Look for a Boom in the Sex Addict Rehab Industry

When top athlete and golf pro extraordinaire Tiger Woods became wildly famous for his hookups this past year, he did what other celebrities and people with money do - checked into a pricy sex addiction facility - to emerge an unreasonably short time later announcing he is cured, clean slate, and back to life before the fall.

But what on earth is sex addiction rehab anyway?  What, for that matter is sex addiction?  The LA Times interviewed licensed marriage and family therapist Alexandra Katehakis for an attempt at some answers. Katehakis is the founder of the Center for Healthy Sex, "a full-blown organization with a team of counselors, an intensive outpatient program, a range of therapy groups, an expansive website and training for other therapists in Los Angeles," so you decide how objective her interview might be.

Later in the article the magic combination of celebrity and consumer demand emerges as a potent force in the creation of this new industry:

That sex addiction is not considered a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis appears irrelevant to clients. They are finding rehab centers and outpatient programs through Google searches rather than referrals from their family doctors, [Rob] Weiss [founding director of the Sexual Recovery Institute] said.

"It is absolutely consumer-driven. People are saying, 'I don't care what the clinical community says. My husband is out three nights a week, and he just gave me herpes,' " he said.

On the day in 2008 that [actor David] Duchovny publicly announced he was checking into rehab for sex addiction, the website sexhelp.com, which features a quiz titled "Am I a Sex Addict?," got 50,000 visitors before its server crashed, according to Tami VerHelst, the vice president of IITAP, which runs the site. Capacity was expanded, and VerHelst said an average of 16,000 users took the quiz every month, answering questions such as "Has sex become the most important thing in your life?" and "Have you felt degraded by your sexual behavior?"

WNL:  It will be interesting to see how the newly invented diagnosis of sex addict and the even newer invention of  "treatment", the sex addict rehab practice/facility/retreat, will play out in the tangled, power-play world of divorce and domestic violence.  Will it be the next anger management course, the next batterer's group therapy?

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

Writer's Wives - More Unknown Women

The post-Christmas, pre-New Years breathing space might be a good time to find out about a group of forgotten ladies, writer's wives, courtesy of FindingDulcinea, self-styled internet librarian.  The article profiles Vera Nabokov, Nora Joyce, and Zelda Fitzgerald and provides some fascinating links you can follow to find out even more about these women. 

One link in the Nora Joyce section takes you to a BBC News article reporting the sale of one of Joyce's letters for a whopping $375,000 because in it Joyce refers to Nora as a "wild-eyed whore".  A link to an article in The Guardian includes more unknown wives, and we suspect the list would go on and on from there.

WNL liked the closing comments on this interesting subject:

Why is the world so unaware of the contributions these women made to the literature we love? Author Kathryn Hughes explains the problem: "I think [this set-up] goes back to the old model of preindustrial labour. The man was the front person—the baker, the jeweller, the pharmacist—and the wives and sisters and daughters did the accounts, made the dough and dealt with the customers." 

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

"Small Voices" Cartoon - Holidays

To see more "Small Voices" cartoons visit my website, Lyn Southworth Words and Pictures.

Mel Gibson Slaps Oksana - A Good Idea?

There is a long-standing tradition in life and in books and movies that slapping is first aid, so to speak, to calm a hysterical person. That was the explanation actor Mel Gibson gave in a recent court affidavit for hitting his partner, Oksana Grigorieva, with whom he is in a protracted child custody/child support making its way through Family Court. Her version is different, to say the least.

But the point of this post is to bring your attention to the slap/hysteria question. Is it true that slapping is good for "hysteria" and where did the idea come from anyway. Slate.com has the answers for you, along with some interesting side notes on 19th century ideas of how to cure unhappy women:

Slapping was a common response to so-called hysterical episodes in the 19^th century. At that time, almost all women suffering from psychological problems like hallucinations, convulsions, sleep-walking, unexplained pains, or amnesia were diagnosed with some form of "hysteria," but researchers couldn't agree on what caused it. Some blamed syphilitic parents, others pointed to imbalances in the blood, and many just thought the women were faking illness to avoid their domestic obligations. Psychologists slapped their patients in the face, doused them with water, or suffocated them to snap them out of their stupors. An American physician named Silas Weir Mitchell put his patients in isolation and stuffed them with food until they gained 50 pounds. His theory was that the women would find their home lives joyous after escaping the treatment.

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

Up Front Financing for Your Divorce

Supposedly half the marital assets are yours, but just trying getting access to them once you've declared your intentions to divorce your spouse. And if he's controlling and/or abusive, the misery can be worse than before you left "home sweet home".

Veteran of a divorce asset freeze, Stacey Napp eventually got her share of the couple's assets after a huge battle, and vowed she would help other women enjoy victory as well. A lawyer, Ms. Napp had the skill set to start Balance Point Divorce Funding, "a new Beverly Hills lender that offers to cover the cost of breaking up — paying a lawyer, searching for hidden assets, maintaining a lifestyle — in exchange for a share of the winnings."

Interested? Get the details here. More good news: Stacey's firm is just the beginning of what will become a lucrative business for entrepreneurs and a literal life saver for women all over the United States.

June Moss: Woman Soldier

This outstanding photo essay on American Iraq War veteran June Moss in Time Magazine is worth more words than I could come up with in this blog. Robyn Twomey is the photojournalist.

Don't miss the accompanying article "How We're Failing Our Female Veterans" by Laura Fitzpatrick, for more stories, statistics, and an excellent overview of what's not happening now.

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

Being a Woman Means Being Afraid

It's no fun thinking about how basically hazardous it is to be a woman, so most of us don't do it. We keep positive and fill our days with the endless busy-ness of earning a living and taking care of family. But, just for a moment, take a quick journey to the world of women who don't have the luxury of busy-ness, who live even closer to the edge than we do.

Our tour guide is lawyer and biologist Jamie Bechtel, CEO of the nonprofit NewCourse, which plans projects linking conservation of resources with womens' well being around the world. Her recent article seen at Huffington Post has this intriguing title: "What Does Rape Have to Do With Trees?"

When you've read her article, take a moment to visit NewCourse. Maybe you can help. A safer world for women is every woman's business.

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

"Small Voices" Cartoon - New Doctor Time

To see more "Small Voices" cartoons visit my website, Lyn Southworth Words and Pictures.

Why It Is Important to Decriminalize Marijuana in the US

Why not keep marijuana an illegal substance? Won't bad things happen if we make it a controlled item, like alcohol? The answer to that is who knows, depends on how decriminalization happens, if it's national or state by state.
The bigger question is what bad things ARE happening because marijuana is illegal.
Two very good articles explain the ins and outs of the status quo, and the information in them could be useful folders in your mental data bank when you are in the voting booth wondering if yes or no is the answer you want when marijuana is on the ballot, as it was recently in several state elections.
Written just before the November, 2010, elections, Nick Gillespie puts together some eye-opening statistics supporting decriminalization in an easy to understand column at Huffington Post. Here's a quote:

The drug war is effectively a war on marijuana, by far the only illegal drug used by more 1 percent of the adult population on a regular basis. In 2009, the government reports that 6.6 percent of Americans used pot in the previous month; cocaine, the next-most popular, was used by only 0.7 percent.

Time Magazine adds this thought-provoking background article headlined "Marijuana as a Gateway Drug: The Myth That Will Not Die".

WNL also likes this discussion at Time.com about the "deeply serious business about how to classify and control drugs."
About.com has a time line starting in 1914 that highlights the milestones in the drug war mentality we've all grown up thinking is normal. Take a look.

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

What can you do to end violence against women?

Take Back The Tech! is an innovative collaborative world-wide campaign to help women push back against violence against women, now online as well as in person. Read more and connect with links to planned activities at GlobalVoices.

WNL supports this initiative. Don't miss the fantastic video that accompanies the article, and please consider spreading it via e-mail and Facebook to women you know. No one is immune from tech harassment.

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page

Cookbooks Lie About Preparation Times

If you cook, you've suspected this for some time - cookbook estimates of preparation time for a recipe don't reflect how long it really takes to prepare the food. Or did you think it was just that YOU are really slow and other people are making these recipes in the prescribed time?
Relax, it's official now that Jesse Wegman at Slate.com has written this article: It's the cookbooks that are screwed up, not you. Read his entertaining investigation into the subject to find out who among the experts equivocates and who comes right out and admits that 30-minute meals are a joke (unless you use the drive-through and eat in your car).

To Share this post click on headline and use Share from the post's individual page