Welcome to the Friends, Family and Carers Group Hub! Introduce yourself here 🙂

Thanks Acacia I need the help!

Hello! 🤗 @Blu1 @Fenix @jeamssutton @Leonine @Lola9 @Mamu

Welcome to the forums! I’m Basil, one of the moderators here on the forums. There are a team of us who moderate these forums to ensure they’re warm and welcoming for everyone, ensure safety and to offer support. It's so nice to e-meet you! I hope you find our forums a really special place where you can

• Seek support for yourself

• Offer your experiences and support to others

• Get to know other folks who “Get it”

Some of you may have already begun posting, but I wanted to welcome you!

Firstly, if you’re up to it, I know we’d all like to get to know you a little better. Wanna have a go at answering these questions?

1. What is your favourite self-care activity?

2. What are you looking forward do in the forums?

I’ll go first:

1. One of my fave self-care activities is getting my guitar out for a strum. Spoiler alert: I can't actually play but I enjoy that it gets me out of my head for a moment and into my hands!

2. Something I love about the forums is the love and support I feel all around the place, I find it very heartwarming!

3. I also wanted to share my favourite social thread (I love this one because it's such a simple way to pop in and get started in connecting w others in your day): https://saneforums.org/t5/Social-Spaces/Good-Morning/td-p/254524/page/7217

I also wanted to give you some handy pointers for the forums

• Make sure you check-out our guidelines and FAQ by clicking here. They are in place to create a really safe space online where we can share our experiences of mental health and recovery.

• We also have some guides on how to use the forums and for creating safety online when discussing topics like suicide and self-harm. We know these are experiences many of us will have in our lifetime, but it’s important to discuss them safely and in a way that the community can support you!

• If you press “@” and then type someone's username, they’ll get a notification that you’ve tagged them

• You can always tag “@moderator” if you see something that is outside of our guidelines or makes you worry about someone

And finally, look out for our Community Guides on the forums. Our CGs are wonderful leaders of our forums who use peer work to support others on the forums PS, you will notice it says "Community Guide" under their username.

Not sure how to make a post? That's ok! Here is a step by step guide

• Click back into the Welcome & Getting Started topic area

• Click the ‘New Discussion’ Button • Type in a subject title

• Enter your post (there are some helpful tips on how you can introduce yourself below)

• Then click post!

Topic Tuesday// Caring For The Carer// Tues 29th November 2022 7-8:30PM AEDT

Is on tomorrow night @Tuppence92 , @A-Little-Lost

Hello friends 🙂 I'm very new here and still finding my way around, although very happy to have found such a caring and supportive place.

My husband has just been diagnosed with relationship-OCD. We have been suffering through it for around 10 years without any clue of what we were fighting against (other than each other!). Before this, we suffered through his bouts of depression and anxiety.

On a bad day I feel tired, fed up and short fused. On a good day (there are few of these) I feel compassionate and hopeful. Nearly every day, I feel disconnected and alone.

We are seeing a Psychologist for CBT and my husband is contemplating drug teatment. Depite the diagnosis he is still blaming me for all his anguish and it hurts. I am in mid-life and would like to avoid making another decade of misteps and misdjudgments, however well-intentioned. I would be so grateful for any advice.

Love and light to all.

Hello and welcome @Chickencoop

I will tag @NatureLover for you

@amber22

Hello from FN Qld. My partner of 20years has always been anxious but seems to be getting worse since Covid, having a catheter for 6 months prior to prostatectomy and after his mother passed in 2017. Now at 72 he thinks there is nothing left in life and is very negative. I find his Croatian background quite pessimistic and it is very draining living with someone who has OCD type behaviours and is so set in his routines he gets agro when I suggest any change.

He is adamant he has no mental issues and won't investigate any physical health issues because he doesn't trust doctors and thinks it is wrong to talk to talk about personal issues with professionals.

I'm sure this all seems like peanuts compared to the issues many people face as I have with my sons schozophrenia. However when I retired I had hope we'd share a reasonably happy time rather than it just all be about his issues and there being no support for me at all.

Sorry about the long winded blurb but it is just another example of me being caught up in other family members needs with no care for my needs.

Best wishes and thanks for reading this.

Hi all, new here, first post.

@Barkydoglover Welcome to the forums!

I hope you find connection and belonging on the forums. It's a great place to hang out 🙂

Kia Ora everyone, I am excited to be apart of this forum and connect with like minded people, it is a lonely world 🌎 being around those who don’t understand my situation with my daughter.

I am excited 😊

Hi @AnaTamanui

I just wanted to reach out to welcome you to the forums - it’s great to have you here 💜

That’s such a lovely way to introduce yourself and I just wondered if ‘kia Ora’ is how you say good morning in Maori?

Absolutely! It can be incredibly lonely when the people around us are unable to relate to some of the things that are happening in our lives and in my experience, this can make the days and nights so much longer and harder 💜

As I sat here listening to this part of your story, I could really hear how important it is for you to be able to connect with people who share similar experiences to your own and as such, I just ever so gently wondered if there’s a particular type of connection that would feel helpful for you?

For example, some members of our community find it comforting to be able to connect with people who are caring for a loved one who is living with the same mental health conditions as their loved one 💜 Whereas other members of our community find it really helpful to participate in threads that are a little bit more social and light hearted 😊

With this in mind, I just wanted to take a moment to share a few threads that may help you to ease yourself into community life and get to know some of our other amazing members 💜

The first thread that comes to mind is our Daily Check In Space 😊 Basically, this is a space where you can share how you’re travelling and take some time to focus on your own self-care and wellbeing 💜

I’ve just shared the link to this particular thread below, just in case you would like to take a look 😊

https://saneforums.org/t5/Looking-after-ourselves/Daily-Check-In-Space/m-p/1123847

The second thread that I thought may be helpful for you is called Hot Chocolate! Basically, Hot Chocolate is a space where you can hang out with other members of our wonderful community and chat over a hot chocolate (one of my personal favourites 😊) tea, coffee - or anything else that takes your fancy 😊

I’ve just shared the link to this particular space below, just in case you would like to explore this further 😊

https://saneforums.org/t5/Social-Spaces/Hot-Chocolate-Anyone/td-p/73121/page/2100

Also, just while I remember, one of the things that really helped me when I was new to the forums and still finding my way around, was that if you would like to chat with another forum member, or reply to one of their posts, place @ in front of their username just like I did at the start of my post to you i.e. @AnaTamanui that way, they will receive a message that you have contacted them 😊

Please know that you’re always welcome to reach out here whenever you need to 💜

Take kind and gentle care of yourself,

ShiningStar 💜