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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) � An addiction center is opening
Europe's first detox clinic for scrap booking addicts, offering in-
house treatment for people who can't leave their scrapbooks alone.
Scrapbooks may look innocent, but they can be as addictive as
gambling or drugs � and just as hard to kick, says Keith Bakker,
director of Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants.
Bakker already has treated 20 scrapbook addicts, aged 23 to 50,
since January. Some show withdrawal symptoms, such as shaking and
sweating, when they look at a scrapbook.
His detox program begins in July. It will run four to eight weeks,
and will include therapy sessions, wilderness excursions, healthy
lifestyle workshops and possibly medication.
Research into scrap booking is still in its infancy, and researchers
haven't agreed on how to define addiction. But many experts say it's
clear many of the people who show dependency on scrap booking are in
trouble.
It can start with a photo album. From there, it can progress to
sophisticated scrap booking kits. Bakker said he has seen signs of
addiction in children as young as 8.
About a dozen clinics already exist in the United States and Canada,
and even one in China, as excessive scrap booking increasingly is
being recognized worldwide as an ailment requiring treatment.
Elizabeth Woolley, who founded the Safe Haven halfway house for
addicted scrap bookers in Harrisburg, Pa., welcomed the idea that
treating addicts is spreading to the Netherlands. "Thank God that
somebody has finally recognized this is an issue," she said.
In a 2005 study, Jansz said scrap bookers are overwhelmingly
females. Hilde van der Heijden, 28, a graduate of the Amsterdam
program, started scrap booking 20 years ago. By the time she was in
college she was scrap booking about 14 hours a day and using drugs
to scrapbook longer.
"For me, one joint would never be enough, or five minutes of scrap
booking would never be enough," he said. "I would just keep going
until I crashed out." Van der Heijden first went to Smith & Jones
for drug addiction in October 2005, but realized the scrap booking
was the real problem. Since undergoing treatment, she has distanced
herself from her scrap booking friends. She says she has been drug-
and scrapbook-free for eight months.
Like other addicts, Bakker said, scrap bookers are often trying to
escape personal problems. When they scrapbook, their brains produce
endorphins, giving them a high similar to that experienced by
gamblers or drug addicts. Scrap bookers' responses to questions even
mirror those of alcoholics and gamblers when asked about use.
Richard Wood, a professor of International Scrap booking Research
Unit at Nottingham Trent University, is skeptical about viewing
heavy scrap bookers as addicts. Wood says that scrap booking may be
a symptom of a problem, but should not be seen as a problem
itself "just because a person does the activity a lot."
Bakker, however, says symptoms of addiction are easy to spot. Family
should take notice if a mom neglects usual activities, spends
several hours at a time with scrapbooks and has no social life.
Bakker said family members of scrap booking addicts frequently echo
the words of partners of cocaine addicts: "'I knew something was
wrong, but I didn't know what it was.'"
Are you kidding me!? I know this is just a spoof just for the fact that I know that no scrapbook addict would ever want help detoxing! :mrgreen: How funny.
Hello, My name is Susan and I'm a scrapbooking addict. If you perform an intervention on me, I'll bind you with ribbon, put a sticker over your mouth, and stamp a flower on the tip of your nose with stazon. Then I'll take artistic pictures of you at various creative angles, print them on my Epson PictureMate, and make a mini-scrapbook of your silly attempt to part me from my drug of choice.
Okay, I'm joking, but you gotta admit it would make a really cool mini-scrapbook! ;)
I may need help sometime with my Splitcoast addiction... But I'm okay... quit pushing me! I can quit anytime I want!! I'll stop when I'm good and ready!
[Ha!!! Found the original. Great job of selective editing. Weird thing is, it all sounds so plausible!]
I have a friend who does Longaberger baskets. She knows someone in her neighborhood who honestly did seek professional help for her basket addiction. He made her sell all of her baskets. (I think my friend scooped some up.)
I wonder if the addiction comes with spending money that should be spent elsewhere. If you are spending expendable income on stamps, scrapbooking, or baskets, and no one is suffering, it's really just a hobby.
I may need help sometime with my Splitcoast addiction... But I'm okay... quit pushing me! I can quit anytime I want!! I'll stop when I'm good and ready!
[Ha!!! Found the original. Great job of selective editing. Weird thing is, it all sounds so plausible!]
oh, I didn't do any editing. I just copied and pasted it from the yahoo group where I saw it. lol!
Michelle
this is just too funny!!
