Me in Another Skin

What would it be like to peer out of another

To see what they see

But with my brain

My bias and senses

Flesh that is not me

But of you?

As the countdown continues to my first NaNoWriMo, my thinking ranges from, What I am going to write? Should I prepare an outline? Does it matter?...and then to… I live by structure every day, I don’t want structure… to… I need structure! You know what will happen! You will go off in a million directions, and finally back to… Does it matter?. For the first time ever I am truly inspired, motivated, and even driven to write more than just poetry or an assignment. It is quite interesting in its development. Starting with a deep, near disastrous depression only 4 months ago, through the painful frustrations and failure (so far) of interviewing for a new job while trying to act normal in the current one, all the way to a great holiday in England, and back to the dread I feel towards the upcoming dark, cold, winter months, something has shifted inside, the thing that was broken is sorta mending.

As always, along this path, driven by my own inner strength and determination to overcome the major depressive episodes I experience, emerges the breadcrumb trail towards something else. I never fully know what the else will be, nor do I want to think too deeply about it. Years of cognitive style therapy has provided me with the alarm bells that go off if I start to develop a permanent and worn path through my brain network. When I am clear headed, I do not think too far ahead or behind or I know I will miss what is happening NOW.  And NOW, or ELSE, it is writing time. Healing time. Miller time (that slipped out, I don’t even like beer).  Still a lot of work to do, both on the outside and inside of life, but I can smell the bakery at the end of the path, and a New York bagel is waiting for me.

~

Source: The Skeptical Dad

There was a flutter of activity across Twitter and blogs the other day, in response to some reports that suggested kids’ increasing TV viewing was having a detrimental effect on mental health. According to the reports, TV viewing should be limited for children even into their teens and banned altogether for under-threes. The issues highlighted here will be familiar to detractors of Bad Science and Bad Reporting, but I wanted to record some thoughts for posterity.

I first saw the story in The Guardian and it was also picked up by BBC News, The Independent, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Metro and many other outlets. Whilst it’s an interesting and worthwhile area of study, the paper published in the journal Archives Of Disease In Childhood and the subsequent press statements, had a few problems that undermine the stark headlines.

The paper was not an original research paper, but an opinion piece that looked back at some previous research. The chief agitator in this is Aric Sigman, a psychologist whose method of ‘cherry-picking’ evidence Ben Goldacre has had much to say about in the past. ‘Cherry-picking’ is essentially picking the bits of evidence that support a particular claim, whilst ignoring other evidence that doesn’t. As Goldacre points out, a better way to analyse previous research is to perform a ‘systematic review‘. These reviews say exactly how the literature was searched and compiled, which means it is more free from bias and allows others to reproduce it.

As for this specific case, Pete Etchells at SciLogs does a good job at highlighting the problems with the selective nature of the analysis and why it’s important to understand the cause of something before issuing guidance on fixes. I worry that many developmental outcomes – such as empathy, attention, educational performance – are lumped in under the banner of ‘mental health’, but that is probably for someone more qualified to comment on. Professor Dorothy Bishop‘s remarks in the Guardian article are salient too – if Sigman’s concerns are to do with kids just sitting for long periods, you shouldn’t advocate reading books for too long.

••• Please Read On •••