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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Dr. Bob on October 13, 2005, at 8:31:04
Hi, everyone,
Just thought I'd pass this on:
> Cyber-Catharsis: Bloggers Use Web Sites as Therapy
>
> By Yuki Noguchi
> Wednesday, October 12, 2005
>
> The Internet is now teeming with some 15 million blogs. Although the medium first drew mainstream attention with commentary on high-profile events such as the presidential election, many now use it to chronicle intensely personal experiences, venting confessions in front of millions of strangers who can write back.
>
> Nearly half of bloggers consider it a form of therapy, according to a recent survey sponsored by America Online Inc.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101781_pf.html
Bob
Posted by thuso on October 13, 2005, at 10:15:11
In reply to Cyber-Catharsis, posted by Dr. Bob on October 13, 2005, at 8:31:04
I saw that article yesterday also. It's interesting to think about it. Years ago when someone needed to annonymously confess something, they went to confession. Now people just start a blog. You can make it as annonymous and you want (as long as you aren't breaking the law). It seems to be very helpful for people.
Posted by NikkiT2 on October 13, 2005, at 14:24:42
In reply to Cyber-Catharsis, posted by Dr. Bob on October 13, 2005, at 8:31:04
Thanks for that Dr Bob, that was interesting.
As a small flip to this, I was discussing this with a friend I made when I met up with her after reading her blog for a couple of years..
The reason I started reading her blog in the first place was when my agorophobia was startig to get better, but I still could not get on the tube (the underground train network in London). My CBT therapist suggested finding a blog about it, and reading to try and help me.. well, it grew into an obsession with the tube, and now I love it, and as most here know, in August I travelled the entire network (with people I knew through that blog!)..
After the 7th July bombings here, a lady wrote a diary for the BBC news website, and now blogs most days.. Blogs as Therapy is something she was talking about too.
I'm currently building a website for the personality disorder service I work for, and one idea for that is to have a blogging area for people currently in our service.. and I think I'll show this artice to my boss as she's a real keen geek too!
Thanks again, but shouldn't this have been on social? ;)
Nikki x
Posted by Toph on October 15, 2005, at 8:44:19
In reply to Cyber-Catharsis, posted by Dr. Bob on October 13, 2005, at 8:31:04
> >
> > Nearly half of bloggers consider it a form of therapy...I'm seeking semantic advice from all those wordophiles out there. What are the distinctions between "therapy," "in therapy," and "therapeutic?"
It seems to me that "therapy" is an act, "in therapy" is a process, and "therapeutic" is an assessment of a process. Putting ice on a sprain may be therapy, but may or may not be in therapy and it may be therapeutic. Similarly running a marathon on a sprain may be deemed as therapy by the runner, the runner is likely not in therapy (or ignoring the therapists advice), and probably the activity is not therapeutic.
So is therapy anything we want it to be or must it also be therapeutic and do you have to be in therapy to receive it? Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by StrawberriesYum on October 30, 2005, at 18:18:33
In reply to Cyber-Catharsis, posted by Dr. Bob on October 13, 2005, at 8:31:04
I actually started a blog in August, about 6-8 weeks into therapy (after 20 years of wondering wtheck was wrong with me lol). I think it serves as a medium to feel heard, because apparently that's one of my core issues. I broke down completely in therapy for the first time over it, in the weeks before I discovered blogging.
And then would get desperate every week for some kind of contact with somebody, and cycle really badly.
Once I discovered blogging, that diminished, although I'm not entirely sure it's healthy. I suppose it depends on the reasons for doing it, and the purpose of the blog, and the "audience" I have in mind as I write. Those are some of the concerns my ologist has brought up.
I became obsessed with it, for the first 6 weeks, but now have settled into a more casual, relaxed mode with it, and feel like it's more healthy, at least more healthy than it was.
Except for the few times I've stepped over the line with what I've posted . . . very impulsively and desperately. I'm actually NOT talking about any posts referring to suicide; those were posted in a more thoughtful state of mind. I'm more talking about impulsive emotional vomiting, as it were, all over my relatives.
I've had to institute a rule, that if I type something that extreme, that directed against anyone, that I need to walk away for 30 mins to an hour, and come back and review before posting. And if I don't do that, and emotionally upchuck again, I'll have to suspend the blog for awhile.
These are things I've explained to the ologist, and he's accepted them, but I think he is still wary of my purposes, conscious or unconscious, and the effects of it and such. Rightly so, I suppose.
Anyway, sorry to go into so much detail, but from a purely intellectual analysis of how appropriate or not, how healthy or not, and to what degree, and to what effect, blogging by the mentally ill can be, I actually think would be interesting to see the results of a study on the subject.
*crawls back under her rock, cause I talked too much as usual*
Posted by Dinah on October 31, 2005, at 7:25:08
In reply to Cyber-Catharsis, posted by Dr. Bob on October 13, 2005, at 8:31:04
I'm sorry to reveal my lack of net-savvy, but what is the difference between a blog and posting? Is it that a blog doesn't involve interaction?
Posted by StrawberriesYum on October 31, 2005, at 11:14:34
In reply to Re: Cyber-Catharsis » Dr. Bob, posted by Dinah on October 31, 2005, at 7:25:08
A blog does involve interaction, in the form of comments. Go to blogspot.com and check out some blogs, see what they are like. I'm debating giving my blog address, as I don't use my last name on it, or anything to where someone could find me. Still thinking though.
Posted by Dr. Bob on November 2, 2005, at 1:14:19
In reply to Re: Cyber-Catharsis » Dr. Bob, posted by Dinah on October 31, 2005, at 7:25:08
> I'm sorry to reveal my lack of net-savvy, but what is the difference between a blog and posting?
That was my reaction, too, posting can also be a type of Cyber-Catharsis...
Bob
Posted by muffled on November 21, 2005, at 0:51:07
In reply to Re: Cyber-Catharsis, posted by Dr. Bob on November 2, 2005, at 1:14:19
This is the end of the thread.
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