Weddings as Evidence of Psychological Disorder

Nora and I both enjoy listening to NPR's radio show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," which offers a series of quizzes about news events both profound and obscure.  It's funny and well-written, and I highly recommend it.

As Nora was driving last night, she was listening to a Wait Wait podcast, and called me so that I'd hear the following story.  It's part of a segment called "Bluff the Listener," in which the three panelists each describe a story from the week, and the caller has to decide which one was real and which were fakes.  And here's the story, as told by Roxanne Roberts of the Washington Post:

Trish Callahan describes herself as a romantic, despite being married three times, each for less than a year, and engaged twice more, all before she was 30 years old. When she accepted her sixth proposal last year, her dad put his foot down: she would go into counseling, or he wasn't paying for another wedding. Callahan's therapist quickly concluded she has "Bridal Affective Stimulus." She's only really happy when she's planning a wedding.

"She loves being a bride, doesn't care much about being a wife," Joseph Frye writes in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Callahan gets her highs from the romance of weddings, trying on an estimated 500 wedding dresses, signing up for 23 wedding registries, having 10 showers and hitting the big time last year with an appearance on TLC's 'Say Yes to the Dress'."

Frye believes the glut of bridal reality shows has increased the number of women seeking that nuptial buzz, although Callahan is, to date, his most extreme example. "She's always in love and always gives back the ring," he writes. After counseling, her last engagement was called off, but she's thriving as - you guessed it - a wedding planner. 

Even though this was one of the fake stories (the real one had to do with using cobra venom to get high), I think I might have Bridal Affective Stimulus.  Nora's call indicates a degree of concern; she's probably arranging an intervention while she's away this weekend.