"NEGATIVE ATTENTION IS BETTER THAN NO ATTENTION AT ALL"

Read blog titles and you can see who plays
"Negative Attention Is Better Than No Attention At All"--read blogs about how drunk they got, a sexless
marriage, being fat, being beaten down, people picking on them, how because of
other people they are where they are, how others have more than them, the name
calling, the false accusations, envy and jealousy of others, always being
negative, how deprived they are, how they hurt physically, emotionally and/or
mentally, all negative cries for attention and they get the
attention.

An army major kills 13 people and wounds dozens--he
gets attention--negative attention. 5 boys douse another boy with alcohol and
torch him and they get attention--negative attention--Brittany Spears does a lot
of negative things and gets a lot of negative attention for it--all games people
play.

Most people don't go to those extremes to get
attention but anyone seeking negative attention hurts themselves and
others.

I recently got caught up
with such a player out of concern--she threatened to commit suicide so I
notified whoever I could think of to get to her--a few people said she was a
teenager looking for attention--was she? Dare I take the chance to ignore her? I
'talked' to her a few times and soon noticed she was getting more and more
comments on her blog and she went from
talking of suicide to talking of how her step or foster mother hates her, how
the kids at school hate her, how her boyfriend doesn't love her anymore, etc.
The more negative she was the more responses she got. Did she play
me?

I've worked with young kids and teenagers who have
been thrown out of their home by 'christian' parents--who are HIV+ or have
AIDS--who have been forced to prostitute themselves for a sandwich or a bed to
sleep on--they very seldom talked about suicide even when they were at their
lowest and they didn't want any kind of negative attention.

There is a blogger (remember this is NOT about you but
if the shoe fits change it) who as long as they have been blogging blame their being fat on everything
but their eating and blame their fat for not being able to do this or do that
and being physically ill and not being able to work. For 10 years I worked
professionally in the field of weight reduction and have seen people lose many,
many pounds and gain them back but I have NEVER met a person who wouldn't lose
weight, no matter how small an amount,  if they did the right thing. I have only
known one person who has had a thyroid condition affecting their rate and his
problem was not being able to gain weight, not losing it. What will get more
attention than a fat person and a fat person getting fatter?

We have all known alcoholics but there are different
classes among them and there is the one who does it for attention, who knows
people will talk about it the next day or offer them sympathy for their
hangover, not feeling good or being a fool. All negative attention to get
attention. There is the one who gets drunk and blames it on someone else and gets negative attention. Don't all drunks get negative
attention except the few who hide it?

Tell you what--want to
know if you play the "Negative Attention Is Better Than No Attention At All"?
Just read your last five blogs--your
negativity about yourself, others, name calling, talking about others
disappointing you, writing about the bad things that have or are happening in
your life, not reaching out to others, etc., in more than 50% of the blogs will tell you that you are a negative
game player. How about the next 5 of your blogs being positive? Can you do it? If not
you are a "Negative Attention Is Better Than No Attention At All"
player.

We all do things  now and then---now and then--that
gets us negative attention but it is the one who is constantly negative that
plays the game and loses. Life is a lot more positive without games,