Ex Drug Rep Wins Survivor Samoa

Ah, I love Andy Denhart. I missed the show last night- because I didn't want to see three hours of solid Russell planning and plotting- I can handle him for an hour- but not for three...but I am glad he won fan favorite. He was my favorite despite it all.

So Andy of course scoops the show like he has done for every year, and this morning I find out that Natalie White, the former drug rep, won the whole shebang. Good for her for outlasting, and out playing Russell.

So a former drug rep wins.... nothing new, a former drug rep, and imho the best woman to play Survivor, Stephanie was a drug rep. So were at least one or two others from every series.

But still it begs the question- I know how Big Pharma goes to colleges and universities and aIms for a certain type to be a drug rep. You cannot be stupid, you must be attractive, and it's great to be an athlete or a cheerleader. Especially a cheerleader.

I just wish they were going around with samples of chocolate, or puppies and/or kittens instead of Prozac. But the few reps I have met- when they come to my former shrink's office, they always had big boxes of Duncan Donuts with them- and they always offered me one.

Maybe the drug companies could come up with a pill that tastes exactly like a donut- with no calories. They can hire Willy Wonka to work on it.




Huge Hat tip to Pharma Gossip!

Is A&E's Horders the best depiction of mental illness on TV today?

 According to Reality TV critic,  Andy Denhart, it is. On today's blog, Denhart writes-

Hoarders works because you can see mental illness and its effects on screen like never before: in piles of trash, or rotting food, or feces-covered toilet paper, or, in one especially disturbing episode, dozens of dead cats. The two people featured in each episode are usually at some kind of turning point—their relationship is deteriorating, they’re going to be evicted—and so a professional organizer and/or specialist comes in with a cleaning crew to help them deal with what has accumulated over the years.

But the subjects’ mental illness—for which hoarding may just be a symptom—prevents them from being able to do that, which makes it obvious that they aren’t just being stubborn. That frustration is clear in friends and family members, but particularly in the workers who have been hired to help clean up. They can’t understand why it matters that they threw away a piece of broken tile, for example.

People with mental illnesses hording is not a new thing. D. Jablow Hershman  in his book 'Manic Depresion and Creativity" mentions the fact that Victorian writer Thomas de Quincey "(He) piled  his papers until every piece of furniture and every inch of floor were covered with them, leaving only a clear path to the door. He called this process "snowing up." When a room reached that condition, de Quincey locked the door  and left it forever. He did that to six rooms." (p. 192)

Probably the most famous hoarders were the American Collyer Brothers, Homer and Langley.  Both were eventually found dead in 1947, in the Harlem brownstone where they had lived as hermits, surrounded by over 130 tons of rubbish that they had amassed over several decades. E.L Doctorow's  2009 novel "Homer and Langley' and Stephen King's "Salem's Lot' were both inspired by the brother's story.

"Horders"  is worth a look if you find it on your TV schedule, or download from iTunes or Hulu. But as a warning- if you love animals, cats and dogs, do not see the episode with the woman who hoards cats. 

A viewable  preview of the season finale is here.

CNN tonight-are we overmedicating our children

This was just passed on to me by a blogger.

From CNN's schedule for tonight.
Campbell Brown: The Great Debate: Are we overmedicating our kids? Join Campbell Brown as she discusses this issue, tonight!

5 pm PST
8pm EST

I have no idea who this woman is or how she will treat the subject but thought I’d give y’all a heads up.



Hat tip to Gianna Kali from Beyond Meds

Just For Fun- My All Time 25 Favorite TV Shows

I have been really depressed with the med change, so lets do something funny. In alphabetical order, my 25 all time favorite TV Shows during my life.


1. Arrested Development

2. Barney Miller

3. Black Adder

4. Bugs Bunny

5. Columbo

6. Fairly Odd Parents

7. Family Guy

8. Fawlty Towers

9. Futureama

10. Hell's Kitchen (US)

11. House

12. Kitchen Nightmares (US)

13. Law and Order

14. Law and Order: CI

15. Monk

16. Monty Python

17. Psych

18. Red Dwarf

19. Ren and Stimpy

20. Rocko's Modern Life

21. Spongebob Square Pants

22. The Muppet Show

23. The Simpsons

24. The Sopranos

25. The Critic




I suppose I should also add "I Claudius" to the list, since it inspired me to be a History Minor. And I forgot "Seinfeld"

Is TV ready for a super shrink ?

From TV Squad.



Who would have thought that this year we'd have two shows on the air with the word "mental" in them?

FOX has announced their summer lineup, and it includes a new medical drama titled House. Oh, sorry, I mean it's called Mental. It's about "a dynamic, young psychiatrist who serves as Director of Mental Health Services at a Los Angeles hospital. At work he must reconcile his effective, yet highly unorthodox treatment methods with his conservative boss, hospital administrator Nora Skoff (Annabella Sciorra), a woman with whom he shares a romantic past. As Gallagher takes on new cases, he is confronted with patients battling unknown, misunderstood and often misdiagnosed conditions." House Mental will star Chris Vance.


The last show on TV about a shrink flopped, it was made a few years ago with Hank Azaria, called Huff. Maybe it's time to bring back Bob Newhart as America's favorite TV Shrink.