My Support Forums - View Single Post

(JD) · Sep 12, 2011, 02:24 PM

It is quite difficult to post according to "truth"... while I believe in One Truth, there is a philosophy that each of us has her/his own truth. To try and tell someone truth just won't work... we don't know where they are, under what truth they are operating. Odds are a post of "truth" would be of the poster's truth and it may or not be accurate.

One thing we learn, as ygrec knows, in training as counselors/psychologists, is that even if we know KNOW what the client needs does not mean they are ready to hear it. And, just telling someone what might be the truth, the desired end goal, doesn't mean they then know how to get there. I liken PC to much like peer-counseling. Even though few here have had certified education regarding the "how to" of counseling, we all seem to find the niches --the rights and wrongs-- of offering support to others, as noted by the very posting in this thread.

Posting when it's all about "me" often doesn't work out. The post needs to be all about the OP, imo. However, as also correctly noted in this thread, the giving of support often does include the taking of same... thus the 'mutual support and information sharing ' as the guidelines state. http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=3643

But each member is on a different part of the path. Some, I daresay, are not on the "right" path at all. Are we to withhold support to either group? Are we to shun someone who is at the beginning of their journey until they catch up (or grow up) to "our" standards? Is someone on a different path not given support, even though their disorder may never allow them to truly appreciate or use or understand that support? Of course not, and I think the majority of members here don't differentiate between such members.

Being on a different part of the path doesn't mean some are better than others. Just like someone in 9th grade is not better than someone in 3rd grade. No, they are just on different sections of the same path.

But there is a differentiation occurring. Some here have stated their reasons, some of those reasons being not enough time, energy, feeling inadequate to give an informative post that they'd like to, etc.

I have to go back to the past, to bring us forward again I think. When PC first began there wasn't a big listing of categories of forums etc. It was all pretty much "General" support and sharing, and chat. (And if there were 8 of us in DocJohn's chat, that was a BIG full chat! ) I mean, back then if you were active at PC, you pretty much read and responded to every post. Now, we do have the option of dividing up what we will read, and what threads we will participate in, with the added "excuse" (and in no way do I mean that negatively) of just plain not being able to read and reply to all the posts.

We do decide, according to our abilities and needs, where we spend our time giving and receiving support. I think it takes nothing from the experience, myself.

With that said, I find that each forum is establishing it's own philosophy of posting perhaps? Someone who normally posts only in one or two forums may find that their posts of support in another forum isn't accepted or quite understood regardless of how long the member has been at PC. The forum they "hang out in" develops a continuity and maybe an expected style of give and take that other forums don't have.

IDK just thinking out loud I guess