!

I was looking through my inbox and happened to click on the Spam link only to notice a bunch of legitimate emails were thrown in there! I'm sorry if you emailed me and I haven't gotten back to you. I didn't even know you sent me an email! I have about 50-something emails to sift through so I'll be pretty slow in getting back everyone. Special apologies go out to those who emailed me around September through December. (Tells you how much I check my Spam box, right?)

Again, my sincerest apologies. I'll try to be more diligent in checking that out in the future. (sigh) Gmail does too good of a job sometimes.

Is EVERYTHING a mental illness?

PEOPLE who send excessive texts and emails may have a mental illness, according to an article in a leading psychiatric journal.

As more people leave the office computer, only to log on as soon as they get home, the American Journal of Psychiatry has found addiction to text messaging and emailing could be another form of mental illness.

I kid you freakin’ not. That’s an actual finding by Dr. Jerald Block  as reported by news.com.au. Here are the four symptoms to classify people into this mentally ill group:

• suffering from feelings of withdrawal when a computer cannot be accessed;
• an increased need for better equipment;
• need for more time to use it;
• experiencing the negative repercussions of their addiction.

Dr. Brock considers text messaging to be a part of this category because it’s a form of electronic communication. The article uses a female sales consultant as an example of someone who “suffers” from this “debilitating” illness. She explains that she’s on the computer for work all day and then comes home and simply has to browse Facebook, eBay, and other entertainment sites.

Dr Robert Kaplan, a forensic psychiatrist at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, said he first saw a case of internet addiction in 1998.

“I think in general it’s escalating,” Dr Kaplan said. “We now all live in an internet world, and it brings with it a range of problems.”

Someone please tell me this is an early April Fool’s joke. If not, I’ll cry golden tears if pharma companies put out medication for this.