Thanks @Captain24 for bringing this up.
Sharing feelings of despair or repetitive negative thoughts is not necessarily a breach of the guidelines. In providing a recovery-oriented space, we are aiming more to prevent a cycle where these thoughts dominate discussions without opening a pathway to support or solutions.
While it’s completely valid to express feelings of distress and seek support, we also invite members to consider how sharing these thoughts might be affecting you. Sometimes, writing about negative feelings can provide relief and a sense of being understood; other times, it might unintentionally reinforce these feelings. It's a delicate balance, and one that only you can truly measure for yourself.
We totally understand that when someone is in a dark place, their way of expressing themselves may not always seem recovery-oriented in the traditional sense. We encourage all members to continue sharing your true feelings.
If you're concerned about the nature of your posts, you might consider framing them with a request for specific types of support or advice, which can help guide the responses you receive.
Another very important piece here from a duty of care perspective is if you are posting about feeling suicidal. More extensive guidance is provided here, but the main message is that we need members to let everyone know when posting that they are currently safe and not intending to act on their thoughts (if this is indeed how you are truly feeling).
If you are not currently safe, i.e., intending to act on your thoughts and cannot stop yourself, then this is an emergency and we would ask you to contact crisis services rather than posting on the forum as we cannot provide immediate support here.
If you post ambiguously, then other members and our staff have no way of knowing what your intentions are and we may be obligated to escalate to emergency services.
I hope this is helpful, please keep asking questions if you're not sure, or let us know how we could more clearly word the guidelines for better understanding.
