Need opinions of peoples experiences with online groups PTSD
Do they work????? I have a friend that started a mental health support group online. They don't do physical meet-ups. I guess the meetings are twice a week and are basically facebook live streaming.
Has anyone had any experience with online support groups? Do they work? Do they help? Are they feeding a need to stay away from personal contact? I'd like to hear your opinions and experiences on this subject. Are they helpful or hurtful? What would you recommend to help, change or strengthen to help out strangers?
As some of you know I am attempting to raise awareness for invisible disabilities. I appreciate each and every one of you and would like to thank you for your time in reading this. Feel free to start a respectful dialogue with me. Let's talk and feel free to share your stories. Please share this so we can get many opinions and start dialogues with people that need help or people that may know nothing about any of it. Thank you all. I'm so grateful
Online groups can be really helpful, especially if time and distance act as a barrier to getting to F2F groups.
It really depends on the nature of the group, the capacity of the organiser to hold the space with integrity, and the willingness of the participants to participate as fully and as authentically as they can.
It's all about finding what works for each individual.
I've participated in plenty of online groups for a range of different things, and I also run them myself.
The key to organising one is to have very clear guidelines, and then moderate consistently. State the boundaries of what is/what is not acceptable, and hold everyone to account to them.
Happy to share more thoughts and ideas.... its not different to running a chat room, really.
That's fantastic. Thank you for your response. I'm open to the idea. I am just trying to understand it. I'm more of a face to face kind of person. I am really having trouble with basic communication up to life changing communication being online. I'm just trying to understand. To me if you are needing support for a mental health issue, it's a very personal thing and online to me doesn't feel personal because there's no live human connection. I can understand it in a pinch. A live video feed doesn't count as live human connection to me. ... it just seems to be taking over important face to face interaction and the personalness of that. I'd love to hear more from you on that.