Because I don’t want to become a one-note Charlie on the SDMB, I’d like to start posting most of my depressive ramblings elsewhere. Can anyone recommend good ones out there? I’m not looking for medical advice (I have a psychiatrist, as creepy as he is, and a therapist), but just some place to talk with people.
Thanks.
I don’t see anything exactly spelling out anxiety and depression but you might find something that fits your needs in the http://www.big-boards.com/kw/health/
Here’s a fun one I found: CrazyBoards.org.
My username is TheHammerSpeaks, but so far I’ve only contributed to a couple of threads.
To be honest, I’m not sure if message boards about mental health issues are a good thing for me. When I spend a lot of time there, I tend to fixate on my issues to the exclusion of the rest of my life, sort of narrowing my identity down into this one label, and it usually has a detrimental effect on my sense of self-efficacy. I get the sense that this is true for a lot of people–sometimes those boards can be so depressingly fatalistic and filled with people who refuse to make any effort to get better.
But I’ve found CrazyBoards to be a cut above the rest. They tend to be a funny, fun, smart bunch that don’t fit the stereotype.
Thanks. I’ll look into that.
ETA: Normally, I wouldn’t turn to a message board for this type of thing either, but I’ve found I need something between therapist sessions. Most of what I would call friends are pretty happy people, and to get them (the guys, anyway) to talk about much more than their research or a sporting event is pretty difficult. And they tend to be the “Goddammit, just get over yourself” armchair psychologists who don’t “get it.”
Further ETA: I’m not looking for formal therapy from these boards. Just someone to talk to.
And they would never dream of doing that to someone with another physically based illness like Parkinson’s Disease. (I heard one doctor say that depression and Parkinsons are “cousins.”)
I agree that they are not good places for us to be. The ones I have been involved with can be absolutely toxic. They are also full of people that just live their disorder. It becomes the driving force of their whole existance.
Yes. For example, most people on these boards (pretty much every one I’ve ever been to) think it’s necessary or important for their signature to include a laundry list of their psychiatric diagnoses as well as detailed information on their medication/abuse history. For a lot of them it can be a ‘‘crazier than thou’’ one-up game. Or on a PTSD board, a ‘‘more traumatized than thou’’ one-up game. Oftentimes the need to feel special trumps the need to be mentally healthy.*
*This is not a judgment of the people, it is a judgment of the behavior/impulse for validation which often thwarts progress. I am vulnerable to it myself, which is why I hate it so much. It does nothing to improve the problem.
Now, I’ve accepted the fact that I’m a little bit nuts, and perhaps always will be, but I’ve found a way to be happy despite that. I work on minimizing the impact that my disorder has on my identity, not the other way around.
There’s been a depression group from these boards before, but it’s very inactive at the moment. Still, when folks post to it, there’s usually some response within a day or two, and if not, it’s at least a decent place to rant. If you need more info, let me know, we can talk off-board.