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Online Psychotherapy
What name should one give to this new trend? Should it be "cyber-psychotherapy",
"electronic psychotherapy" or "electro-psychoanalysis"?
No matter how the case might be defined the truth of it remains the same; the
number of universities
along with that of therapists who log on the Net and start offering their services
via electronic means to the world, are on the increase. Even worse, there are
numerous occasions when, on the other end of the line, there is a machine programmed
to offer answers to questions pertaining to our psyche.
Martha
Ainsworth, head of the metanoia.net services, is as categorical as one can
be: "This is not a typical psychotherapy. One of the terms we tried in determining
this new service is "behavioral tele-sanity". I've just resorted
to "interaction" or "Sanity Services through the Internet".
These terms are pretty lax, but we'll have to make do with them till the
therapists involved in it make up their minds on a different terminology"
How then is online psychiatry accomplished? Here's an example:
You log on the address http://www.mentalhealth.com.
You select the "Disorders" menu. A list of fifty-two mental illnesses
is displayed right in front of you: Agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress, anorexia
nervosa, bulimia, not to mention paranoia and schizophrenia. You normally select
the one that… suits you and the computer displays the symptoms. Are
they the ones manifested in your own behavioral pattern? Then, you are on the
right track. You move on to the next display in which the machine asks whether
you are a physician or a patient. If you are a patient you have to fill in
your sex and age. As soon as you are through with submitting that sort of information,
the questioning process commences: How often these symptoms appear, when they
appeared for the last time and so on. You fill in your answers and come up
with a diagnosis.
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As far as the therapy is concerned, it would be wise to see a professional, be
it either a psychologist or a psychiatrist. "It is a well known fact
that the Internet, writes Toby Lester in the Atlantic Monthly, is chaotic and
on-line therapists may not always come out in their
true colors. You must always look for the "Mental Health Net" imprint
on them, which is an organization dedicated to scaring away any sharks roaming
the murky waters of the Net, hunting down innocent victims who are in need
of psychiatric advice."
"Mental Health Net” is an organization under the umbrella of which
any serious attempt of the kind in the Net is sheltered. It operates in some
sort of way as an organization that grants quality accreditation as far as
the efficiency of the services provided in the concerned field. It sets itself
as the fullest encyclopedia in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. It
is part of a non-profitable corporation operating under the supervision of
the state of Ohio. Set up in September 1999, by the Canadian psychiatrists
Dr. Philip Long and Brian Chow. Today, it is being supervised by a team of
eminent physicians, who make up its Board of Directors and as they have declared
in their goals set forth in public, "the company wishes to offer free
services all over the world and to look into the opportunities provided to
psychiatry by Media as novel as the Internet.
They claim that 'Internet Mental Health" may cater to the needs of
all those interested in mental health. It can offer its services to doctors,
patients who wish to know more about their illnesses, their families and
friends, psychiatry students and so on.
Information on 52 mental disorders are provided by the Web site, therapy instructions, (the fact that they have to be applied by professional therapists being continuously stressed), magazine and newspaper articles on psychology and mental disorders, as well as a guide to other Internet sites connected with psychiatry and psychology.
Electronic addresses
If you are interested in psychology or would like to run some psychology tests (God only knows what one might be suffering from) you can click on the following addresses:
http://www.mentalhealth.com
http://www.metanoia.org
http://netpsychology.com
the address of the American Psychiatric Association is: http://www.psych.org