Would you join a social networking site for people with mental health issues?

Facebook is already such a place. Look at all the egotists and narcissists that are already on there.

Seriously – I wouldn’t join yet another site claiming to be for a particular population. THere is a proliferation of these sites, and then tend to blossom and die quickly. In many cases, there is a core group of people that participate and everyone else goes silent.

By the way, the borntoconnet server is down.

I blame Stephen Fry. He’s killed the Borntoconnect site.

I think if it’s well moderated it could be a good resource. I didn’t look at who is behind the site. Hopefully it will be a reputable organisation.

I think if I self identified as having a mental health issue, I probably would (unless socialization was one of the big issues). I do understand @elbanditoroso‘s concern about longevity of such sites, that can be devastating for someone dependent on such a site for support.

I would yes. I think for some who cannot even get out of the house online help is a great thing. I cannot comment too much since I can’t open that link for some reason.

@Bellatrix: What do you mean about Stephen Fry? Did he start this website and then abandon it? I was not able to find anything about this connection with a Google Search.

@bookish1, he tweeted the link. I went to it and it was live. Then…. gone. Perhaps too many people logged onto it?

Stephen Fry has over 100,000 followers on Twitter. I think it Fried ( pun intended ) the website.

@LornaLove, that’s a good point about people who are unable to leave the house.

I thought that was this. My therapist makes me come here….

I already have. Around here we call it “work”.

I would go to a mental health web site if I needed to meet other people in the same condition. Who were interested in learning how to go about repairing any health issues Who used cognitive therapy and wasn’t interested in making lots of money. Don’t think there are any around. let me know if you find one.

Nah. That’d be crazy.

If they had been around when I was struggling for depression, I would have joined.

I doubt it, some people with mental illnesses can be challenging in social situations.

I remember stumbling on a newsgroup for people with multiple personalities (disassociative identity disorder) and I kinda lurked on it for gawker’s sake. It was amazing seeing these people type like little kids and their different personalities and stuff. It kind of put me off groups like that, because I thought it was encouraging people to act out and possibly regress in their therapy.

I don’t think I’d ever seriously join a group unless it was totally anonymous. I wouldn’t want people from work or students finding that stuff about me.

It appears I already have by joining this site.

Sure I would if I had mental illness and felt it would help me.

If I needed a support group and could find one online, I would join.

I would join a support network online but I wouldn’t join one that uses the word “dating” on the front page.

If there were some reason why I could not find a RL group with which to meet then I guess it would be better than nothing at all. But, it wouldn’t be my preference.

I don’t have a specific mental illness per se but I did grow up in a severely dysfunctional family.

For many years I went to Al anon or ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) groups and it helped greatly in my understanding of some of the typical issues we face. I always jokingly said we should call it “Neurotics Anonymous” since we didn’t have a specific mental illness to claim but we were all uniformly neurotic as hell.

Those close to us were often mystified by the typical selection of eccentricities, quirks, insecurities and general weirdness which was part of the typical constellation of symptoms resulting from growing up with that severe type of family dysfunction masked expertly by apparent normality.

One of the descriptions I heard from a speaker fit so perfectly and clarified so much for me that I’ve never forgotten it.

He said : “ACOAs spend a lifetime guessing at what “normal” is.”

And it frequently was exactly the opposite of what transpired in our ass-backwards childhood households :)

I’m not sure if an online only framework would have been as helpful.

Thank you everyone. I’m in agreement with @downtide that the ‘dating’ element would be off-putting to me too. I thankfully don’t have any mental issues that make me feel I need to join the site but I know some people have talked recently about an online site so I thought it worth sharing.

Contrary to CWOTUS’s response of ‘work’, I deem work to be the instigator of many a mental health issue, mostly stress or anxiety related.
As for joining a social networking site that was for people who had mental health issues, I more than likely would.

http://psychcentral.com/disorders

As long as its well monitored and designed to be useful and not abused