Furious Seasons

January 25, 2008

01-25-2008 Media Madness

I am at work on a long post about beating depression and it's not quite coming out of the typewriter the way I want yet. So for now I wanted to pass along various items of interest. With luck, I'll have the depression post up later today. Or maybe not.

An unsettling report on how authorities in Britain worry that some recent suicides may be connected with social networking sites. Why am I not surprised by this?

PBS does a program on the infamous lobotomist whose name I won't even mention, who among other places also plied his sick trade in the Seattle area back when.

CL Psych goes wild on bogus continuing medical education courses and has even more fun sticking pins in those commentators on matters pharma who defend the hiding of clinical trials data.

There's been a very odd turn in the case of Stephany at Soulful Sepulcher's daughter. The system now seems to be screwing things up in ways that I shake my head at.

Mind Hacks has a fascinating item about these idiots in cyberspace called griefers.

Apesma's Lament reports on a tally of the homeless surviving--somehow--outside of Seattle's shelter system that was conducted last night. Over 2,600 people living on the streets of one of the most affluent cities in the world. The word outrage comes to mind, and could be applied equally to a wildly erroneous article in today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer on how many shelter beds there are in the city.

Back to writing I go.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at January 25, 2008 11:30 AM

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Comments

the link to the British article doesn't work.

Posted by: Janet at January 25, 2008 12:03 PM

thanks. fixed.

Posted by: Philip Dawdy at January 25, 2008 01:00 PM

Beating depression is a tough topic and I'm not surprised you might be having some challenges with it. I can sit here and diss psychopharmacology until I'm blue in the face and feel confident I'm standing on firm ground but that doesn't mean I think it's easy to beat depression or get someone to take the steps they need to do so without taking pills. It's probably about learning how to live in a way that honors our body and soul as well as those of others and that isn't always easy at all.

Posted by: Sara at January 25, 2008 03:29 PM

Thanks for linking to my post Philip. Readers must realize the connection of mental health services and ones for homeless, such as written about at Apesma's Lament. What happens to people such as my daughter; is when their is a remote possibility the person has anywhere else to live, the client loses services, and they are VERY few and hard to gain. It's the contradiction here that makes no sense at all, in my case. I've been pushed to give her independence; they promoted themselves as being able to give her life skills. It all looks good on paper. There are NOT enough facilities for either mental health patients or homeless or both. Anyone writing this in mainstream media, or PR speeches are just plain lying, and without knowledge of fact, most probably never see the places they claim exist, because they don't. It is something I refuse to be saddled with, and it's about passing the buck, and separate agencies disconnected, and most of all the state government is disconnected from all of this.

Thus the disaster at our feet. I'd like the Governor to live a day at my side and tour the hell-holes this state calls "care", "long term care", etc. and then meet my daughter who appears as a 12 year old.

Posted by: Stephany at January 25, 2008 06:17 PM

"PBS does a program on the infamous lobotomist whose name I won't even mention, who among other places also plied his sick trade in the Seattle area back when."

And neuroleptics aren't chemical lobotomies Phil?

They aren't a sick trade too?

You REALLY think psychiatry has come one iota since the lobotomy days?

Posted by: Bill at January 26, 2008 10:45 PM