forum guideline help?

[Techunique]

I've made several posts and replies since joining yesterday and have had to edit almost every one due to key words, but the key words seem completely arbitrary. for instance i have struggled with addiction and in speaking about it i was able to use the words meth and heroin, but not the full word for coke. i've been told to edit words that involve violence, but if i switch the word to a synonym, it posts. i guess the questions would be

1. why should the words be sensored? a lot of my experience that brought me here was of a very negative quality, a lot of the reason i joined was to be able to share my experiences with other people who have similar ones. as long as i am not encouraging any manner of negative behavior i don't understand why i should have to edit my past.

2. what system is there for deciding which words are sensored? i can say buzzkill, but i can't put a space in the word, even though the second half of it is a word which can be used in many non-negative connotations and the same can be said of a lot of the things that have been censored in my posts

3. am I being offensive to anyone by talking about my addiction/dark times? I feel that because of these experiences i am who i am and i think what i think, i want to be able to interact with this community in an open manner but if i am being offensive i need to be told, because i have a very hard time reading cues even in a face to face conversation. if someone doesn't tell me explicitly that i'm doing something wrong, i will almost definitely miss it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[1stepup61]

Hi @Techunique I think why we dont talk about past acts which have caused our mental illness, is because many of us have experienced pain and suffering in our past as well. Many of us have used substances also. So, if i was to write about a horrible act that happened to me, the person reading my post could have their memories triggered which can cause them to feel unsafe and deepen their illness, or they could need a similar vice your talking aboutwhich they can be trying to kick. I find this site is good for when you are having a crap day, feeling extremely anxious or feeling you cant tell anyone about your illness because they may not understand. Another thing is unable to sleep, feel lonely or isolated, you can say how you feel and ask others what they think & they will give you advice, or just chat, but most of all there is always someone here who understands. medication is the other thing, like we dont tell others take this not that etc, our meds are prescribed for us bye our GPs or Psychiatrists who know us. Hope this helps! Bye @1stepup61

[Techunique]

@1stepup61

I guess that kinda makes sense, but not a full amount of sense to me. If it is wrong for me to be talking about my substance abuse problems in the past, then why can i write heroin but not coke? Also, why is it wrong for my substance abuse to be seen here? I understand that it might be triggering for someone who is just very recently off of a substance, but only as in so recently that they are still going through withdrawl. If someone is still using the drug, then it will not be triggering, because it means that they themselves are seeking the drug, meeting someone whose only connection to them is the drug, buying the drug and then using it. none of these is even close to as mild as saying the name. the reason i say that is that drugs are regularly named in everyday conversation, in fictional television shows and on the news, in point of fact, it is very difficult to find any medium or person who does not regularly mention or discuss them in some way, usually not in a format of helping the addicted person, more often as a joke or a social problem, and it is far more damaging to the psyche of a person who is using to have someone joke about them or call them a problem in society than it is for me to say i have been where they are and that i would like to help them. My addiction history enables me to give advice on how best to leave it behind, and also to offer understanding support to people here. Also, considering that we are all mentally ill on this forum i believe that it should be encouraged to educate about addiction because we are part of the community most likely out of any community on the planet to be tricked into trying, abusing or being addicted to these. It seems odd to me that we have a community to help with our specific problems, but that we are not allowing talk of one of the top reasons that our community experiences so many deaths before their time, especially because all succesful drug rehabilitation suggests that talking about it with someone who has a similar experience is one of the best tools, and that outside of this forum many of us have no one who has even close to a similar experience seeing as many drug treatment groups forbid speaking about mental illness (which has actually made me leave a group and relapse due to the loneliness of not being allowed to be who i am) lastly, out of the drug names I have attempted to use it only sensored coke, when meth and heroin are far more addictive, far more dangerous to use, cause much more mental trauma are much harder to put down have the worst withdrawl and are the hardest to disassociate yourself from when you remember the times in your life that you abused them.

Also, I have been unable to find a way to rephrase a post to be acceptable to the forums guidelines already, only joined yesterday. so there are entire parts of my life that i cannot share, or gain the relief of sharing from. the post i had to delete took me 20 minutes or more to complete and then it just had to be chucked in the trash, which was frustrating in the extreme, could we put a list of censored words somewhere on the forum so that i can reference it beforehand? or perhaps add a feature to the area you type a post in that would highlight a word that will not be allowed so that i can save myself the time and stress? because i'll not deny i almost flew into a towering rage over this yesterday and i had to make some tea and sit quietly for a long time afterward. the arbitrary nature of the censorship makes absolutely no sense to me i can say murder but not the second part of buzzkill, does that make any sense to you? I'd be appreciative of some detail here so that i can both be an active and productive member of this forum without triggering anything nasty in someone else and also be able to understand if and why i should not say something when the things i cannot say are so amazingly nebulous.

[Techunique]

I just think we could make the rule about trying not to trigger people, which are very well respected from what I have seen, expand to cover the subjects that are being censored. I think it's sad that on this forum somewhere there is a high probability that someone is deeply addicted and totally alone, we should offer them a place where they can start to get help with that. There's no reason that person would have to trigger anybody else either, we could put a whole new forum on the site for discussions about this topic, but for people to be able to want to use it, we would have to be able to offer specific help on this side. Maybe PMs? Or Something! 

Sorry, I'm just very painfully aware that the hardest part of being mad is that no one understands, and the part of addiction is that no one understands and the two in combination almost killed me and many others I know. 

[NikNik]

Hi @Techunique

Thanks so much for raising this!

As you have noticed, there are a list of filter words, which when used, don't allow you to post.

This list can be hit & miss. We are very open to taking words off it, and we have in the past. You can email us at team@saneforums.org and flag the words and we can take a look at them 

Our intention definitely isn't to censor people's experience around addiction and would be happy to take a look at the list of words.

It's worth having a look at our Community Guidelines  because this is really the essence of what is and isn't acceptable. 

I hope this helps!
Nik

PS I hope you don't mind, but I will move this thread to our feedback section.

[Former-Member]

hello @Techunique

I think that you have raised some very interesting points in your responses

my understanding of what you have written is that you do understand the reasoning behind censorship of words......you do not understand the logic used in following through with that censorship of what seems like random selection on this site......

a perfectly normal reaction in my book

you have suffered in your life and openly, honestly admit that drugs have been a part of your life experience

I am wondering if you feel that you have nowhere to go to write about your experiences, no matter how horrific they have been....how hard it has been for you to get through....you mentioned left a former website

alcohol is a drug....is toxic....yet can be spoken about on here...not sure if brands of alcohol are censored or not

my response is not about the censoring...I believe that others who have responded to you have answered you in a sensitive manner

in life there has to be boundaries.....this is another way of describing censoring.... as the members of these forums all have varying stories as do the carers

I believe that society has not yet caught up with the horrors of drugs even though they have been around for centuries......society welcomes alcohol as a recreational drug....our wineries are world renowned.

There needs to be a forum for drug related matters where people would feel safe to write about their life experiences....a way of helping themselves....a way of helping others...a way of helping save someone from starting or returning to drugs....as you mentioned also a way of saving people's lives....such a site moderated by people trained in drug counselling

In the meantime please continue to write on here ....even using symbols to replace the censored words

your voice needs to be heard

how helpful are the drug and alcohol division of our changing health system in this country?

if you wanted to be an ambassador for change you might research the ombudsman or delegate in that field. .....starting somewhere can make a difference....even having started here you are receiving responses....keep on asking the questions of other government departments.

take away the alcohol....drugs...symptoms of mental illness....diagnoses....we are all individual human beings who have the right to speak....who have the right to be respected as well as treating others with respect...who have the right to not be judged

I do feel that you will find that respect and non judgement on these forums

[frog]

I sympathize @Techunique. There is no discresion with the filter list because it's automatic. I got a post disallowed because I said "--- yourself some slack." I also got a public wrap over the knuckles for mentioning 2 places I'd visited. There was zero chance of even narrowing down where I live as I'd travelled a substantial distance to both. That one felt a bit patronising - as if I can't protect my own privacy. I guess we just have to accept that the intention of these rules is good, even if the application is clunky.

[Techunique]

Thanks for responding, all. I have thought quite a lot about this today. Although I do not understand why there need to be any words on the censored list at all, because of how wonderfully thoughtful the people whose experiences I have read, and those who have read mine have been, I can upon reflection understand that it is in fact a good reminder to have. Certainly I don't need to hide that addiction has been an issue for me, but I also don't really need to say the name of a drug in order to convey this, or at least not necessarily. While the use of certain drug names are very useful in giving someone an idea of the similarity of your experience, addiction is, at the end of the day, addiction. I still do very much think that it would be quite smart to have an uncensored portion of this forum, perhaps with a stricter entry requirement such as having to register for it seperately, once again as a carer or experiencer, which is dedicated specifically to the issues surrounding addiction and mental illness in tandem. In a perfect world I would suggest that only those from this side of the current forum, which is to say sufferers of mental illness, should be allowed access. This would allow for a good deal more anonimity, as many situations would require being able to speak about specifics candidly, and the wider the allowed audience the greater chance, real or perceived, that recognition would arise from these circumstances. This would also allow for sufferers to choose whether they wanted to be a carer, which is to say that they are a recovering addict, or to continue being an experiencer which is to say someone who still uses. I'm not sure that it would necessarily be a great idea to actually implement this right away though. If we were to begin this process without a ready stock of carers it could very easily turn into a pity party, a place for the sale of drugs or a place where, disappointed in the lack of meaningful help and support, people ended up relapsing or drawing deeper into the loneliness and addiction. I'm not sure how to proceed, and I don't think it should be up to me to decide either, seeing as I'm only one person and my views do not determine the views of the community. But I think it's worth drawing into a larger discussion with the at large community in order to see if there is a desire and an expedient manner we might use to implement this. Thanks again for giving me the framework to understand the necessity of the limitations in place even if I do not necessarily understand the shape or extent of their boundaries.

[Bubbles3]

how do i take a photo from my phone and put it on here

[Former-Member]

hello @Bubbles3

I am hopeless at technology

I know this much:

question: do you have access to internet via phone?

if answer is yes.....save photo to your phone....

press reply on here....bar at top of reply box has a shape of a square with scenery in....click on the square and browse....find photo .....

if it doesnt work it wasnt me who told you ......you probably need someone who can talk in techno language