Dear Quercus~
I feel like … just brought stress and worry with me. And brought you all down.
OK, this is a serious topic that should be addresses, not just for you Quercus, but for an awful lot of people here who worry about that, so please bear with me.
The whole point of this Forum is for people to help each other. We are not doctors, just people that have mental health problems – often serious ones.
So how can one get help, or help another here? The only way we have is to tell our experiences – both good and bad, and we have to do it in sufficient detail so that others can see similarities with their own problems.
It is no use just saying all the good stuff, the bad stuff has to be there too. When somebody struggles we relate and see ourselves, when someone gets though the bad stuff we all win.
Relating to someone else’s plight, learning from it, and also trying to help, are the things we’ve got - together with empathy and care.
There are many safeguards.
Most people have enough common sense not to write explicit material that they know will trigger others, and tone things down so the idea gets across without too much detail.
If something does slip though then software and human moderators weed it out. In the last analysis if something got though all that then everyone here has the ability to report a post.
So coming back to you Quercus, you are helping by putting up your story and by using your experiences in other threads to help. It is in fact necessary that you – and others do exactly that.
It is true I, or anyone, can be adversely affected by things, both here in the Forum, or out in real life. It is also true that one cannot always predict what will do it – I was listening to a Pentatonix song and had to stop.
Being affected, learning how to cope, how to deal with our conditions and life is a big reason why I and others are all here in these controlled safe supportive conditions.
Please don't worry, just keep going as you are
Croix (sorry for the long post, I wanted to make it very clear - anyway what did you expect from a walrus)