Lawrie
There are many groups you will find on Social Media that are generally setup by non mental health professionals, designed and hosted / maintained by people who like me have their own mental health issues and a story to tell. You can usually tell quickly information about such groups by the amount of people, how admin has dealt with recent people and posts, the amount of friends certain role members in the group have, if the group is old or new etc, tell-tale signs that something might be a miss, and more often than not no privacy settings.
Oh btw in tonights post, I am talking about Facebook Groups.
A few months a go my Uncle who lives in Canada got annoyed when I commented about some stone or other for his drive that he couldn’t buy because of supply and demand issues, quite rightly too he was angered, but the point im trying to put across here is when you post in groups that are not setup properly, other members or the people you have on your friends list can see what you are writing, with the exception of annon posts – Although personally I find posts that have been sent without making it clear who they are behind the keyboard troubling. But hey ho thats just me., who am I to judge!?
Hey did you just write that ?
So to be clear if you write inside these unsecure groups, theres a good chance those who are on your Facebook friends list might well see what youve been typing, and whilst a lot of posts these days are from people posting whilst they are actually in crisis – they might be asking questions could affect their mental state! sometimes it can be very troubling reading what people are posting when in crisis. So be warned.
So after a good day seeing the OT I thought lets share some good vibes.
So tonight before I went to bed, I thought I would offer some support to others who might be struggling, personally I find writing these types of posts helpful for my mental health well being and I enjoy telling others about the stuff that interests me. So I write a post on this group, feeling good, its been a good day, so was sharing some stuff that im sure others would find helpful – FREE advice to help others who might want to start their very own blog or website, it wasnt advertising, I thought that was made clear, anyway a quick check before switching off and ive been suspended by the group admin. – Only for 24 hours, but still punished for trying to show some support for others who might be struggling, simply a nice thing to do, especially how I was asked to share some techniques and posts from this blog on their group by the admins daughter.
Thankfully I found the ‘leave group tab’ and got out of there quick!
Now Ive had a good day like I said, but what if not and that was all it took for me to do something I might later regret, – if someone who’s in Crisis has too much placed on them, you can never be sure what they might do to themselves or others.
That one piece of written content that they took so long to write, trying to get the best words out, whilst shaking, crying, being sick etc – what if being banned even for a short time without warning – by someone who isnt trained nor has much experience with handling others or who is mayve struggling with their own mental health issues – what if that person who was seeking help goes and does something meaning thats the last time they have asked for help. ? Think about it.. This is mega!
Social media has its uses but not for mental health support, I can see that now and am thankful for them banning me, now ive written this post, I hope this helps others who are struggling.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Goodnight all.
L x
