For a short while, I joined a Facebook group that dealt with depression. There are times that I really get down and usually I have at least a low grade depression going on. Partly situational and partly chronic. So I thought that maybe there would be some pointers and assistance for dealing with it. I was quickly disillusioned with the scene.
There was mostly three types of posts; whining about everyday frustrations, efforts to one-up each other on sad histories of their lives (I won that. j/k), and suicide threats. If you weren’t depressed before, just reading the posts and remarks would get you there! One exceptionally ugly woman said, “Goodbye, I’m killing myself,” several different times. Many people would say, Oh don’t do that! A few days later, she would return to posting. Others would do the same. Most of the complaining was over really trivial stuff like, “my parents grounded me for the weekend”, or “I got yelled at by my boss at work.” A lot of the people were narcissists who got offended by slightest perceived slight. Too many were just attention whores, who wanted everyone to respond to their soap opera lives. I didn’t see much that was helpful to me. The group was large (many thousands), with a lot of active members. So my Facebook feed was getting overwhelmed. I don’t think I ever personally participated in the conversations.
After a few weeks, I decided to take a break and unfollowed the Depression group. Gradually I forgot about it, until one day months later I was checking out how many groups that I was a member of it. I saw it listed and checked back in. The group was no longer active. There was a statement that Facebook had shut it down, because of the suicide threats. No statement on whether any had followed through. This was probably for the best. That group exemplified the worst in people.
iggyvandweller 