The Demise of Blogging?

So I thought it was interesting that teens and young adults are less interested in blogging than they were in the past. Obviously the people who were blogging in the last survey are older now and are probably still blogging - accounting for more older people blogging - but what does it say about technology that other young people aren't moving in to take their places?

Have they found other ways to communicate those thoughts & make those connections? Or are they not wanting to communicate & connect in the same way? Is technology changing so rapidly that things are becoming passe before they even fully develop?

Moving forward?

Well, my abstract got rejected by CSWE (Council on Social Work Education) for their annual conference. The problem is that I still don't have any idea really what it is they want to see - what was I missing in this submission & what should I do differently next time. I am sure there is a method to the process, but as someone outside the process, I can't tell what it is.

Of course it's really disappointing! So I think, well, I guess I will have a little pity party for myself and then hopefully get over it. Just because it is my first submission, does not mean it will be my last. The reality is that unless I give up and never try again, I will have other rejections.

I can think of it like when I was going to be a writer and I got a rejection letter from the New Yorker. Although perhaps that isn't a good parallel, since obviously I gave that dream up!

Bipolar Disorder

So, the DSM-V is proposing an alternative diagnosis (to bipolar) for children - "temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria" - because many people are concerned that bipolar disorder is being over-diagnosed in children. And there is the obvious backlash that this proposal has created: "people are minimizing and denying a real problem and that this will keep children from getting the treatment they need." The DSM-V is still in process so things could change again, but this is where we are.

I have to admit that I am on the side of the fence that says "hmm, I think we ARE over-diagnosing bipolar in children."

Many layers to my thoughts. I think that I have seen teens diagnosed as bipolar who were just intense teens. Adolescence in America is prone to intensity and moodiness - we as a culture have emphasized those aspects. People feel an intensity in adolescence that for most will not continue past their twenties. There are other teens who I have seen diagnosed as bipolar who were reacting to chaotic (sometimes abusive) environments. They were irritable and violent, but bipolar? Perhaps - but if so it will take time to tease out. There are other adolescents where alcohol and drugs are playing a role in their behavior and diagnosis.

I am not denying bipolar disease. But I also think it is a disease of our culture. As such I think it is difficult to have enough of a perspective to see it accurately.

Hoarding part 3

So my personal goal for the summer is to sort out my personal junk room.

Hoarding part 2

So I started by thinking about why do I watch this? Why do enough people watch this for it to be a SERIES of television shows? Because that means that there is an audience of people to watch it, and there are enough people whose lives are like this and who are willing to be on television to film a bunch of episodes, and both of those are significant.

For watchers, there are multiple aspects. I think that as a viewer I feel a sense of "oh at least I'm not that bad" - I only have one junk room not a house of junk. I think there is the fascination similar to driving past a car wreck on the highway, you drive past slowly staring as if to learn some lesson from witnessing it. I think there is also an element of hope - they tend to wrap it all up in an hour or half an hour so you can walk away thinking about happy endings. I suspect there are also people who like to watch it and laugh at the people on the show (because I know that some people just enjoy being mean). Why is there reality TV in general?!

For the people on the show, I suspect that there is a sense of desperation. And that they are compensated in some way (whether that is in services that help them to deal with the problem or whether they are paid cash outright, I don't know). Hmm, for a few it maybe an attention getting mechanism. Some may be pushed into it by other people. I think there is also a sense of hope - "maybe these people can help me finally get it together." And I think that Oprah and Phil Donahue (remember him) made it ok to bare it all on TV.

Hoarding

Watching hoarders on TV (I think this show is Buried Alive) and thinking about the dynamics of people who hoard & people who watch it on TV.

Watching how they don't take care of their homes because they are so messy that it is overwhelming so they go from messy to trashed - they have piles of junk that become trash because food and dirt and literal trash accumulate on them. And that makes me think about neighborhoods and that process of deterioration. When I drive through neighborhoods that are in transition from marginal to declining, you can see the litter starting to build up - no one cares - they are trashed. The neighborhoods exude hopelessness.While I think most of the dynamics are different, there is a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness that is parallel in the two situations (hoarding and poverty). People see no way out.

So you think you're in charge of your medical care?

Well, I can't believe the delusion that many Americans have regarding decision-making about their medical care. The reality is that decisions are made by insurance companies and the hospitals/medical centers. Here's a lovely example:

I went for my annual exam with my ob/gyn. (As an aside, I will mention that I didn't go last year because I was too busy taking care of my mother, kids, going to school & working, to take care of myself by going for an annual exam).

Anyway - we had a conversation about my health & concerns that hit on many areas. I found it helpful, blah, blah, blah. I did my copay at the appointment, as I always try to do. I happen to have pretty good insurance, which means that I can afford preventive appointments like this one.

Lo and behold I get a bill/summary of charges & payments a couple weeks later and I was being charged for TWO appointments. So I call the insurance company, who said, no it wasn't us that charged you twice - that would have been a decision by your doctor. Of course at no point did my ob/gyn say that she was charging me for 2 appointments, so I was annoyed, and called the doctor's office all in a huff. Well, her nurse was as confused as I was and said that I should not have been charged for 2 appointments.

What became clear as we talked was that this was a decision made by a coder at the medical facility where the doctor is employed. So, some non-medically trained data person at the Cleveland Clinic reads over the notes about my medical appointment (which I find offensive anyway - how many secretaries, data entry people, billing clerks, etc are privy to the intimate details of my life??) and decides that my ob/gyn actually saw me about 2 separate concerns, so I should be billed for 2 appointments. It's not about time, it's about the number of concerns addressed, whether it takes 5 minutes or 50 minutes. (Although I know that some circumstances, it is about the amount of time your doctor takes with you).

So, don't tell me that you are upset that the government might make decisions about your medical care (which isn't the case anyway) - the reality is that you aren't making the decisions anyway!

Fresh Beginnings

I am restarting my blog & will try to be a more faithful blogger - hence new beginnings!

I am almost done with my required doctoral coursework - it's an interesting feeling - excited, apprehensive, uncertain. I think that as one gets older one has fewer of these opportunities/experiences unless you seek them out. Life gets more routine - get up, take the kids to school, go to work, do the job tasks, come home, make dinner, cleanup, supervise homework, get the kids to bed, watch tv, go to bed & start all over again. You know what to expect.

But here I am, and it's like being seventeen again - the world is potentially my oyster. I feel like I can do great things in the great unknown. All possibly an illusion, but a nice illusion, nonetheless. Yes, there is a lot more work before I actually get my doctorate - just a little thing like a dissertation - but this is the end of phase one. So a big accomplishment & a new beginning.

It doesn't hurt that the sun is shining & it's a beautiful spring day.