[jgm2013]

I have a question regarding 3 Facebook support groups I've joined. I have PTSD, DID, BiPolar and panic w/agoraphobia. I don't have a support system other than my Psychiatrist, Therapist and one friend who I can trust.
One of these groups is a closed group and the other 2 have been changed to "secret" status. The same person admins all of the groups.
At times, this admin has stated she has 30 yrs experience as a psychologist, but then another time she said "physiologist". She has also written out DID as "dis associative identity disorder" and PTSD as "post dramatic stress disorder".
My question is, should I trust my gut that is telling me to be wary of this lady and her Facebook groups? I need support, but not if it is coming from someone who is misrepresenting herself, her education, etc.
Thanks !

[CANDC]

What about talking with your t or pdoc? Maybe they have a professional opinion.
I am seeing yellow flags when someone makes those kind of mistakes.
But are you being helped by it and is it free or is it a paid group where you feel things are not going right and you have to pay in which case you may want to ask if you are getting a good value for your money?
The other thing is why join more than one group by one person? Does that really give you more support or should you diversify. You should be able to look her credentials up online.
Have you tried the [URL="forums.psychcentral.com"]/URL]
There are many people that find similar people facing similar challenges.

[vonmoxie]

"Post Dramatic"?

Oh my.

I would say, trust your gut (and certainly, as CANDC suggests, verify credentials..). That type of careless error doesn't seem to me to be indicative of a deep and abiding concern about what should be important topics to someone in the field (of psychology that is.. not physiology.. oi vey..), topics that should be far more well known to them.

I'd be concerned also, about Facebook as being a good place to discuss such topics, due to their frequently changing the way in which allow individuals to manage various aspects of their own personal information. Something that appears to be private one day they decide will be open information the next, and even if you're reading all their terms and conditions updates it becomes quite complicated managing one's privacy settings in a manner that actually maintains one's privacy. For instance, it used to be that you could choose to have your profile not be searchable to the general public by your name, but they very recently obliterated that capability entirely, tossing the privacy of any who might have been depending on that capability (people with stalkers, etc.) into the wind. I use it very sparingly at this point, only to keep in messaging contact with a few close friends, but even so I find the extra part time job of managing their privacy settings to be an ineffective use of my time, to say the least. With all their photo tagging, and insistence on people using real names and providing phone numbers, I think there's some significant potential for complications there.

In my opinion it's far better and safer to discuss sensitive topics on a site where anonymity is actually encouraged, such as here on PsychCentral. It's quite an extensive and helpful community.

[Wren_]

with the word confusions ... I wondered if that was an autocorrect issue on a phone or other device; I know mine comes up with some terrible results that I don't always catch - it might be worth asking her about them if you can

I wondered about looking up her credentials as well; do you have enough details that you can check? or even ask her where you can find out more because you are concerned and want to practice self care in finding out more

[-jimi-]

I ran into a fake therapist online once, long long ago on another site. She really seemed to get a kick out of being "worshiped" and a lot of attention around her since everyone wanted "free therapy".

She made similar mistakes, actually very similar! (I hope it's not HER, lol!) If asked about her history as a therapist it became better every time. At first she had just been hired but at the end she had in the past owned her own clinic that was of course very popular.

If people need to fake stuff they should at least learn how to spell it...

[jgm2013]

jimi--- you have me wondering now. You can tell she enjoys being told how wonderful she is! In the month or so that I've been on those pages, she has made a big issue of "letting go" her assistant admins. She will "forge on" by herself because she is so "dedicated" to poor suffering souls. lol
She has different pages for different issues, which I do find confusing also. Like one is for "General Mental health" conversations, one is for people dealing with Panic Attacks, and one is for people with history of child sexual/ritual abuse.
And yes, someone above mentioned profile pics, and other identifying info, and she *does* ask for that which I found confusing.
I'm getting out of those pages and just asking for support from here. I definitely feel safer with the anonymity here @PC.
Thanks again to all of you who responded, I do appreciate it !!

[ChipperMonkey]

I'd stick with anonymous forums like this one. There are a number of other ones out there that you can join as well. I don't think it is worth sacrificing your privacy in order to join a facebook group. Facebook has been hacked over and over and over again, and all it takes is one mistake on your part in posting or in your settings for your disorders to become public knowledge. Heck, facebook is constantly changing their own settings, and you'd have to be SUPER diligent that everything remained private in order to ensure that nothing leaked out, but even so, that's no guarantee. And no, its not a good idea for your disorders to be out there, because even if you aren't ashamed, the world can be a very cruel place and future employers may not hire you if they see you have a number of mental disorders. (That's not exactly a legal reason to not hire someone, but of course, they'd just tell you that you weren't a good fit or whatever.)

[CANDC]

Agreed that having your info out there can work against you. JGM, besides the forums there are also chats where you can get to know people better. The moderators make it a safe and comfortable place to visit. There are many, but I happened to notice the Bipolar Support Chat happens on Friday nights from 8pm-9pm EST on AUgust 15th.
If you are want to familiarize with the chat rooms and get comfortable ahead of time you can log into chat anytime - the Lobby is usually a good place to start to learn how to post but whichever room has people in it is good too. the CHAT login is right below BLOG and NEWS in the middle top of this page.
There is so much here at PC I am still discovering.

[kiwi33]

Jgm2013, I would be very wary about using FB as a support network.

FB is not moderated in any meaningful way. As others have pointed out, the alleged "admin" of the FB forums sounds very dubious to me (confusing "psychologist" and "physiologist" and thinking that PTSD is "post dramatic stress disorder" are not mistakes which a genuine mental health professional would make).

I suggest that you stay here and/or on other mental health support forums which are closely watched by their admin/mod staff team members.

[ifst5]

I wouldn't trust Facebook for anything mental health related...firstly it's not anonymous and secondly it's about as secure as a leaky cauldron. Stick with somewhere that's properly moderated/accredited. Facebook is better for the more nondescript social groups...

[gma45]

I would trust your gut!

[amandalouise]

jgm2013
from your original post....

I have a question regarding 3 Facebook support groups I've joined. I have PTSD, DID, BiPolar and panic w/agoraphobia. I don't have a support system other than my Psychiatrist, Therapist and one friend who I can trust.
One of these groups is a closed group and the other 2 have been changed to "secret" status. The same person admins all of the groups.
At times, this admin has stated she has 30 yrs experience as a psychologist, but then another time she said "physiologist". She has also written out DID as "dis associative identity disorder" and PTSD as "post dramatic stress disorder".
My question is, should I trust my gut that is telling me to be wary of this lady and her Facebook groups? I need support, but not if it is coming from someone who is misrepresenting herself, her education, etc.
Thanks !

..........

Im sorry but we can not tell you what to do, thats not what we do here. we can tell you things like what we would find on the internet if we googled parts of your post/symptoms/....we can tell you if the same situaiton has happened to us, we can tell you what our own treatment providers have us doing...but telling you whether you should follow your gut or not is not something we can do, doing so could possibly be telling you to do something that your treatment providers may be having you do something completely different... the thing is we can only go by what the post says not what else may not be in the posts...example I know someone who feels others are faking, doing wrong to them and others on the internet experiences psychosis/delusions and their experience that is similar to yours was just their delusion. not saying you are just that this one person I know is. so telling her to follow her gut meant dropping out of a therapist suggested group that was just fine, run by a perfectly find well known psychiatrist. my point is we really cant tell you what to do without possibly doing you harm so this website doesnt allow us to do that.....

what I can tell you is that no matter where you go on the internet...facebook, twitter, instagram, psychcentral or other places with mental health forums. it is a possibility that there are people who are what they say they are, and people that are not what they say they are. the internet is a situaiton where people can be anyway they want to be, males can be females, adults can pose as children searching for other children, treatment providers can pose as non treatment providers, or the other way around people can post exactly who and how they are.

only you and ytour treatment providers can decide what to do when encountering people who you think are fake whether they are treatment providers or not.

what else I can tell you is that here on psych central whether we get a gut feeling that someone is a fake or real the rules of the site is that we have to post as if everyone on this site is what and who they post in other wards all postings must be supportive. we do have options here on Psych central when we come across posts /members we are having trouble with....we can pm a moderator who will look at the offending post and decide whether that post goes against the rules of the site, and we have an ignore feature where ones you put someones name on ignore you wont see their posts. you will see a statement in that spot saying this person is on your ignore list do you want to remove them from the ignore list (meaning do you want to go back to seeing them and what they post...)

outside of psychcentral some places do have this feature and others do not.

but again only you can decide what to do given what ever tools or lack there off.

[Fuzzybear]

Definitely trust your gut...