Software To Provide Astronaut Counseling

Currently, whenever an astronaut needs to talk to someone, a counselor is only a radio call away. Unfortunately, for voyages further out, this contact time starts to increase quite a bit, so researchers have started to look for alternative methods of counseling. I just hope the new counseling software has the Dr. Sbaitso voice. "Instead of asking astronauts to reflect on their feelings, Mark Hegel of Dartmouth Medical School has them create lists of concrete things that are bothering them and brainstorm about practical ways to solve them. At the end of the exercise, users fill out a form used to diagnose depression. Clinical tests of this approach, which has never been tried in a multimedia self-help format, will start in a few months, using subjects recruited from the biomedical and engineering community in Boston."

Comments

Re:Gender difference?

[Naughty Bob]

And shortly after inserted into the dreaded 'just friends' category.

Ahah! Hit back with a hint at problems (deep, deep, mysterious problems) of your own, and refuse to discuss them, because you're too damn self-sufficient.

Then (and this should be your mantra) show no interest at all in wooing.

You are then one or two steps (either a shared interest, a cool quip, or a chiseled jawline) away from happiness.

Don't get me wrong- I am as runtish as your average /.er, but I have shown to friends over and over how it works. Not a failure yet.

Re:Gender difference?

[Naughty Bob]

Just going by what I've learned ABC. I'm sure it isn't universal, but you're perhaps not entirely typical?

Massive guessing, but if you post here, you're possibly one of the delicious subset of women who think... y'know... a bit more like a man?

If so, I can understand how a man's problem solving approach might be pointless for you. This also explains their next move (you'd be a rare and precious thing, in this scenario!)....

But you must have female friends- When they unload on you, do you find your brainstorming approach helpful, or do they get frustrated?

IMHO, the latter is more likely.