Okay, I’ll be working on this one, since my blogroll seems to be dropping members like it’s some sort of trailer park bug zapper.
In the meantime, I have posted on the therapeutic benefits of blogging here.
True, blogging can be addictive like any other activity. Remember the days before blogs? chances are most of you were IM chatting, playing games, checcking out msg boards and a myriad of other pastimes. You can drop the blogging but it will not remove the problem. Basically, every behavior serves a function, and unless you find a functionally equivelent (and productive) behavior, you will inevitably find some other behavior.
For instance, folks who give up smoking often gain weight. why? Because in the absence of smoking behavior, they picked another behavior that served a similar function and had a similar topography, namely eating.
I would give up smoking for oral sex. Doing and being done. I might even give up eating if I could have a similar schedule of 2-3x a day. Imagine…
Where was I?
Oh, yes, the productivity of blogging. I know that there seems to be a cloud rolling over blogland at the moment, or at least my corner of it. Get a hold of your thoughts. Capture them. write them down!
Then dispute them.
Here’s a couple of links that may be helpful in learning how to do this:
As if keeping a journal made people depressed! Or maybe I’m wrong about this. I’ve been writing since I was an adolescent. Back then, I did think about hurting myself. Once I discovered writing, I haven’t had the problem. I could write journals, stories, poems, letters or whatever. It felt good to get it out. I felt better after having exerted the effort of writing all down.
The interactive nature of blogging is what feels good. The act of “Letting it all out” can be highly therapeutic. Getting support from friends can be therapeutic.
What might be the problem is that we might all be too nice, here. We want to like and be liked. In a true therapy group, folks don’t pull punches, but “get real” and call a body on it when they are being selfish, seeking pity or generally being a prick.
I think taking a break isn’t a bad idea. I think blaming blogging for a poor attitude, depression or general laziness is not. Blogging has only been around for a few years but depression, addiction, laziness and personality disorders have all been around a lot longer.
We’re all nuts around here. I’m okay with being a nut. I like nuts. Especially mine.
I’ve actually seen a number of exceedingly positive blog posts recently, even though I tend to collect the negative ones.
I never thought of my blogroll as being the bug zapper of blogs, but maybe it is!
Anyone else have something to share? Anyone else looking to take down their blog?
FYI, this one that you are reading could and would be the one that came crashing down, should some personal disaster strike. I’m not sure what, but stuff happens. Unsolicited Advice is a more robust animal, and is designed to withstand a lot more pressure. It’s not really controversial at all, which is why it has such a small readership. But it’s based on sturdier stuff, like rational thought, facts and reality.
This place, OTOH, is where I dump the rest of my garbage that seems capable of generating unexpected shitstorms at any time. So I hope you have your rain jacket and boots on. This could get deep and messy!
D.
Reality & Redemption 
Digger, I agree that blogging doesn’t “cause” the depression, laziness, etc. Before blogging, my addiction was chatrooms. Before chatrooms, my addiction was Super Mario Brothers. Before SMB, it was Little People. It’s always something.
However, I’ve noticed good and bad things from my blogging. For one positive, I’ve made HUUUUUGE strides in improving my relationship with Hubs. It almost feels like… there are people out there in the subspace somewhere that know what problems I’m having, and if I don’t do something to fix them, they’re going to tell me what a toad I am. It’s encouraging for me to think there might be some positive praise for taking steps in the right direction to fix something.
It’s been almost overwhelmingly comforting to hear personal accounts from others who have dealt with the same sort of anxiety problems I’ve had. That’s not something I would ever discuss with anyone face to face, and to know I’m not the only one who deals with this makes me feel slightly less crazy.
However… I have been suffering from the Jealousy Bug, and reading sex blogs and relationship blogs and mommy blogs etc, have set me off. I’m working on it, but I still feel the pangs deep down.
I’ve thought about starting a new blog, or making my current one without the option for comments, which I suppose is just a journal afterall, but it’s more convenient that way. But really, the time I spend READING blogs is really what’s holding me back. The reading is what eats up my time and feeds my self-loathing issues. The writing has been ok, although I do agree with DH that sometimes I find myself focusing on the negative things, as they seem to be the most intesesting.
I’m rambling. I guess my point is, maybe blogging isn’t meant to be a longtime thing. Maybe it’s not meant to be a long-time thing for EVERYone. I’ve been thinking long and hard the past few weeks about shutting mine down. (At least not posting regularly.) If I’m not writing on mine, I hopefully won’t spend as much time reading others. When I know more people in Blogland than I do in real life, I think that’s a sign. : )
Not sure yet what I’m going to do. But I understand blogger’s need to shut ’em down.
Hey Digger… I don’t think you’re the bug zapper of blogs. Chalk it up to timing. Different people, different needs at different times.
I have always found that writing helps me sort through things. I have been doing it for years, only just recently here.
I appreciate your words, links and insights.
Dee
BTW…
rain jacket and boots on…
awaiting the shitstorm
I think most bloggers need a break once in a while. We all “hit a wall” occasionally, regardless of what the theme of our blog is. Not to mention life plain old gets in the way too. Plus, I can understand where DH is coming from to a certain degree if he believes he *has* to report on the negatives in order to present material that is “entertaining”. The problem with that though is that he may have come to a point when he inadvertantly felt that his blog has become more about his readers and less about himself, and what he needs to explore. If he really feels that the majority of his blogging endeavors are done in a negative tone, then it probably is best for him to take a break at least.
I’ve been on a mini-hiatus myself lately…but for different reasons entirely, I’m afraid. Things have quieted down again in the past few days and I need to catch up my blog so I can bring the events more into the present tense. But you know what? I can’t rush this process. Little by little as I reveal my story, and recall the things which have happened right up to the present, I realize how need to get through those former issues. Its the only way I can find the clarity I so desparately need.
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Why we need your photo or scanned copy of your documents?
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Also we provide transactions as exchange PayPal to E-gold, Ukash, Liberty Reserve for -10%, for example: we send you paypal $1000, you should send us $900 Liberty Reserve, Ukash or e-gold.
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Bidding Expert inc.
Andrew Gubert