Posted on 06/20/2007 6:26:31 AM PDT by WesternCulture
People who have anxiety problems or depression can get just as good help on the Internet as face-to-face with a psychiatrist, according to a Swedish investigation,
Now a new Internet service is being expanded.
This means Sweden will become the first country in the world to offer cognitive behavior therapy via the Internet as a routine method for treating patients who have problems such as social phobias or panic attacks.
Psychiatrists say the online service will compliment traditional care and it means more people can be treated, more cheaply. But critics say sitting at a computer simply can’t be as effective as face-to-face talks with experts.
Could be Eliza 2.0. A small program from the early ‘80s that mimicked other-directed therapy.
Sounds plausible.
Psychiatric Help $0.05. Thanks, Lucy.
People who fear computers and the internet will remain untreated.
I remember reading about a study several years ago (through Columbia University, I think) in which patients who used a computer terminal based system actually revealed more about themselves and their problems than did the control group who had traditional face to face therapy. It sort of reminds me of the Catholic confession, where you speak to someone from behind a screen.
“People who fear computers and the internet will remain untreated.”
- Seriously speaking, that’s probably correct.
However, I think 10 years from now, there will be just as few people who fear computers/internet as there today are people who fear watching TV.
I used Barnabus (Christian-based) services online for marriage counseling and had excellent results. I was working nights/weekends and couldn’t give up precious sleep time to go to a regular counselor. We journaled back and forth. They also offered phone counseling and a chat room....but the journaling was best for me. It was also very affordable.
Is that an open-ended therapeutic question? *chuckle*
Ahhhhhh, software support nightmares.
Last year a friend of mine upgraded from Girlfriend 4.0 to Wife 1.0 and found that it’s a memory hog leaving few system resources for other applications. He is also now noticing the Wife 1.0 is also spawning Child-processes which are further consuming valuable resources. No mention of this particular phenomenon was included in the product documentation, though other users have informed me that this is to be expected due to the nature of the application.
Not only that, Wife 1.0 installs itself so that it is always launched at system initialization where it can monitor all other system activity. Some applications such as PokerNite 10.3 , Bachelor Party 2.5, and Pubnite 7.0 are no longer able to run on the system at all, causing the system to lockup when launched (even though the apps worked fine before).
Wife 1.0 provides no installation options. Thus, the installation of undesired plug-ins such as Mother-in-law 55.8 and the Brother-in-law Beta is unavoidable. Also, system performance seems to diminish with each passing day.
Some features my friend would like to see in the upcoming Wife 2.0:
A “don’t remind me again” button.
Minimize button.
Ability to delete the “headache” file
An install feature that provides an option to uninstall 2.0 version without loss loss of other system resources.
An option to run the network driver in “promiscuous mode” allowing the the system’s Hardware Probe feature to be much more useful/effective.
I myself wish I had decided to avoid all of the headaches associated with Wife 1.0 by sticking with Girlfriend 3.0 Even here, however, I have found many problems. Apparently you cannot install Girlfriend 4.0 on top of girlfriend 3.0. You must uninstall Girlfriend 3.0 first, otherwise the two versions of Girlfriend will have conflicts over shared use of the I/O port. Other users have told me that this is a long-standing problem that I should have been aware of. Guess that explains what happened to versions 1 and 2.
To make matters worse, the uninstall program for Girlfriend 3.0 doesn’t work very well, leaving undesirable traces of the application in the system. Another identified problem is that all versions of Girlfriend have annoying little messages about the advantages of upgrading to Wife 1.0!
VIRUS ALERT
All users should be aware that Wife 1.0 has an undocumented bug. If you try to install Mistress 1.1 before uninstalling Wife 1.0, Wife 1.0 will delete MSMoney files before doing the uninstall itself. Once that happens, Mistress 1.1 won’t install and you will get an “insufficient resources” error message. To avoid the aforementioned bug, try installing Mistress 1.1 on a different system and “ never” run any file transfer applications(such as Laplink) between the two systems.
FYI: Don’t even think about a shared directory!!!!!!!!!
- It makes me feel very optimistic regarding my shrink costs. I’m convinced this on line service will be cheaper for some reason...
Seriously, I’ve never understood the point of (more or less) ordinary people consulting shrinks. It’s better to try and find out who you are, what is the right and wrong to do and such things without too much influence from other persons.
Furthermore, I feel like this whole thing is typically Swedish. Sweden, my home country, is always trying to be pioneers in all sorts of fields. Often, this spirit and ambition is a great thing, but in some cases I find it a bit ridiculous.
Regarding on line psychiatry, well, let’s wait and see..
Nice to hear.
I guess you’re not the only one who’ve had positive experiences from on line counseling. I’ve heard several such stories, even though I haven’t come in close contact with these services personally.
What’s new with this Swedish service is that they’re trying to substitute ‘face to face’ therapy with on line therapy in the cases of people who suffer from mental disorders such as social phobias etc. According to the article, this hasn’t been done before.
Regards.
Thank’s for the laugh, fellow FReeper!
- I don’t think so.
The main reason for this is the obvious usefulness of computers/Internet and the interactiveness of this technology (despite various aspects that people complain about).
In today’s society, it’s easier to exist without a TV than without some sort of Internet access.
Due to the differences between TV and Computers, I think watching TV always will be associated with stupidity and Computers with intelligence.
By the way, already in the 1950’s and 1960’s when TV programs in Sweden (my country) often were very ‘educational’ and many programs were of a rather ‘intellectual’ sort, ordinary people called TV ‘The Dumb Box’ (- meaning a stupid activity for stupid people).
I feel you may be “leading” me into a game of ring-around-the-rosie.... *chuckle*
I cut short my post and didn’t explain that I felt much more open in relating things in my personal life online also. So.... I could definitely see how it would help people with phobias, etc. :)
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