Okay, so the title is a lot of sarcasm, but I think it’s a great fit for this article:French Lawmakers Target Promotion of Extreme Thinness
While I am definitely all-for this law… this one part pissed me off:
Marleen S. Williams, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Utah who researches the media’s effect on anorexic women, said it was nearly impossible to prove that the media causes eating disorders.
Okay, I think that only a minority of individuals would claim that the media causes eating disorders. The biopsychosocial model has …

I am trying [hardly] to not be annoyed with this article.  It fits right in with my other recent posts… the new purging disorder classification, an existential subtype of depression…. And now?  IAD – Internet Addiction Disorder.
According to Junk Food Science and an article American Journal of Psychiatry by Dr. Jerald J. Block, M.D:
…excessive internet and computer usage should be labeled a mental disease, as it has all of the components of a compulsive-impulsive disorder:
1) excessive use, often associated with a loss of sense of time or a neglect of …

I stumbled across this article today. Being the skeptic that I am, I was doubtful by the second line:

“One such possible cause [of depression] is existential in nature, that is, a person ends up questioning his or her life, death or meaning of life, and by doing so, lapses into depression.”
Two thoughts about this:
• I wouldn’t classify existentialism as a subtype of depression
• I have a hard time believing that existential issues CAUSE depression.
First, I think that existentialism is a common feature of …

Psychiatric News
Flawed Studies Underscore Need for More Rigorous PTSD Research — Aaron Levin
This article sums up [almost] all psychological / psychiatric research:

“Significant gaps” in the evidence underlying treatments
Poorly designed and executed studies that don’t account for important comorbidities
Useless conclusions, including “treatments may or may not be effective,” and “inadequate evidence”
Irrelevant research
Overly conservative standards that are not applicable to looser, clinical standards
Drug trials funded by pharmaceutical companies

It was exciting to see a written publication on the inadequacy of psychological research.  While I realize that that sounds pretty negative, often I think …

Commentary on the article: Introspections: Life Sentence – Judy Ratner, B.A.
Sad, sad letter… very good for some people to read, I imagine, but really not how I intended to start my morning.
There were a few points that I really did like, though.
> You spent an awful lot of time in hospitals, both on long- and short-term units. I used to wonder why there seemed to be so little to do there. I knew that you needed to be protected from the world and yourself for a while. I always thought …

I just finished reading this article, “My quest for size zero.”   While it was interesting, and made some good points–like feeling more insecure at a lower weight (because you’re obsessing over your body), starvation causing depression and insomnia, and losing weight not making you happy–the whole thing seemed absurd to me.  I don’t see why it was necessary for this woman to go on such an extreme starvation diet to prove stuff we already know.  There have been 100 studies linking starvation with depression, anxiety, fatigue, somatic complaints, etc.  I was …