AskBeehaw

Don't know how to do quotes here but:

"Any community always ends up attracting downvotes and trolls, and the conventional resources such as the suicide hotline chat are only meant to keep you talking and don't help discuss chronic problems."

This is pretty much it right here. It boils down to qualifications, money, and the anonymous nature of the internet. It's hard to give real and useful advice to someone based off of only a couple of internet posts.

Offline, are you gonna run into shitty therapists who deserve to have their license revoked? Yes absolutely. But the people who can help have qualifications and charge a lot of money for their time. They're not gonna come on the internet and dispense useless or generic advice to strangers. It would be a waste of everyone's time, not to mention the whole issue with separating work from life.

Real-life therapists aren't any better.

Most mental health problems, I suspect, are the result of socioeconomic problems like price gouging and wage stagnation. Spending your whole life struggling to just barely avoid homelessness is not good for the mind. Neither is working for a boss who treats you like a slave, and let's face it, that's exactly what you are. No amount of talk or pills will fix that.

I know it can be hard to find for sure, but there is a lot of online mental health support available. I'm not sure about actual free forum communities, but that might be becuase of privacy issues or the difficulty of both moderating and providing safe healthy advice.

But there are online options for therapy. Some of it is free, but most requires a fee - although there are often sliding scale options (when councelors offer lower fees if cost is an issue, there's more who offer this than you'd think.) Finding help remotely is the way to go, it's both more affordable and you can take the time to find someone who is right for you. I use an online therapist, she lives a few hours away and it took a few attempts to find the right fit, but it's worth it.

There is 7 cups - they offer a lot of options. They provide just someone to talk to (volunteers, it's free) as well as affordable options for counceling. https://www.7cups.com/

I'd also recommend Psychology Today, which lets you search for therapists both locally and online. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists

I used Psychology Today to find my therapist (there's a Canadian version of the site) The have profiles and contact info for many, MANY therapists and psychologists, all accredited and professional. Most will be happy to tell you their rates, or offer either a free or very low cost introductory session (to see if you are the right fit)

There are also some free, self-directed therapy options in the form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. A lot of it can be done yourself, as it involves worksheets and exercises. It's actually very effective despite sounding maybe like busy work? Hehe - I've also had success using CBT, both with therapists and using self-directed workbooks.

Here is a good introduction, very thorough and with links for further reading: https://positivepsychology.com/cbt-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-techniques-worksheets/

The main website here also provides some good, free resources and articles by certified councelors. https://positivepsychology.com/

A thought — looking at your post, and the other comment here, it sounds like you are looking for a community with very low tolerance for trolls and the like. Sounds familiar... 🤔

Maybe ask the BeeHaw mods if there's room for the community that you're looking for: /c/mentalhealth.

I wouldn't be surprised if they'd be worried about the responsibility of such a place, both in terms of modding and I guess legal liability, but it can't hurt to ask, right? Try asking in /c/beehawsupport.

It's not the same (potential) can of worms, but we already have /c/neurodivergent.

BeeHaw is specifically a safe space; if what you're looking for could exist, I personally can't imagine a better home for it.

Honestly, I think part of it is that having an entire community of people suffering depressive symptoms becomes a depressing environment.

I'm sure I heard this in a Brene Brown video, but in order to be able to help someone else, you need to be in the right place yourself. Two empty glasses can't help fill each other. And most people can't help an entire community of struggling people, one glass can't help fill fifty, it's futile and self damaging to try. It's why we have professionals that do one on one therapy.

And, this might be unpopular, but I think historically this is why we have priests too. I'm not religious, but I think that community offers that to some people.

Sometimes people need to vent, and some people aren't lucky enough to be in a position where they can vent to anybody, but I don't know if diving into a community where you expose yourself to everyone else's problems too is the solution. Things like addictions counseling are controlled, with professionals at the helm, and often in small spaces, with a prescribed meeting time and an end.