Asking for help

People come to Psych Central for many reasons. DocJohn tells us:

The purpose of the Forums at Psych Central is simple -- it's a small community devoted to support for mental health and relationship issues. In that vein, you should be civil and treat others as you expect to be treated here.

Psych Central no longer is a small community. New members may flounder awhile as they acclimate themselves to finding and using the many resources here. Everyone at some point confronts the issue of how to get the help they seek. Ongoing threads address some of the issues of seeking and receiving help.

This thread assembles some articles on asking for help, not solely in the context of this site:

http://drdeborahserani.blogspot.com/...-for-help.html
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archive...king-for-help/
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...6/how-ask-help
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...he-way-and-why
http://www.ehow.com/how_2105060_ask-help.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-r..._b_814796.html
http://mentalhealth.tulane.edu/SecIb.htm
http://www.valueoptions.com/suicide_...lth%20Help.htm

Whether these articles are helping may depend on the individual. There is more that one continuum to consider here. How much information about a concern should the asker disclose? Is the asker's concern general or specific? Has the asker disclosed information about dealing with a concern he/she already knows about? Has the asker stated whether he/she has a treatment team?

This information is helpful to me when considering whether I may be able to support this person. I am sure in a community of this size there are many other views.