(Me, sitting in the back of a room filled with folding chairs, twisting a handkerchief between my sweaty hands.)

Hi, my name is Tristi, and I'm an addict.

I've been blogging for about a year and a half now. At first, I only did it because it's what all the "cool" kids were doing. They said things like, "If you really want to promote your books, you should get a blog." I didn't know what a blog was, but it didn't sound dangerous, you know? So I started a blog and I wrote something about once a week. I was a social blogger to start. I didn't start to really hit the hard stuff until later.

I'm not sure what it was that drove me off the deep end. Was it getting the comments? Was it meeting new friends in Blogland? Was it having people tell me, "You're so funny! I love reading your blog?" Something fed into my need to be appreciated, and before I knew it, I was up late at night, fingers racing furiously, feeling the thrill of finding just the right picture to upload, inserting links, and then the satisfaction of seeing the comments come rolling in. But one blog a day soon wasn't enough, and I started posting two, and sometimes three.

Then I branched out. I didn't have just one blog anymore -- I made one for my product line, one for my weight loss/writing challenges, and one for my kids. Add that to the blogs I do professionally, and I now have five blog sites. Five! I've got blog sites tucked between the couch cushions, in the spice cupboard behind the nutmeg, and in the "hot chocolate" thermos in my car.

My descent into addiction was fast and dangerous. My next step was to start . . . (wiping my eyes) experimenting with different templates. (blowing nose) I can't go longer than a month without changing my template. I can't explain the need. It comes over me like a trance, and I can't be at peace until I've changed the color, or the font, or even the whole look of the blog altogether. I even (looking around, lowering my voice) experimented with Pyzam. I'll never do that again. It was . . . too much.

I'm not sure how therapy is going to help me. I even think in blogs. I'll be standing in line at the grocery store and I'll start composing a blog about how I was at the grocery store. Everything is a blog to me. I see my life through a keyboard and a seventeen inch screen. I was at Wal-mart the other day eating some fries from the McDonald's there and I was composing a blog about fries and McDonald's -- I can't even eat a snack without it turning into a blog. I'm sick, I tell you, sick! (breaking down into wild sobs) Is there any help for a person like me, or have I simply gone too far to ever recover?