Family & Friends of Bipolar Support Group

Isn't that what we do here anyway??............................lol.........................but good idea I am all for it!

gain a mental health diagnosis ... bobs your uncle, fannies your aunt and the worlds your oyster :)

No, when we rant in here, we are told to go join the Breakup/Divorce group...

Dealing - what about our cool kid new group?

There's something to be said about a good healthy rant. Getting it out of the system can prevent it from clattering about inside your body & head like free radicals causing all sorts of problems from migraines to indigestion. If you can make this happen somehow (I'm relatively new & have no clue as to who does this)I think it woulf prove useful.

AFter the initial meltdown on the beeper board the other morning a few of us came over here to try to make amends and were for the most part treated with respect. Then I happen to see smart ass posts about some us bashing and making jokes about the normies on oour own board, come over here and see the same person(s) bashing us and making jokes about us.

You don't get to have it both ways. I understand the need to rant and let off tension and consider it your right to do so on your own board. Just please give us the same consideration then on our board.


Love and Peace
Raven

I really don't know what you are talking about SB. There is nothing in this thread that is remotely disrespectful to people with BP.

I absolutely seriously would like to have extra categories like they have on the BP board. You've got a Crisis Center. You've got a place for Off Topic Posts. You have a place to vent.

If this board had those, then the main F&F board could be used to better for help and understanding.

I think it's highly unlikely that will happen. It was hard going to get the crisis centre set up..I had to push VERY hard.

Also with 1,200 members splitting the board can kill a community this small. BP has 16,000 members and some of the categories have little activity.

Re the comment about venting, I suppose that is a reference to my reminder some time back about the purpose of the community.

It was for all but perhaps focussed on one person who had been deserted by their spouse and in their words "decided" that they must be bipolar. There was also a lot of disinformation about the causes of bipolar, again because this person had "decided" from his general life observations. Only when presented with statistical analysis did they grudgingly concede they might be wrong.

The whole tone of the board has been at times very negative in the past and has caused people genuinely looking for support, either for themselves (which is quite legitimate) or their friends/family members to either go elsewhere or not participate. I know this because I have recieved several private messages to that effect when I started to try and post mainly information on medications, something which the afore mentioned contingent were of course unable to provide (although they did throw in a few erroneous and dangerous suggestions).

I hope that clarifies matters.

I think that, like the BP board, we should have a crisis category on ours, i have known a few people (myself included) who at times have felt truely low and at a critical point. Please could this be considered.

it's worth noting the reasons for a crisis board in BP was for two reasons...

1. the BP board moves really fast, stuff goes off the page in a few hours, rather than weeks here. Having a seperate area means those posts don't get lost.

2. the crisis board there is usually for people who are seriously considering suicide, self harm or harming someone else - if these posts went on the main board they would trigger some and that is another reason why I asked for a seperate area.

I mentioned I needed to push hard. I was able to push this through finally after we had 3 suicide attempts (as in police breaking down doors and dragging unconcious people out of houses) in one week. That was the moment I was able get the leverage I needed.

You will need to put in a feedback form but I think the chances that it will be done are extremely slim and I don't think it would make the situation here any easier.

If you feel you are in crisis, ie suicidal then the Depression crisis board might be most appropriate. The bipolar one is specifically for bipolar issues and the advice there is within that context. If however, you are being told by Satan to kill your neightbour, the BP crisis board Please Read posting would be worth reading.

it's probably also worth mentioning that there have been something like 20 crisis posts in a week in BP. I suspect the volume here would be very much lower, another reason why it is probably not going to be a priority for DS.