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by iron0013 2418 days ago
Cam, I say this as a fellow Psych PhD: shame on you. Your approach is not evidence-based and apparently has little or nothing to do with your publication history, which from what I can tell largely consists of studying behavioral interventions for diabetes prevention (which is an important area!). You are abusing your credentials in order to sell snake oil, and there's no way you're not aware that you're engaging in quackery.

To the rest of you: beware the PhD who insists that everyone call him "doctor". It's a huge red flag.

2 comments

Beside the personal attack, could you elaborate on your rebuttal? Here's an excerpt from his original article: Dopamine fasting is based on Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the gold standard treatment for compulsive behaviors like internet addiction. Specifically, it uses the behavioral technique of 'stimulus control' to restrict use to specific time periods, because abstinence models are not practical with the internet. Researchers generally agree; in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, they state: "Clinicians have generally agreed that moderated and controlled used of the Internet is most appropriate to treat the problem"

Is he being misleading?

Shame on you for making baseless accusations while hiding behind your pseudoynm. If you have an issue with CBT for behavioral addictions, then criticize the approach, not make ad hominem personal attacks.

For the record, I have all my clients call me Cam and only use the honorific online and when being introduced to speak. Step up and tell us your name, instead of being an anonymous coward.

CBT is great. It’s a broad therapeutic framework that can be applied to address a wide spectrum of mental illnesses. Unfortunately, you are using both “CBT” and especially “dopamine” as meaningless buzzwords. One could just as easily substitute in Willhelm Reich's "orgones" wherever you mention "dopamine" and the substance of the article would be essentially unchanged. Pro tip, Cam: science is conducted in peer reviewed journals, not on LinkedIn and Medium.com