Depression Support Group
Depression is a real and debilitating condition that is often misunderstood by family and friends. Its meaning can range from a prolonged period of sadness to an actual mental illness with specific symptoms. Find and share experiences with others who are going through the same struggles.
Chat rooms and message boards have been available to the public domain for at least 14 years now (maybe more, but I'm thinking '95ish when it really took off.)
I wonder how many hours of peoples lives have been spent arguing with strangers who say things like:
"I am leaving this site and never posting here again"
I imagine the people who write these posts hitting the "post" button then sitting and waiting to see who says what. They get the post they are looking for, the one that hits that nerve that delivers the pain they crave. Then they reply, even though they said they were leaving and never posting again.
This is usually the end game of a scenario that started out as an earnest plea for help. Ridiculous things are said, well meaning people try to offer advice which is ignored. Others get frustrated and start making less than helpful posts. Cleverly masked insults, blatantly rude instructions, there is usually one level headed person who threatens to report the attention seeker and usually follows through.
The posting goes back and forth. The attention seeker getting exactly what they are looking for, everyone else doing everything from offering loving advice to telling the attention seeker to go to hell.
On sites that have themes other than self-help, I wouldn't be concerned. People love drama, and there is nothing like the live action, anonymous, "guilty pleasure" drama of a chat room/message board. I have to be honest and admit I have spent more than my fair share of hours in these situations playing every role (except the attention seeker, "but for the grace of God"). I found DS a few days ago and have been in and out of a few groups that I relate to. For those of you who don't know, in the alcoholism group there is a drama unfolding that is EXACTLY the same as the one here. I read in this group that similar situations have happened in the past. In a discussion forum such as this, I am wondering why so much energy is given to these attention seeker types.
I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, and if you read this and feel insulted, please don't be, I'm not intending to be critical. Instead, I just wonder if there's a way we, as people who are seeking to heal ourselves and grow emotionally and spiritually, kind find a "treatment" for this phenomenon. I read someone write "we should all collectively hit the ignore button." This was way into the drama and I wonder why it didn't happen sooner. The reality is that all anyone has to do to make a vicious poster go away is simply don't read what they write. Don't try to help, don't threaten (unless it's about reporting to someone who can actually block the user), don't insult, don't buy into it. Once it has been collectively determined that the person is seeking attention, ignore them.
And I wonder how many posts like mine have been written...
I wonder how many hours of peoples lives have been spent arguing with strangers who say things like:
"I am leaving this site and never posting here again"
I imagine the people who write these posts hitting the "post" button then sitting and waiting to see who says what. They get the post they are looking for, the one that hits that nerve that delivers the pain they crave. Then they reply, even though they said they were leaving and never posting again.
This is usually the end game of a scenario that started out as an earnest plea for help. Ridiculous things are said, well meaning people try to offer advice which is ignored. Others get frustrated and start making less than helpful posts. Cleverly masked insults, blatantly rude instructions, there is usually one level headed person who threatens to report the attention seeker and usually follows through.
The posting goes back and forth. The attention seeker getting exactly what they are looking for, everyone else doing everything from offering loving advice to telling the attention seeker to go to hell.
On sites that have themes other than self-help, I wouldn't be concerned. People love drama, and there is nothing like the live action, anonymous, "guilty pleasure" drama of a chat room/message board. I have to be honest and admit I have spent more than my fair share of hours in these situations playing every role (except the attention seeker, "but for the grace of God"). I found DS a few days ago and have been in and out of a few groups that I relate to. For those of you who don't know, in the alcoholism group there is a drama unfolding that is EXACTLY the same as the one here. I read in this group that similar situations have happened in the past. In a discussion forum such as this, I am wondering why so much energy is given to these attention seeker types.
I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, and if you read this and feel insulted, please don't be, I'm not intending to be critical. Instead, I just wonder if there's a way we, as people who are seeking to heal ourselves and grow emotionally and spiritually, kind find a "treatment" for this phenomenon. I read someone write "we should all collectively hit the ignore button." This was way into the drama and I wonder why it didn't happen sooner. The reality is that all anyone has to do to make a vicious poster go away is simply don't read what they write. Don't try to help, don't threaten (unless it's about reporting to someone who can actually block the user), don't insult, don't buy into it. Once it has been collectively determined that the person is seeking attention, ignore them.
And I wonder how many posts like mine have been written...
We all have our own personal tragedies and horrors that we must conquer, and this is a place for people to find others just like them so that they don't have to make this journey alone. Again, I think that this is a very good post, and I do hope that the right people see it.
I agree with you that there will always be drama queens, I guess what I'm attempting is to plant a seed in the "online self-help community" to acknowledge this as a phenomenon and develop a mechanism for it. Kind of like how (most) everyone knows that writing in caps is equivalent to shouting.
Of course, if I take my own suggestion, I will never have to read the drama queen posts again.