Quote:
Originally Posted by luvyrself
First, I wasn’t referring only to situations about suicide.If you dont know some basic info about the person, you can be wasting your time answering wrong or digging out information. I guess you have to be someone who answers posts a lot to understand this. I love Christina’s suggestion to ask,How can I help you? Sometimes you get a rant that means mostly that the person needs professional help.
Second, does anyone but you know that suicidal postings are banned now?What good does that do if no one knows about it. I’m on the forums a lot and didnt know.Im betting that few people do know.
|
1. All the people who have commented respond a lot on the forums. So we are aware of how things work.
2. The no suicidal posts is pretty well known. Not only is it mentioned at the top of many forums, it is in the community guidelines and been openly discussed here numerous times.
3. Not everyone, in fact a lot of people, comes here to be referred to professional help. Most (I speculate) are here for peer support and validation. From my own point of view, I am not here at all to be referred to a provider bc you think I need some form of professional help based on anything I post. And this suggestion, if given when I was at my worst, would have driven me from the forums, and I would not have received the much needed peer validation and understanding I received. Referral is not really the way we help here. Often the best way we can help is to simply listen and understand and validate the person's feelings and experience, because no one else is. If they then decide they want further help and ask for it, then suggestions can be made. This is just my own point of view but most of us get advice and judgement crammed down our throats all day long. Yes, there are instances where people are asking outright questions, but even those questions are often asking simply for validation (ie: did I overreact? Is it right to feel this way, etc.).