I have a mental illness!
I was sexually abused as a young person.
I spent time, a good deal of time, in a psychiatric hospital as a teenager.
I attempted suicide quite a few times during that period. Had ECT at 16........and you know what, I did it alone. There was no one........no one to understand, no one to talk to ........ My friends, they couldn't visit me because it "depressed them" per one of the mom's I spoke with......

Now would anything on this website have triggered me...on the contrary, it would have been a lifeline for me..

I watched my daughter struggle with her own mental illness. I tried to get her into groups that were "age appropriate" but they were all about drugs and alcohol abuse. Some blessings we had with my daughter was that she was so young (13), and we lived in a semi-rural area, when she was diagnosed, she had not got into the "self-medication route" yet. Did she know it exsisted, yes, but were the groups like that a help.....no......she could not relate.

Would a website like this have been a resource to me, when i was young and my daugher at that age......YES!!

Age is a relative thing......life experiences have a way of aging you beyond your peers.

Everyone, all ages, need a resource of this type. Neither I, nor my daughter would have been able to tolerate the "My mom was soooo mean today..she wouldn't let me talk to my boyfriend before dinner" type of website that more typical teens may frequent.

Please continue to give the young adults a place to deal with their very sadly adult issues.