do you worry someone irl will find you on PC?

That's a good point about the user name, mine is unque to here also, I don't use it elsewhere. I have no social media accounts although I'm occasionally thinking about getting a Twitter account just to follow certain people I've heard about.

I could care less tbh

I’m a rather boring person. No one cares to bother looking for me online.

I announced myself as Bipolar on Facebook and no one gave a rats a*% a few people have Bipolar that I didn’t know about which was a surprise. One is fine talking and posting mental health stuff on line openly, the other chooses to keep communication in a private manner due to her job.

I certainly do think if there is a CPS case or something like , then a person needs to keep all that off the internet , CPS can check out personal info on line. But not everyone knows that.

Anyone reading this .. I’m having chicken for dinner LMAO !

I like twitter for following the latest news on various subjects. But I don't have any identifying information on my account, even using an anonymous email to set it up and never log in through my phone but only through a vpn. and I don't tweet about mental health or politics, just one one or two subjects and not all that often. When i get manic I tend to overshare and things can snowball quickly so I just put limits down to keep my life simple.

The long answer is no.

I seriously doubt anyone would ever look for me. But no, I don’t care.

Nope I don’t worry. Might be a different story if I was still working.

I deleted my participation on social media for the most part. As for forums, only maybe my husband or sister would recognize me. That's fine because I have never and will never write anything that I wouldn't want them to see.

I have a WordPress blog that many in my family know about. Obviously, I'm not completely free to write anything there, but I've written some eye openers. If they saw them, it's for the best.

I vent here a lot. I worry more about people who might be hurt by what I say or angry about what I reveal here than I do about people finding out about my BP2 diagnosis or substance abuse problems.

This is also a concern for me but I can't be thinking all the time of who I might hurt by what I write. Otherwise I wouldn't write anything or participate on this board. It's like being afraid to walk lest one might step on an insect. That's also a kind of huge over self-importance.

I don't think there is really anymore the pure idea of anonymous posting where one sets up an account with an anonymous email and uses vpn all the time so no one knows who you are first of all. Then there are also things like prying neighbors or whatnot to contend with, if you have them in your life. You have to make a judgement that it isn't your fault that they are reading this as you have taken all effort to anonymize yourself.

The problem is any pattern recognition of text can identify many writers, who have their own distinctive style. My guess is this could be fairly far advanced if people are looking for certain kinds of criminals and their communications.

It's a little bit dystopian to figure out that there is no such thing as truly anonymous posting for certain people, even if they don't write about any specifics in their life.

I hope this makes sense!

Makes sense.

I tend to run on the paranoid side -- let's call it cautious. But I don't worry too much about anyone figuring me out. It seems quite unlikely as I don't know many people really, and very few of those few even know my dx, so why would they look?

I also do not participate in social media.

I would NEVER include highly identifying information. No way. I think it would be foolish and short-sighted. And I value my privacy WAY too much for that. I had a stalker (major scary creeper) many years ago (pre-internet). If you've never had that experience... trust me, it can be a real eye-opener.

I have aked my t to check out my posts ... I think they show the real me better than I do in person ...

I don't think anyone else would care ....

if anyone is worried , maybe you should be ... several years ago on a lark I thought I would see how much info I could dig up on just a random person ... they used the same user name on multiple sites ... a quick search saw the same name (as a nick name) in a newspaper ... in less than 5 minutes the info was unbelieveable ... I wanted to tell them so they could better cover there tracks ... but I was afraid it would push there paranoia over the limit ... needless to say ... there is no privacy on the internet ....

for me I have no quams in whoever wants me , can just have me ... no sense iqnoring the facts ... if you post "anywhere" ... you are out there for the world to see ....

is secretey .... Tigger ...

No, not at this point.

I’m not going back to my old job. I won’t be famous any time soon. And I just don’t care anymore about what other people irl think.

My husband and daughter could but they haven’t. And I can’t erase all the things I wrote so the point is moot anyway.

Innerzone, I'm sorry to hear you were stalked. I think people who do that probably are mostly mentally ill but they can also be very dangerous. How did you get away from them? Did they eventually just lose interest?

I live an inherently boring life now and I like it that way but even that is not a protection.

Tigger, i also have anxiety and depression together a lot and it truly is a kind of hell. I also agree that once you post something it is out there for the world to see. But it is possible to make it harder to identify. It's like taking precautions against catching the flu. Sure it is going around but you can also get vaccinated and stay away from sick people.

certainly everyone can just type their username into google and see what comes back.

Thanks. It was very unsettling. I moved a couple thousand miles away (though it wasn't just to get away -- I was hypomanic and yet another giant move just seemed like a good idea, lol).

I hope nobody finds me on here. My family does not go on any forums like this, so I am not very worried. I do wonder about old co-workers and friends sometimes, although they never told me that they go on the site. I am quite private and choose who I share what with. I use this as a place where I can reveal certain things that I do not want to talk about with others in my life.

I don't think I am able to be identified easily, unless maybe my pdoc saw my posts and thought about me, but that might be a long shot. I am not on Facebook, instagram, or any other social media. I just go on youtube. Social media is way triggering for me, plus I have no reason to share my life with the world or feel the need to get wrapped up in what others are doing.