jgm2013
from your original post....

I have a question regarding 3 Facebook support groups I've joined. I have PTSD, DID, BiPolar and panic w/agoraphobia. I don't have a support system other than my Psychiatrist, Therapist and one friend who I can trust.
One of these groups is a closed group and the other 2 have been changed to "secret" status. The same person admins all of the groups.
At times, this admin has stated she has 30 yrs experience as a psychologist, but then another time she said "physiologist". She has also written out DID as "dis associative identity disorder" and PTSD as "post dramatic stress disorder".
My question is, should I trust my gut that is telling me to be wary of this lady and her Facebook groups? I need support, but not if it is coming from someone who is misrepresenting herself, her education, etc.
Thanks !

..........

Im sorry but we can not tell you what to do, thats not what we do here. we can tell you things like what we would find on the internet if we googled parts of your post/symptoms/....we can tell you if the same situaiton has happened to us, we can tell you what our own treatment providers have us doing...but telling you whether you should follow your gut or not is not something we can do, doing so could possibly be telling you to do something that your treatment providers may be having you do something completely different... the thing is we can only go by what the post says not what else may not be in the posts...example I know someone who feels others are faking, doing wrong to them and others on the internet experiences psychosis/delusions and their experience that is similar to yours was just their delusion. not saying you are just that this one person I know is. so telling her to follow her gut meant dropping out of a therapist suggested group that was just fine, run by a perfectly find well known psychiatrist. my point is we really cant tell you what to do without possibly doing you harm so this website doesnt allow us to do that.....

what I can tell you is that no matter where you go on the internet...facebook, twitter, instagram, psychcentral or other places with mental health forums. it is a possibility that there are people who are what they say they are, and people that are not what they say they are. the internet is a situaiton where people can be anyway they want to be, males can be females, adults can pose as children searching for other children, treatment providers can pose as non treatment providers, or the other way around people can post exactly who and how they are.

only you and ytour treatment providers can decide what to do when encountering people who you think are fake whether they are treatment providers or not.

what else I can tell you is that here on psych central whether we get a gut feeling that someone is a fake or real the rules of the site is that we have to post as if everyone on this site is what and who they post in other wards all postings must be supportive. we do have options here on Psych central when we come across posts /members we are having trouble with....we can pm a moderator who will look at the offending post and decide whether that post goes against the rules of the site, and we have an ignore feature where ones you put someones name on ignore you wont see their posts. you will see a statement in that spot saying this person is on your ignore list do you want to remove them from the ignore list (meaning do you want to go back to seeing them and what they post...)

outside of psychcentral some places do have this feature and others do not.

but again only you can decide what to do given what ever tools or lack there off.