PSA: "Depressed" people don't post beach pics on Facebook

You got it bad. You're all alone in the world. The holidays are creeping ever closer. And Gossip Girl is sucking. Let's face it, you're depressed.

That's what you told the boss, anyway... in the hopes that they'd give you long-term sick leave with pay and benefits and you could hit the beach. Win!

As sensible a strategy as that may seem, any child of the Scooby-Doo era should be able to tell you that crime just doesn't pay. But even if you do decide to go on an extended vacation while you're allegedly homebound due to severe depression, at least remember one thing: Don't post pictures of your trip on Facebook.

Alas, 29-year-old Nathalie Blanchard did exactly that, taking long-term sick leave from IBM in Quebec, then promptly throwing a birthday party, taking a "sun vacation," and even putting in some time at Chippendales. Naturally this was all captured on film and dropped onto Facebook, evidence which her insurance company is now pointing to as proof that she is "no longer depressed."

Blanchard's lawyer is arguing that the insurance company was out of line in using Facebook (a practice which it has admitted to) in investigating Blanchard, and says that a few photographs posted online are hardly evidence enough to deny her claims of depression, a condition for which she was diagnosed by a physician. As the lawyer points out, "There were pictures of her on Facebook, in a party or having a good time. It could be that she was just trying to escape."

The two parties are now embroiled in legal proceedings.

As a curious footnote to this issue, Blanchard adds that she isn't sure how the insurance company found the photos to begin with: Her Facebook profile is protected so only friends can see her pictures, she says, leading her (and me) to wonder what steps the insurance company took to get through Facebook's privacy defenses.

Or perhaps she was just too depressed to set up the privacy settings properly.