Hello, how "community" is this community?

[RustCollector]

Hi, long time internet user here (about 30 years now) and long time mental health problem ... receiver lol....?! I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share their opinions on this community? Loneliness has been a huge struggle for me especially since becoming a parent. I have frequented different places online over the years, from 90s chat rooms (lol!), to bulletin boards, to social media, to discord.

Is this place mostly advice and suggestions/ share difficulty and receive peer support? Do you feel you've noticed regulars and gotten to know people in anyway?

I struggle these days with reading about other people struggling conversely I also get so engrossed in trying to help people, It's made my loneliness kinda compounded.

To express a little more about myself: high anxiety since a kid, depression since teenage, ptsd at 17 without realising it, agoraphobia for a year or two, heavily medicated for about 10 years, treaded water with emotional numbness for a while, covid hit with a two year old and a new born, adhd diagnosis a few years ago, new round of ptsd around protecting my kids which then latched on hard to eco anxiety, then was made redundant but got a new job last May. And here I am now. Pretty worn out, paying for weekly DBT sessions which have been good.

[Dolphin14]

Welcome to this very supportive community.

If you scroll around and read the posts and replies you can get a picture of what happens here.

This place has been a big part of my healing journey.

Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you find the site helpful

❤️🐬

[RustCollector in reply to Dolphin14]

thanks, I guess I will peek into some more chats people have started, I do find myself experiencing a little turbulence when I read some posts but I'll keep peeking!

[Dolphin14 in reply to RustCollector]

That does become a problem for many of us. At times we do take breaks to care for ourselves.

There are some light hearted posts and some educational ones as well. Maybe start with some of those so you can see some of the different exchanges?