To hell with therapists, TV - talk to your friends
• Richard Evans Lee
At least two controlled studies suggest that debriefing may delay some people's recovery from trauma -- perhaps because it promotes the habit of ruminating over painful images and memories before a wounded psyche is ready to do so. In 2001, Britain's National Health Service listed stress debriefing as "contraindicated."
David Glenn, The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Debriefing Debate: One Popular Therapy Is Called Into Question
I caught one of the first episode's of Oprah Winfrey's TV show. I thought she made Phil Donahue look like a philosopher. I knew she wouldn't last.
According to a new study conducted for a new self-help book, "The Sedona Method" (Sedona Press), 5 percent of Americans claim they are "so stressed they don't know how to cope" -- and half of those people are avid fans of Oprah.
Even more ominous: 76 percent of Oprah fans say their lives are "insufficiently serene" compared to only 66 percent of non-fans.
In addition, Oprah fans are 50 percent more likely to pop pills for anxiety than fans of "Harry Potter."
Study Suggests Oprah Winfrey Causes Mental Stress
Oprah fans will be will surely try to save their marriages via online psychotherapy.
Marital troubles? Try online therapyProblems with your spouse and too little time to hash things out? Online couple therapy may be for you, say German researchers.
Today's couples on the run can expect comparable results from online "chats" mediated by a professional and face-to-face therapy on a psychologist's couch, according to a study in the western city of Goettingen.