TO MY READERS (HOWEVER MANY [or few] OF YOU ARE OUT THERE):

I would like to take this opportunity to catch my breath in the presentation of my Mental Health play as I prepare for Act 2.  If this is all to be done well, that is, if my arguments are to be presented convincingly and in a way that entertains, then I need to resolve some issues of presentation. 

 

I have been concerned that the Blog is a bit disorganized and that its appearance does not stand up to its content.  It has been my hope to remedy this problem.  To this end, I have been in contact with a web designer to get a more appropriate look.

 

This seems like a good time to spruce up the look of the Blog as I compose the most important part of my presentation, the part of psych survival that has to do with statistics, testing, and research.  You may not be aware of it, but most of mental health treatment is supposed to be based on numbers and research, except for psychotherapy, which is more personalized and theoretical.  Statistics are supposed to be what drives psychiatric diagnosis.  Statistics are also supposed to be used in determining the use and effectiveness of medications.  Further, statistics are used by HMOs to determine who will be approved for treatment and what kind of treatment they will receive.  Now, I personally don’t believe that you need to know the numbers, but it would be helpful to understand how the numbers work and what they can tell you and what they do and don’t tell the Decider of your treatment.

 

When I first began the task of writing Survival Psych 101, I thought I might present some important issues of mental health that I discuss in my office on a regular basis and that people need to know about.  If all went well, I might arrive at a point where I could articulate some of my most important beliefs about how people’s minds work, proposing a theory if you will.  What I did not anticipate was how the Internet and Blogs work and how they communicate.

 

As a writer, I thought the task was simple.  You just write like you always do.  If somebody reads it and likes it, that’s good.  If nobody reads it, that’s bad.  If people read it and don’t like it, that’s good because at least they are reading it.  That perception changed as I realized that I wasn’t just writing.  I was also posting, which adds an additional step.  Once you take that step of posting, I learned, it takes you into an entirely new arena.  You are now on a soapbox.  You are no different from someone ranting and raving and pounding a Bible on a street corner to get people to see the light in your argument.  Then, the more I got into it, I realized that a Blog is a bit of theater that can not only inform, but also entertain.  Although I never thought of myself as an entertainer, I do take my work seriously, both as a writer and as a psychologist.  While I sit and compose these words and as I prepare to post them, I can’t help but think that the theater I am playing in is quite dark.  I don’t know who, if anyone, is out there.  I don’t know how anyone thinks about what I am presenting.  Which leads to still another metaphor about Blogging, it is like throwing out messages in a bottle… but then if a Blog works well it is should establish a community. 

 

So, I would ask you reader, you who are wandering on the vast beach that is the Internet, if you are reading these messages, would you kindly let me know that you found my bottle with a message in it.  And let me know what you think.  The writing itself is no burden.  The posting is easy… but it is rather burdensome (read embarrassing) to play to an empty house or pound my Bible on an empty street corner.

 

With luck you may see this Blog reborn as “The Mental Health Circus Guide” in which I will undertake to explain the practical side of statistics.