online MI network? Through facebook?

I've been thinking about this for awhile; so many of us are isolated, lonely, and have difficulty making friends because "healthy" people don't understand our illness. Wouldn't it be great to if there was a way for mentally ill individuals to find each other online and build friendships? Psych Central is awesome, and I've met a lot of people here; wouldn't it be cool to take things one step further via a social networking site?

I would like to create a space where people can reach out, find other mentally ill people, and get to know each other. A place where people with MI could connect with each other, be that through simple messaging, or even video chatting. Whatever individuals feel comfortable with.

I was thinking of starting a facebook page for this purpose. People could contribute to the page, add interesting people as facebook friends, and in time, develop real friendships with these people. Would any of you be interested in joining if I made such a page?

Also, if I should go through with it, what should I call it? I don't think that it should have anything mental-health related in the name, so that people don't have to worry about their facebook friends finding out about their illness through the fact that they liked the page.

sounds interesting.

You can call it Secretum?

There is a private FB bipolar site called Bipolar Closed Group. It is fairly active.

ACMI American Coalition for the Mentally Ill
ICMI International Coalition for the Mentally Ill
IMIC International Mental Illness Cooperative
MIAG Mental Illness Awareness Group
IAMI International Alliance of the Mentally Ill

Is the idea we would make a new fb account and stay anonymous?

hmm you have a point there. those that wish not to reveal their illness would shy away from such a group on their personal fb account for fear of being outed. I wonder if there is a way to not allow people to see that you joined or liked a group

I'm sure there is probably a way to do that. Maybe that's what Anne is talking about the private group.

Aren't you supposed to be on your date tonight miner? Did you cancel cuz all the stuff going on?

I run a private group on FB for nurses with mood disorders. If you want your group to stay "off the grid" (and out of other peoples' newsfeeds), it's best to choose the 'private' option rather than 'closed'. JMO.

I would be interested in such an idea- especially if it could be private or closed. I (like many of us) do not allow many to know of my illness.

I put my diagnosis right on my 'about me' section of my profile. I told people that they can either laugh with me or leave me alone. it seemed to have worked pretty good.

That's cool Dan, I'm not there yet with letting people know my dx. The few people here who've I befriended on fb, know this about me and have been very cool about not posting something on my page like, "So how are your bipolar symptoms today?" or, "So have you calmed down from that hypomanic episode where you were smoking, drinking and terribly horny yet?" Lol...

good idea