[growlycat]

Does anyone have links to other online support forums besides PC that deal with mental health issues? Any that you particularly like?
I know reddit has a few. Any others?

Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

Reddit was creepy. Especially when people who claimed to be therapists would chime in on a discussion. I'm sure there are many on here as well, but they don't troll you.

[88Butterfly88]

I used to use some other mental health forums but I wouldn't recommend any of them, there was more bad than good on them. There's an autism forum I use and like but I don't think that applies to you.

[stopdog]

Forums | The PsychCafe Is one - but I found them to be fairly closed minded and oddly cliquey

[DP_2017]

Originally Posted by Nemo1934

Reddit was creepy. Especially when people who claimed to be therapists would chime in on a discussion. I'm sure there are many on here as well, but they don't troll you.

Ya, I enjoy some parts of reddit but I had a terrible experience there so I'm not a big fan anymore

If you are interested in addiction and recovery, the forum on the website Sober Recovery. I was on there a lot for years in the past and it greatly contributed to my recovery. It is definitely the most supportive support forums I have tried so far, also very well-moderated. Can be sad though, so many relapse/failure stories all the time. I also met who became a very dear friend there.

[88Butterfly88]

Didn't put this in my first post because it's technically not a mental health forum but if anyone is LGBT there is a good forum for that and a lot of the people there also have mental health issues.

LGBT Chat & Forums

[Rive1976]

Reddit has been helpful for me but its not nearly as active as here.

[growlycat]

Having options is a good thing so I appreciate the scope of suggestions as I’m sure if they don’t apply to me at least they will help someone else

[SummerTime12]

There is an eating disorder forum that I’ve been using for like 6 years now where people are extremely supportive, but since it is not technically recovery oriented I won’t post it publicly, but if you are interested let me know and I’ll pm it to you. The mental health subforums there are full of caring and supportive people and I use it mostly just for that now that I’m in recovery.

[NP_Complete]

Suicide Forum has some message boards and chat.

[BonnieJean]

Widowed Village has a lot of forums for various ages, types of loss, etc.

[DP_2017]

Not forums but there are MANY good Facebook groups out there, especially for mental health.

Some are filled with annoying rules and lots of freaks hitting on users but overall I've had good luck with the groups

[Ididitmyway]

Psychforums

They have psychotherapy forum, but not as nearly as diverse and sophisticated in terms of users' experiences as this one. They also have anti-psychiatry forum, but it's mostly about psych drugs, not talk therapy and they are kind of clique.

[koru_kiwi]

pandora's aquarium is for sexual abuse survivors with a good selection of sub forums on it. also, it's a private forum that you need to request access too.

Forums - Pandora's Aquarium

[Ididitmyway]

YesICan is a wonderful resource for survivors of all kinds of childhood abuse (sexual, physical, emotional). They don't operate as a public forum. They only have private chat rooms facilitated and moderated by trained volunteers, so they really take the issues of safety very seriously. You can also use their chat rooms for support if you are currently in the abusive situation and it's difficult for you to break away from the abuser. That, I think, is the main reason why they take safety and privacy so seriously. Because some people can really put themselves in danger if the abuser is snooping on their online activities. They don't discuss psychotherapy as a topic. It gets brought up in conversations, but it's not a separate category for discussions. But for all the issues I described above, they are an amazing resource.

[seeker33]

I've been to this one a few times and it seems nice and supportive My PTSD Forum
However I usually just stay here.
I've tried a few fb groups but they have some annoying rules and people complain about getting triggered by everything all the time. Then, the rules for writing get even stricter until it's very difficult to actually say anything. I haven't been active in them myself, but I was reading posts and reactions of others and I got annoyed by it.

Then there was one group with slightly more open rules, but people there were obsessed by complaining and only writing about the negative stuff. Then everyone else would come and validate. Which is absolutely OK and I understand the need for that. People with CPTSD do need to vent and they do need validation. However, there was absolutely NO intention to talk about coping skills and tools. Reading that forum was rather depressing. Once I posted a link to yoga for PTSD. It got deleted because there was an option to subscribe to a yoga journal on that site. The article in my link was absolutely free, no subscription or anything needed. I didn't even notice there's a subscription to that site. However my post was deleted almost immediately. I messaged the moderator and explained it was for free but he kept saying he won't tolerate any links to paid services in his group. I tried to explain that my intention was simply to share something helpful, that could actually help people because I felt the group only focuses on constant crying and complaining. I told the moderator I'd be interested if the group members also posted more healing/solution based posts. His reply was again, that my link was to a paid website and it doesn't matter you can read it for free, there's an option for subscription which is unacceptable!

I got angry and I told him I was leaving the group because I obviously can't even recommend books (you have to buy them or you have to pay library membership). I can't recommend walking in nature because you have to buy shoes for that. He didn't respond to that anymore and I left.

Since then, i only come here.

[sarahsweets]

ADD Forums - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Support and Information Resources Community - Powered by vBulletin

[Lemoncake]

I also post on the British site Mumsnet, despite not having kids. They have a wide range of sections. I've linked below but they did have a security breech recently.

Mental health

[Taylor27]

Originally Posted by SummerTime12

There is an eating disorder forum that I’ve been using for like 6 years now where people are extremely supportive, but since it is not technically recovery oriented I won’t post it publicly, but if you are interested let me know and I’ll pm it to you. The mental health subforums there are full of caring and supportive people and I use it mostly just for that now that I’m in recovery.

Can you pm me the website to the eating disorder forum please. I used to belong to fishy.org many years ago i liked the support. It's been hard to find a good place for support. I suffer from bulimia, thanks you can pm me

[susannahsays]

@seeker33

Personally, I find the responses on the MyPTSD forum to sometimes be very unsupportive and confrontational. It is not like here at all. People, including mods, don't hesitate to rebuke posters for feeling/thinking the "wrong" way, and it doesn't matter if you specifically ask for a specific kind of support or not. This has happened to me, and I have seen it happen to others. I mostly stay off it, but I've pretty much decided that I won't create posts there myself anymore, but will offer support to others since there is sometimes a lack of empathy in responses. Sometimes here at PC, I think we maybe are a little extreme in our efforts to not come across as judgemental, but many users on the MyPTSD forum take it to the other extreme.

One good thing about MyPTSD is that you can look at the posts and even comment without creating an account. That's what I did at first, and then when I eventually signed up, I used the same username I had used for my non-account comments, and they somehow carried over into my new account.

I second koru_kiwis recommendation of pandy's. C uses that site and has found it very helpful. You can't see most of it without an account, and some sections are restricted until you have made a certain number of posts, or based on gender identity.

C and I get on the therapy/talktherapy and bpd subreddits sometimes. I don't have bpd, but the posts are often relatable anyway. And the relationship subreddit - everything is all sorts of ****ed up over there! People tend to offer horrible advice in the therapy ones, imo. They all think therapy is magic and that therapists **** glitter or something. I post under my usual name or C's name to try to give more balanced advice when I can. I'm not bothered that there are therapists who sometimes post there. I am occasionally disturbed by the way a handful of eccentric therapists have claimed to practice and how dumb/arrogant/cruel they are, but most of them seem pretty generic. Of course, the ones on Reddit are usually active on the psychotherapy sub (which is exclusively for clinicians, though anyone can view it), so there is no doubt an element of posturing involved in responses. Who knows how these therapists actually practice in person. The ones who seem fine could be horrible in real life. You never know.

[BudFox]

Originally Posted by stopdog

Forums | The PsychCafe Is one - but I found them to be fairly closed minded and oddly cliquey

I was a member earlier in my therapy "career". I got some of the most irrational and condescending lectures there from professional therapy clients about how I was doing therapy all wrong.

Later I came back and started posting more provocative and annoying things, and was thrown out by the controlling and vindictive moderator.

Good times, good times...

[DP_2017]

Originally Posted by susannahsays

@seeker33

Personally, I find the responses on the MyPTSD forum to sometimes be very unsupportive and confrontational. It is not like here at all. People, including mods, don't hesitate to rebuke posters for feeling/thinking the "wrong" way, and it doesn't matter if you specifically ask for a specific kind of support or not. This has happened to me, and I have seen it happen to others. I mostly stay off it, but I've pretty much decided that I won't create posts there myself anymore, but will offer support to others since there is sometimes a lack of empathy in responses. Sometimes here at PC, I think we maybe are a little extreme in our efforts to not come across as judgemental, but many users on the MyPTSD forum take it to the other extreme.

One good thing about MyPTSD is that you can look at the posts and even comment without creating an account. That's what I did at first, and then when I eventually signed up, I used the same username I had used for my non-account comments, and they somehow carried over into my new account.

I second koru_kiwis recommendation of pandy's. C uses that site and has found it very helpful. You can't see most of it without an account, and some sections are restricted until you have made a certain number of posts, or based on gender identity.

C and I get on the therapy/talktherapy and bpd subreddits sometimes. I don't have bpd, but the posts are often relatable anyway. And the relationship subreddit - everything is all sorts of ****ed up over there! People tend to offer horrible advice in the therapy ones, imo. They all think therapy is magic and that therapists **** glitter or something. I post under my usual name or C's name to try to give more balanced advice when I can. I'm not bothered that there are therapists who sometimes post there. I am occasionally disturbed by the way a handful of eccentric therapists have claimed to practice and how dumb/arrogant/cruel they are, but most of them seem pretty generic. Of course, the ones on Reddit are usually active on the psychotherapy sub (which is exclusively for clinicians, though anyone can view it), so there is no doubt an element of posturing involved in responses. Who knows how these therapists actually practice in person. The ones who seem fine could be horrible in real life. You never know.

yes i got banned from there last year... because i didn't have a official CPTSD diagnosis. so i didnt "understand" them

[seeker33]

Oh I'm not so familiar with myptsd forum. I've only been there a few times so I didn't get a proper longer term experience. Thanks for sharing, susannah and DP.

I signed up for the myPTSD forum but shortly found it was not safe for me for the reasons stated. Someone part of moderation or the owner?, I forget, was often aggressive toward people saying that are not allowed to say they have PTSD because they "don't really have it".

Thought I'd must mention there are other forums on this site like trauma, dissociation, depression. I've tried to use them but they aren't very active at all and it makes me uncomfortable to post there. There is also that new Haven support place. I've never tried it but could be something to look into.