Lived Experience Forum

[cha0tic_cosmin]

Hi, we're/I'm plural, neurodivergent, and dealing with chronic pain. I use leaf/leafs/leafself and singular and plural they/them pronouns. Am here because someone on a Facebook group recommended this organization and I saw there was a forum, but am skeptical because of how a lot of people here seem to be using clinical psychiatric language (as that's been previously used to harm me, multiple times over) and am not entirely sure what I'm allowed to talk about here or not (as my personal experiences, previously and now, are quite heavy and usually the response to me attempting to get support on that is negative, even in spaces that are supposedly geared towards "mental health support"). Idk though *shrugs*

[TideisTurning]

Hi @cha0tic_cosmin, TideisTurning here, one of the peer support workers 😊 Welcome to the Forums!

I'm sorry to hear of the bad experiences you've had with services in the past. Thank you so much for your courage reaching out and sharing with us here after having been through all of that- I don't imagine it would have been easy!

It can be really hard feeling like you have no control and what little power you might have had is taken away. In my experience, even though you might be in a different place now, it can be hard to heal and believe the positive encounters when a great deal of your past experiences have been negative ones. It'll take time and a whole lot of those more positive experiences to counteract the initial negative ones. 

These forums are primarily to connect with peers, though there are some staff on board, a lot of our purpose is to make sure the forums remain a safe place for everyone to be, and we're here to help too, so if you're not sure, you're always welcome to ask- this thread explains the different staff here on the forums as well and what we do. As for what you can and can't post, the Community Guidelines are good to have a look over and refer back to. I hope you'll find the forums to be a safe place to share and seek support from your peers. 

[cha0tic_cosmin]

@TideisTurning Yeah I read the guidelines but they're kinda vague, as what is distressing and harmful to someone can vastly differ from person to person. But it's fine, mainly am just going to lurk on the forum anyways

[chibam]

Hi @cha0tic_cosmin ,

I can assure you that you aren't the only one here who has been harmed by the mental health system and holds it in very low regard. I'm in that boat, and I've met others on here who are as well.

Yes, there are a lot of people here who are very much pro-mental health system/pro-therapists and, if you do choose to talk a lot about how bad the system is, you might find from time to time that other members will 'remind' you that the mental health system does help many of it's patients. But generally, I've found that talking about the woes of the system is tollerated on these forums. So long as you don't go into graphic/upsetting detail about what was done to you; but as you say, everybody has their own ideas about what qualifies as graphic and/or upsetting, don't they?