Medifight1,
I would share with your instructor the responses you have received from this community. I am a professor myself and I can appreciate the educational value an assignment like the one you described. However, the people that post here are already facing a lot of judgment from others who don't really understand their situations. They do not need to be unwilling subjects in your class experiment. I would suggest that you ask your instructor if your educational institution's IRB board would have some concerns about this class assignment. Even though your "research" is likely informal it still is questionable, ethically.

Depending on the type of course you are taking (lecture/seminar) you might suggest to your instructor a class debate on this topic. If you were a person (who is struggling to deal with a mental illness, who for whatever reason feels alone, who is at his/her wits end, and who has finally reached out for support by others) would you want some college student ease-dropping and taking notes on your postings for a class paper?

Personally I do not think it is ethical to use people as study subjects (informal case studies, etc) without their permission. When my students are assigned a case study or an assignment where they are working with an actual patient, the patient must be informed and must consent to being part of this type of analysis. In addition during these assignments I make it part of the assignment to discuss privacy issues and the steps students and practitioners need to take to comply with not only the law and standards of professionalism, but just common decency. It is always important for health care workers to remember that they are dealing with PEOPLE not just pathologies to be studied. This is especially important when dealing with mental health issues.

I my opinion, if you are not suffering from depression or are not personally affected by a love one suffering from depression, then you don't need to be here. This is just my opinion and other group members may feel differently. I am confident that if they do they will post it :-)

I am here to learn how to communicate better with others (--hopefully then transfer these skills to my off-line life), to share insight and experiences with people who are or have been in my situation, and to ultimately help myself get better and avoid becoming depressed again. The people here have been very helpful to me. I hope at some point I can eventually be of help to someone else. I am not interested in being one of your study subjects. I do not give my permission for you to study my postings even though I cannot stop you from doing so.