<font color="purple">Wow, Cotton, that was really brave! I don't think I coulda done that! Wonderful! Brava! And you get extra credit for doing this when you've been in a low place recently.</font>

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I'm gonna give my $.02 about a side dialog that started on this thread, even though I may go against the grain of popular wisdom. I've also carefully considered whether I will stir up needless controversy by posting this. I pray not. But sometimes I learn things about other people's points of view that benefit me when I take these tiny risks.

1. I didn't agree with poster's self-assessment that the post was not supportive. It was a truth-telling post, and sometimes we need to confront the truth head-on -- as Jen's fabulously brave actions indicate. Nothing she has learned since contradicts the general message of that post.

When we have distorted, unrealistic thinking we need to know. The logical conclusion of "post only what the speaker will find sweet" thinking is that we should never mention to someone who is hearing voices or hallucinating that they should check into a hospital right away, for fear they might be hurt that we are challenging their psychotic fantasies.

2. I think that calling someone out for a post that was short and told the truth has a chilling effect on truth-telling and authentic dialogue on the Psych Central Forums. I found my stomach lurching when I read the posts dumping on the truth-teller. Kind of a "kill the messenger" because we don't like the message thing.

This is all "to me, from my perspective." I emphasize that. I recognize and respect that other people have other sentiments about this.