Warren Throckmorton

Email me.

Over the years, a number of people (gay and ex-gay) have contacted me to say that the reparative model just doesn’t fit their relationships with their parents. I have kept some but not many of those emails or letters. If you fit this description, please contact me via email ([email protected]). I am piloting a possible research effort and would like to correspond.

With the Christmas season upon us, I felt it would be a public service to provide the signs and symptoms of a common but not well-researched malady known as Post-Christmas Stress Disorder. Be warned and well.

Diagnostic Criteria for 311.5x Post-Christmas Stress Disorder

A. Four (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same two-week period and represent a change from previous functioning.

(1) refuses to take down Christmas decorations within one week after Christmas. (In chronic cases, leaves decorations up year round.) Note: In children, makes Christmas related requests year round;

(2) seeks out shopping opportunities on the day immediately following Christmas;

(3) depressed mood, more days than not (e.g., sings “Blue Christmas” repeatedly);

(4) vocal tics (e.g., “Ho, ho, ho”);

(5) compulsive Christmas related behavior (e.g., Wraps and unwraps presents even though no gift is inside);

(6) catatonic, expectant behavior (e.g., Stands for long periods of time, immobile, under mistletoe);

(7) gift returns outnumber presents;

(8) avoidant of references to Christmas (e.g., refers to “holiday trees,” “holiday ornaments,” or “the Sparkle season;”

(9) irrational interpersonal behavior (e.g., Calls the time and temperature guy to wish him a Merry Christmas); and

(10) inappropriate startle response (e.g., jumps or easily startled by video game or other novel noises).

B. Symptoms do not meet criteria for Post-Christmas Adjustment Disorder

C. Symptoms cause clinically significant distress

D. Symptoms aren’t due to effects of a substance (e.g., eggnog, fruitcake, punch, etc.)

Specify (for current or most recent episode)
.x1 Mild – minimum number of symptoms are net
.x2 Moderate – six or more symptoms
.x3 Severe – nearly all symptoms but without delusions/hallucinations
.x4 Severe with hallucinations (e.g., Converses with “ghost of Christmas past, present or future”)
.x5 Severe with delusions (e.g., Arms self to protect against Grinch)
.x6 With trauma associated (e.g., Witnesses mother kissing Santa Claus)
.x0 Unspecified

May we be spared this fate.

This photo indirect from the Tammy Bruce blog via email from Errol Phillips.

Apparently, Lowes doesn’t mind offending Spanish speaking non-Christians. (Navidad means Nativity or Christmas.)

Tricky.

Now here is something I am going to learn to treat. Maybe Freud was correct; everything does go back to sex and aggression, sometimes simultaneously.

I do think the “David Syndrome” is the result of a developmental arrest. My son does this all the time. He builds things and then delights in tearing them down. He draws things and then he rips them up. I think it should be called the “Lego Syndrome.”

DSM-V, here I come.

This excerpt from a recent NARTH newsletter seems to be a pretty wild claim:

When I ask women who do not struggle with same-sex attraction the question, “What were your hopes and dreams as a little girl?” they quickly describes fantasies or hopes about escaping from their sadness or loneliness. In contrast, women with same-sex attraction struggle to remember any hopes or dreams. As little girls they didn’t or couldn’t project themselves beyond the pressent moment. Perhaps they were tied to the present because they still needed to build their most foundational piece, a self. Life cannot progress without a self.” – August, 2005, Janelle Hallman, p. 13.

Much reparative therapy literature is about men. As I understand it, men work with men and women with women in therapy. So here is some reparative “wisdom” about women. Lesbians don’t have selves? The claim is the same as on the male side. Lesbians did not bond with mom and thus failed to develop a secure feminine sense of self. They then look for it in another woman. I guess that makes lesbians selfless. Isn’t that a good thing? Any selfless women out there want to take this on?