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 it the one who is constantly negative that plays the game and loses. Life is a lot more positive without games,