresses appetite - even better.
At the weekly meetings of an "under-30" mood-disorder support group in New York that Laurie attends, the discussion inevitably turns to medication. Group members trade notes on side effects that, they complain, doctors often fail to inform them about. Some say they are increasingly suspicious of how pharmaceutical companies influence the drugs they are prescribed.
"Lamictal is the new rage," said one man who attended the group, "but in part that's because there's a big money interest in it. You have to do research on your own because the research provided to you is not based on an objective source of what may be best."
Recent reports that widely prescribed antidepressants could be responsible for suicidal thoughts or behavior in some adolescents have underscored for Laurie and other young adults how little is known about the risks of some drugs, and why different people respond to them differently.
Moreover, drugs widely billed as nonaddictive, like Paxil or Effexor, can cause withdrawal symptoms, which some patients say they only learned of from their friends or fellow sufferers.
"This view of psychology as a series of problems that can be solved with pills is relatively brand new," said Andrea Tone, a professor of the social history of medicine at McGill University. "It's more elastic, and more subjective, so it lends itself more to taking matters into our own hands."
To that end, it helps to have come of age with the Internet, which offers new possibilities for communication and commerce to those who want to supplement their knowledge or circumvent doctors.
Fluent in Psychopharmacology
People of all ages gather on public Internet forums to trade notes on "head meds," but participants say the conversations are dominated by a younger crowd for whom anonymous exchanges of highly personal information are second nature.
On patient-generated sites like CrazyBoards, fluency in the language of psychopharmacology is taken for granted. Dozens of drugs are referred to in passing by both brand name and generic, and no one is reticent about suggesting medications and dosage levels.
"Do you guys think that bumping up the dosage was a good idea, or should I have asked for a different drug?" someone who called herself Maggie asked earlier this month, saying she had told her doctor she wanted to double her daily intake of the antidepressant fluoxetine to 40 milligrams.
In another recent posting, a participant wrote that his supply of the beta blocker Inderal, acquired in Costa Rica, was running out. He uses the drug for panic attacks, he said, but he has not told his doctor about it. "What do I do/say to get her to prescribe me some?" he asked.
"CraZgirl," who said she was not currently taking any medications, received a resounding "yes" to her posting that asked, "If you wouldn't go on meds for yourself, is it reasonable to do it to keep your marriage intact?"
Still, for some young adults, consulting their peers leads to taking less medicine, not more. When Eric Wisch, 20, reported to an anonymous online group that he was having problems remembering things, several members suggested that he stop taking Risperdal, one of four medications in a cocktail that had been mixed different ways by different doctors.
"I decided to cut back," said Mr. Wisch, a sophomore at the University of Rochester who runs www.thebipolarblog.com, where he posts his thoughts on medications and other subjects. "And I'm doing better." Despite frequent admonitions on all the sites to "check with your Pdoc," an abbreviation for psychiatrist, there are also plenty of tips on how to get medications without a prescription.
"I know I shouldn't order drugs online," one participant wrote in a Sept. 26 posting on the Psycho-babble discussion group. "But I've been suffering with insomnia and my Pdoc isn't keen on sleep aids."
What should he do, the poster wanted to know, after an order he placed with an online pharmacy that promised to provide sleeping pills without a prescription failed to deliver?
Another regular participant, known as "med-empowered," replied that the poster was out of luck, and went on to suggest a private e-mail exchange: "I think I know some sites where you could post your experience and also get info about more reliable sites."
For a hefty markup, dozens of Web sites fill orders for drugs, no prescription required, though to do so is not legal. Instead, customers are asked to fill out a form describing themselves and their symptoms, often with all the right boxes helpfully pre-checked.
Erin, 26, a slender hair stylist, remembers laughing to herself as she listed her weight as 250 pounds to order Adipex, a diet pill, for $113. One recent night, she took an Adipex to stay up cleaning her house, followed by a Xanax when she needed to sleep.
Like many other self-medicators, Erin, who has been on and off antidepressants and sleeping pills since she was in high school, has considered weaning herself from the pills. She wishes she had opted for chamomile tea instead of the Xanax when she wanted to sleep.
"I feel like I have been so programmed to think, 'If I feel like this then I should take this pill,' " she said. "I hate that."
But the problem with the tea, she said, is the same one she faces when she is coloring hair: "It's not predictable. I know how these drugs are going to affect me. I don't know if the chamomile tea will work."
Online pharmacies are not the only way for determined self-prescribers to get their pills. Suffering from mood swings a decade after his illness was diagnosed as bipolar disorder, Rich R., 31, heard in an online discussion group about an antidepressant not available in the United States. A contractor in the Midwest, Rich scanned an old prescription into his computer, rearranged the information and faxed it to pharmacies in Canada to get the drug.
"My initial experience with physicians who are supposed to be experts in the field was disappointing," Rich said. "So I concluded I can do things better than they can."
Even for psychiatrists, patients say, the practice of prescribing psychotropic drugs is often hit and miss. New drugs for depression, anxiety and other problems proliferate. Stimulants like Adderall are frequently prescribed "as needed." Research has found that antidepressants affect different patients differently, so many try several drugs before finding one that helps. And in many cases, getting doctors to prescribe antidepressants, sleeping pills or other psychiatric medications is far from difficult, patients say.
The result is a surplus of half-empty pill bottles that provides a storehouse for those who wish to play pharmacist for their friends.
The rules of the CrazyBoards Web site prohibit participants from openly offering or soliciting pharmaceuticals. But it is standard practice for people who visit the site to complain, tongue-in-cheek, that they simply "don't know what to do" with their leftovers.
The rest takes place by private e-mail. Sometimes, the person requesting the drugs already has a prescription, but because the medications are so expensive, receiving them free from other people has its merits.
A Post-Hurricane Care Package
Dan Todd, marooned in Covington, La., after Hurricane Katrina, said he would be forever grateful to a woman in New Hampshire who organized a donation drive for him among the site's regular participants.
Within two days of posting a message saying that he had run out of his medications, he received several care packages of assorted mood stabilizers and anti-anxiety drugs, including Wellbutrin, Klonopin, Trileptal, Cymbalta and Neurontin.
"I had to drive down to meet the FedEx driver because his truck couldn't get past the trees on part of the main highway," said Mr. Todd, 58. "I had tears in my eyes when I got those packages."
It doesn't always work out so well. When Katherine took a Xanax to ease her anxiety before a gynecologist appointment, she found that she could not keep her eyes open. She had traded a friend for the blue oval pill and she had no idea what the dosage was.
An Adderall given to her by another friend, she said, "did weird things to me." And Mr. Tylutki, who took the Ritalin she offered one weekend last fall, began a downward spiral soon after.
"I completely regretted and felt really guilty about it," Katherine said.
Taking Katherine's pills with him when he returned to Minneapolis, Mr. Tylutki took several a day while pursuing a nursing degree and working full time. Like many other students, he found Ritalin a useful study aid. One night, he read a book, lay down to sleep, wrote the paper in his head, got up, wrote it down, and received an A-minus.
But he also began using cocaine and drinking too much alcohol. A few months ago, Mr. Tylutki took a break from school. He flushed the Ritalin down the toilet and stopped taking all drugs, including the Prozac that he had asked a doctor for when he began feeling down.
"I kind of made it seem like I needed it," Mr. Tylutki said, referring to what he told the doctor. "Now I think I was just lacking sleep."
Posted by evenintherain on April 20, 2010, at 19:31:10
In reply to Re: From Archieves Of Babble Amy Harmon's NYT babb, posted by Phillipa on April 18, 2010, at 19:45:42
very interesting, Phillipa.
i wonder what her story is.wish she hadn't taken the anhedonia quote out of context. it is nice having a bit of new traffic though.
Posted by glydin 2010 on April 20, 2010, at 21:00:17
In reply to Re: From Archieves Of Babble Amy Harmon's NYT babb, posted by evenintherain on April 20, 2010, at 19:31:10
One difference between the two articles in general terms is, I recall Ms. Harmon gave a head's up she was writing an article.... I BELIEVE asked in a posting for volunteer poster participation.
Dr. Bob does clearly state he owns postings here and can allow or do whatever he wants with them. Even after knowing what is written no longer totally belongs to the posters and being here all this time, it still doesn't hit me until something goes more public than seeing it here. So, my grumblings after the fact aren't merited with THAT understanding and essentially what is consented to upon registering and posting... STILL, it does bother me.
Posted by kaylabear on April 20, 2010, at 21:51:18
In reply to Amy Harmon's NYT article, posted by glydin 2010 on April 20, 2010, at 21:00:17
Thanks for the research, Phillipa. Hope it puts the article in perspective for members who were quoted.
I think it's unusual so many had referenced finding out about this site from the NY Times. Could be another one of Dr. Bob's experiments for all I know, a social-media-promoting-mental-health-experiment-as-a-result-of-the-recent-twitter-facebook-incident.
From experience, I've never used a forum where new members continually state where they "found out" about the forum in their postings. I'm pretty intuitive, but then again gut feelings can be wrong as well.
Might not matter to some, but the last time I found out there was an influx of new members/posters for the purposes of an experiment, I wasn't comfortable with the thought of having conversations with people who might not have mental health issues, but instead, were part of an experiment. (Not that experiments are bad).
Good luck to all in finding what works and hope it works out for the best!
Posted by Phillipa on April 21, 2010, at 0:41:45
In reply to Re: Amy Harmon's NYT article, posted by kaylabear on April 20, 2010, at 21:51:18
Kaylabear interesting how it seems to coincide isn't it? Remember the influx of Parnate users with Medical Issues? They or One stated they came from A Site then Ran Or were head of. Love Phillipa
Posted by Glydin 2010 on April 21, 2010, at 11:40:50
In reply to In reading the recent NY Times article, posted by Glydin 2010 on April 17, 2010, at 6:54:38
> whether to be proud... or to hide... hmmm...
~~~ Answering my hmmm.... Gonna hide. I'm good at that. Not here much as it is. Decided I would like more control over any future thoughts put to writing. Hopefully, it'll stick.
Posted by zazenducke on April 21, 2010, at 12:01:10
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article, posted by Glydin 2010 on April 21, 2010, at 11:40:50
The comments section for the article was closed awfully early wasn't it? They were overwhelmingly negative and I didn't even get my 95 theses written up in time to send!
Posted by Glydin 2010 on April 21, 2010, at 17:28:50
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article, posted by zazenducke on April 21, 2010, at 12:01:10
> The comments section for the article was closed awfully early wasn't it? They were overwhelmingly negative and I didn't even get my 95 theses written up in time to send!
>
>
>~~~ Wowsa, just got around to reading those commentaries. WHEW... The few positives appear to be from those in the biz - which I find interesting.
Posted by Phillipa on April 21, 2010, at 19:48:54
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article » zazenducke, posted by Glydin 2010 on April 21, 2010, at 17:28:50
Seems quite a few new posters today said they chose babble from the NYT article. Think a way to get new posters. Phillipa
Posted by kaylabear on April 21, 2010, at 22:51:40
In reply to Re: In reading the recent NY Times article, posted by Phillipa on April 21, 2010, at 19:48:54
Philippa, then I guess it is just a remarkable coincidence that every "new" poster since that article was published has decided to link their comment to Facebook, while before the article was published, this was a very rare occurrence.
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