intervention

i am seriously obsessed with that tv show intervention. i dvr both episodes that come on monday nites and wait patiently & excitedly to watch them as soon as i can. is it because i was a psych major & all that stuff fascinates me? maybe. i love psychology & find myself "analyzing" people in my head all the time- why do they do what they do? it's a pretty fun game. anyway, back to intervention, i truly can't get over the fact that LITERALLYYY every single case on that show has divorced parents. no exaggeration. not to say that every kid whose parents get divorced is going to be an addict of some kind, but it does show how big of a deal divorce is & how much everyone involved is affected. hmm.

also, going along with that, i read this article the other day that was super interesting. apparently, getting drunk to forget about your problems isn't the best idea after all:


Drinking makes heart grow more sorrowful, study finds Fri Feb 29

"TOKYO (AFP) - The age-old belief goes that alcohol helps people drown their sorrows, but in truth the bottle only makes bad memories linger, a Japanese study said Friday.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo concluded that ethanol -- an intoxicating agent in alcohol -- does not cause memory to decrease, as widely believed, but instead locks it in place.

The researchers, led by pharmacology professor Norio Matsuki, gave mild shocks to lab rats to condition them to fear. As a result, the rats would freeze in terror and curl up the moment they were put in their cages.

Researchers then immediately injected the rats with ethanol or saline.

The researchers found that rats with alcohol in their veins froze up for longer, with the fear on average lasting two weeks, compared with rats that did not receive injections.

"If we apply this study to humans, the memories they are trying to get rid of will remain strongly, even if they drink alcohol to try to forget an event they dislike and be in a merry mood for the moment," the study said.

"The following day, they won't remember the merriness that they felt," it said.

Matsuki said the findings offered lessons for people living with bad memories.

"To forget something you dislike, it's best to overwrite the negative memory with a positive memory at an early stage and leave out drinking alcohol," Matsuki advised.

The study was published in the US academic journal Neuropsychopharmacology."

How bout them apples? So all you depressed people better put the bottle down if you know what's good for you. Just sayin.