Hello Hello

[Mike G]

My names Mike G, im a BS Psychology major planning on going to grad school in the Atlanta area for either a PhD, or PsyD. I was just browsing around the site, and found the humor you guys use pretty funny so I thought I'd sign up.

Mike

[usernametaken]

welcome!

please feel free to reveal any crazy, cuz we are nutz here. the normal facade falls away if you stick around long enough

[r.mcmurphy]

g-dog,

it's sort of a preview of what'll cross your threshold if you hang up your own shingle.

don't have the money to get a pdocs ticket?

in my opinion, that's where the talent is needed. far too many dufus's masquerading as pdocs.

hope to see you post stuff because you are welcome here. doncha be bustin on some of our senior, well and truly busted members. you might flip your own wig at some juncture in the future.

[Mike G]

trust me i had my share of crazy, but thank god im pretty much fully recovered at this point. I developed pretty bad GAD in high school, which eventually led to panic attacks, and then panic disorder. after all the damage this did to my school work and my ability to socialize I developed a depresive disorder. it was pretty rough couldnt leave my house for days at a time. the end of my senior year after suffering and feeling like a victim i finally started fighting back through psychotherapy and eventually medication to help curb the effects (10mg lexapro) like many psychology students i became very interested in it after having first hand experience, and now i want to use my own past to help people, primarily teenagers and adults, in the area of anxiety and mood disorders.

[Rabbit37]

Okay, thank you for that last explanation. I was about to explode, wondering if you were just using us like rats in a maze. I don't like being "studied".

So, okay, you're one of us. Welcome!

[r.mcmurphy]

most encouraging-man has full flock of moonbats in his bellfry. no fear-"studying" us would lead to face plants in the keyboard knaps.

[SunshineOutside]

Welcome Mike,

Your aspirations touch me because my desire to help others that have become disabled was born out of my own illness. I raised two boys till they were 15 years old and I then had to send them to their father because he could be a much better parent than I could then. I've worried about them in regards to the effects my illness has had upon them and whether or not they may inherit this illness. So far so good.

I have benefited greatly from an experienced, knowledgeable, caring and spiritual therapist. I have a great Pdoc too but agree that we do need more competent Pdocs.

I wish you well in your studies and know your experiences with mental illnesses will benefit you and your clients.

Glad to have you here!

SO

[Mike G]

Okay, thank you for that last explanation. I was about to explode, wondering if you were just using us like rats in a maze. I don't like being "studied".

So, okay, you're one of us. Welcome!

Well I feel bad that your first reaction was anger. The majority of psychologist I have been around dont really have that "better than you" attitude. Our mission is to help, and the majority of us are caring in nature to begin with. Also look at it this way, even if you are being studied, that information is going to be used to help other people....does it still make it so bad?

Welcome Mike,

Your aspirations touch me because my desire to help others that have become disabled was born out of my own illness. I raised two boys till they were 15 years old and I then had to send them to their father because he could be a much better parent than I could then. I've worried about them in regards to the effects my illness has had upon them and whether or not they may inherit this illness. So far so good.

I have benefited greatly from an experienced, knowledgeable, caring and spiritual therapist. I have a great Pdoc too but agree that we do need more competent Pdocs.

I wish you well in your studies and know your experiences with mental illnesses will benefit you and your clients.

Glad to have you here!

SO

Thats great you found a therapist that has helped you. It may take some "shopping around" to find someone you click with, and when you do great things can happen. Good luck on your recovery.

[dangergirl]

Okay, thank you for that last explanation. I was about to explode, wondering if you were just using us like rats in a maze. I don't like being "studied".

So, okay, you're one of us. Welcome!

Well I feel bad that your first reaction was anger. The majority of psychologist I have been around dont really have that "better than you" attitude. Our mission is to help, and the majority of us are caring in nature to begin with. Also look at it this way, even if you are being studied, that information is going to be used to help other people....does it still make it so bad?

Yeah - I was with Rabbit too waiting to see how you were gonna shake out G man. I wouldn't want to be a lab rat without volunteering and it was pretty ballsy of you to just show up here and decide that you were going to "join" us...and for what? I didn't know what you're motivation was and you didn't say. I wasn't, angry, per se, but we're CRAZY, and *I* for one am SUSPICIOUS and PARANOID. The fact that you're "one" of us is helpful though. Of course, if you'd like, feel free to give me free advice any time you'd like to - I like free stuff ...so welcome aboard!

Oh yeah - I'm not totally convinced that you might not secretly be my tdoc - see, told ya I was paranoid!

[resonance]

Guys -

I'm a former psych PhD student. We have RULES about needing INFORMED CONSENT to study people. They are EXTREMELY STRINGENT rules that frequently make it different to do ANY research at all. The red tape is unbelievable - it's based around universities doing anything they can to avoid getting sued - and it makes us even less able to study anyone INCLUDING WITH INFORMED CONSENT here than our actual strong system of ethics.

As a illustration, there were several occasions on which I seriously considered killing myself or dropping out of grad school because it was so goddamn difficult to get innocuous research (have college students read some interesting news stories, answer a few questions about how interesting you found them) approved in any reasonable amount of time that would let me build enough of a body of research to graduate and get a job. As another, our review board once refused to approve a study without written consent that involved illiterate participants. Studies that involve participants who may not fully be able to give informed consent - like children (you have to get consent from their parents and assent from them, slightly different thing) OR people who are cognitively impaired in some way, which would probably count for some of the people here at least some of the time, requires extra special intense review.

We have a code of ethics. We follow it. You should be afraid of journalists, not psychologists. Journalists can do whatever they freaking please without oversight from ethics boards. Journalists reported CB, entirely inaccurately, in the New York Times, to be a site where people go to seek meds by bypassing their doctors (or something similar - see thread in News board I think). Journalists don't have to tell you if they're studying you.

Please don't be paranoid about psychologists. We're 1) not evil (and a lot of us are MI and need support boards, like you), and 2) have a strong emphasis on ethics, and 3) could get ALL research suspended at an ENTIRE UNIVERSITY if we were found to be doing something the review board didn't approve of. There are extremely stringent punishments for fucking up, in case you're worried that ingrained ethical systems aren't enough.

We're also people. With normal people morals. We don't lose our minds when we go to grad school and sit back cackling evil laughs.

The system isn't set up to exploit you. It's set up to make it difficult to even give you the option to participate in research even if you wanted to. If we did, that would virtually certainly involve something extremely explicit, like a message posted here giving information about a study held somewhere else that you were welcome to participate if you wanted to, with a variety of other criteria met like giving information about the recruiter, the recruiter's contact info, what the study involved, etc., and then giving a link to a consent form that gives you even more information about it. The "virtually certainly" means that sometimes researchers are permitted to do analyses on existing data that is publicly available, as long as everyone's info is kept anonymous. It is unlikely that that will happen here simply because there are so many places available on the Internet already - we're a needle in a haystack. But we are still a public forum.

If you're paranoid - if you don't even want the option of a journalist reading your data, or of anyone using things you've posted for things you'd prefer they don't use it for - don't post on the Internet. Never give identifying information to anything. Don't use Google, they use your data to figure out which ad words to give you (as do many other search engines). Turn your browser cookies off and delete the ones you have, and run spyware and adware detectors. Advertisers use your data to try to make money off you, which I think is a lot worse than anyone using anyone's words to further science that could eventually help create better treatments. Don't use Amazon, they track what you buy in order to target recommendations so you'll buy even more stuff - they use your information to make a profit. Etc. This is the 21st century and it's all about data mining.

Marketers don't have to go through psych review boards either. The only people who have to go through psych review boards (really behavioral sciences review boards at this point) are social scientists and researchers from a few other disciplines - the people who are trying to learn about how people work in order to make science better, instead of to create an exciting news story or exploit you for your money. Worry about the people with no oversight, not us.

(And certainly not me - I'm here for support and to help keep this place running, not to experiment on you like little lab rats, which I couldn't do anyway.)

And PLEASE don't freak out when mentally ill people with psych interests show up here. We need help too, and there are a LOT of mentally ill psych majors. It tends to draw people.

[lysergia]

excellent post, resonance. 'tis all true.

my only exception would be those drive-by psych students who don't have any real knowledge, but yet feel qualified to give us all advice. that usually smells like arrogance, not empathy. i think most of us here can tell the difference, though.

-lysergia

[Mike G]

Guys -

I'm a former psych PhD student. We have RULES about needing INFORMED CONSENT to study people. They are EXTREMELY STRINGENT rules that frequently make it different to do ANY research at all. The red tape is unbelievable - it's based around universities doing anything they can to avoid getting sued - and it makes us even less able to study anyone INCLUDING WITH INFORMED CONSENT here than our actual strong system of ethics.

As a illustration, there were several occasions on which I seriously considered killing myself or dropping out of grad school because it was so goddamn difficult to get innocuous research (have college students read some interesting news stories, answer a few questions about how interesting you found them) approved in any reasonable amount of time that would let me build enough of a body of research to graduate and get a job. As another, our review board once refused to approve a study without written consent that involved illiterate participants. Studies that involve participants who may not fully be able to give informed consent - like children (you have to get consent from their parents and assent from them, slightly different thing) OR people who are cognitively impaired in some way, which would probably count for some of the people here at least some of the time, requires extra special intense review.

We have a code of ethics. We follow it. You should be afraid of journalists, not psychologists. Journalists can do whatever they freaking please without oversight from ethics boards. Journalists reported CB, entirely inaccurately, in the New York Times, to be a site where people go to seek meds by bypassing their doctors (or something similar - see thread in News board I think). Journalists don't have to tell you if they're studying you.

Please don't be paranoid about psychologists. We're 1) not evil (and a lot of us are MI and need support boards, like you), and 2) have a strong emphasis on ethics, and 3) could get ALL research suspended at an ENTIRE UNIVERSITY if we were found to be doing something the review board didn't approve of. There are extremely stringent punishments for fucking up, in case you're worried that ingrained ethical systems aren't enough.

We're also people. With normal people morals. We don't lose our minds when we go to grad school and sit back cackling evil laughs.

The system isn't set up to exploit you. It's set up to make it difficult to even give you the option to participate in research even if you wanted to. If we did, that would virtually certainly involve something extremely explicit, like a message posted here giving information about a study held somewhere else that you were welcome to participate if you wanted to, with a variety of other criteria met like giving information about the recruiter, the recruiter's contact info, what the study involved, etc., and then giving a link to a consent form that gives you even more information about it. The "virtually certainly" means that sometimes researchers are permitted to do analyses on existing data that is publicly available, as long as everyone's info is kept anonymous. It is unlikely that that will happen here simply because there are so many places available on the Internet already - we're a needle in a haystack. But we are still a public forum.

If you're paranoid - if you don't even want the option of a journalist reading your data, or of anyone using things you've posted for things you'd prefer they don't use it for - don't post on the Internet. Never give identifying information to anything. Don't use Google, they use your data to figure out which ad words to give you (as do many other search engines). Turn your browser cookies off and delete the ones you have, and run spyware and adware detectors. Advertisers use your data to try to make money off you, which I think is a lot worse than anyone using anyone's words to further science that could eventually help create better treatments. Don't use Amazon, they track what you buy in order to target recommendations so you'll buy even more stuff - they use your information to make a profit. Etc. This is the 21st century and it's all about data mining.

Marketers don't have to go through psych review boards either. The only people who have to go through psych review boards (really behavioral sciences review boards at this point) are social scientists and researchers from a few other disciplines - the people who are trying to learn about how people work in order to make science better, instead of to create an exciting news story or exploit you for your money. Worry about the people with no oversight, not us.

(And certainly not me - I'm here for support and to help keep this place running, not to experiment on you like little lab rats, which I couldn't do anyway.)

And PLEASE don't freak out when mentally ill people with psych interests show up here. We need help too, and there are a LOT of mentally ill psych majors. It tends to draw people.

Thanks for putting into words what im too lazy to type haha. Im assuming you guys have had some bad experiences with people showing up and trying to "tell ya how it is." Like I said I joined because you all seem to have a good sense of humor, which I find is a great way to deal with MI. Oh and yea no free advice....PM sessions starting at $5 an hour

[dangergirl]

My names Mike G, im a BS Psychology major planning on going to grad school in the Atlanta area for either a PhD, or PsyD. I was just browsing around the site, and found the humor you guys use pretty funny so I thought I'd sign up.

Mike

Resonance - great post and I agree with what you've said - but Mike didn't initially say he was here for help with his issues and my understanding is that this board is for first party support and that's pretty much it - we don't support family and friends or Psych majors (without issues). Now that we know that Mike needs help like we do, I welcomed him - after I read my post, I realized that my dry, sarcastic wit did not come through (once again - I mean, don't get me wrong, I am all of those things: crazy, paranoid, and supsicious and as such, do take a lot of the precautions you mentioned, thanks). Sorry to have touched a nerve...and Mike, I will not pay $5 for PM sessions until you are licensed by the state...LOL .

[resonance]

Yeah - there are definitely some psych majors who are not doing professional research who have some dumb ideas (http://empiricalinsanity.net/?p=17, for example). IMO people who come up with ideas like that deserve a good, public, kick in the nuts.

dangergirl - sorry for the misunderstanding. Writing posts immediately after I wake up is not always the best idea...

[dangergirl]

No worries Resonance - you'd have to throw a pretty big wrench at me for me to get bent...LOL....went and checked out that link - man, some people just don't get - and the worst part? One day, that guy will get a degree and patients and think he's doing society a great service! And then people wonder why therapy doesn't work for them