I also think the frequency with which we say we are unhappy has an effect. A bit like the story: 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'. People shouldn't of course, but they gat tired of seeing us in a mood or unhappy. If we've gone so far as to mention or threaten suicide and, we've done it a few times- they may no longer take it seriously. It's maybe more shocking for them when it comes out the blue fron someone they thought was ok.
Yes, indeed.
A bit of a rant, you (all) don't have to agree:
People type 1) A significant amount of people, here and IRL, need other people to endorse their pain; they crave the
'poor you, I'm so sorry for you;', type of response., and sometimes even going public and angry on threads when they don't get it.
Their situation is mostly genuine and dire, sure.
Call it 'crying wolf' or simple attention seeking, whatever, there's a lot of it on this site. Some people have 1000's of posts going on for years, repeating the same
'woe is me' mantra without seemingly doing anything to change their life situation either +/-.
I know this site caters for all, including the headstrong, and I know it's tough dealing with these issues that we all do (and I do know, everyone has their story, I have my own backstory and am here for the same core reason too).
From my experience of trying to offer friendship and support to these people they normally are not interested and their choice is rather to vent in public.
There's also a lot of
'OMG my boyfriend left me' teenage angst type posts from what looks like kids that IMO shouldn't be on this site at all (or have its own section? mods?)
People type 2) is people with the same or perhaps even more genuine issues, that don't make so much noise in public, perhaps they are not so headstrong as type 1 people. Their posts get little response and sometimes get completely ignored. They quietly reach out in hope, and likely have a negative experience from doing so. These are the people we should all be offering support to.
People type 3) is those that are truly terrified by going public with their story or asking for help on the public forums. Presumably they just suffer in silence until their time comes, when they post a "hi all, this is my story, and bye" message. Or not. These, even more so, are the people we should be looking out for to offer hope and support.
Personally I find it very mentally draining trying to process and filter all the posts on here.
I do try to support those that I can.
I understand that categorising everyone into a few groups is not ideal, I'm only trying to describe things in a digestible way.
And I have not (yet) poured my heart out in public on this site, mostly because of the amount of type 1) activity. I'm probably more of a type 2) person. Idk.
Just my 2 cents.
No-one has to like or agree with any of this, that's absolutely fine.