Hello @rav3n and other forumites here. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since the SANE forums started - Haply 10th birthday SANE Forums🎉🎂🎁!

According to the data, I’ve been a member of the forums since September 2018 - so about 6 years. During this time, I have gone from being just a regular forum member to a Community Guide on the forums which is a role I love and have learnt a lot from, including using my lived experience to help others whilst learning new information about all things mental health related from other forum members as well, such as new coping strategies and new craft ideas to try. 

I can’t remember why I joined or how I joined, except to know that I had mental health issues and I was feeling isolated, confused, depressed and I wanted somewhere and someone to talk to besides my psychiatrist and mental health nurse at the time. I was living with my housemate and liked the fact that I could talk to forum members about any issues I had with her ( she also had mental health issues) as a way of helping me deal with them. I was also in the middle in 2018 of studying my Certificate IV in Mental Health at TAFE so being on the forums assisted in my academic studies along with my personal life experiences of mental illness. I do know that there were several members at the start that I connected with such as @Shaz51 @TAB @MDT @greenpea @Jynx  who made me feel welcome along with others that are no longer - several members were into craft such as knitting and crochet which had a discussion thread especially for this - and I found them to be really helpful and friendly to the point they have become my forum friends over the years. I like the fact that I can drop in and out of the forums for various reasons, including poor mental health status, yet still have people wanting to know if you are okay which is something I love about the forums.

When I reflect on what has stood out for me on the forums, it has been the following things:

- Being able to help others during the COVID pandemic with the lockdowns and getting through it with the help of others here on the forums. This was especially important to me as I lived in Melbourne and was dealing with the harsh restrictions that were in place for the 6 lockdowns and saw the toll they took on people’s mental health, including my own which resulted in an inpatient stay at a mental health facility for just under 4 weeks. Having the forums allowed me to talk about the situation at hand and gave me something to distract myself with as forum members would pass on advice and words of support which I found to be incredibly helpful and valuable at the time. I also liked that I was able to help out other forum members in different states of Australia when they went into lockdowns due to my experience with this part of my life at the time which I really enjoyed doing.

- Learning new coping strategies such as the use of aromatherapy and cups of tea to calm down 

- Celebrating forum members achievements on a post called Thumbs up Thursday - Woohoo! With recognition of what forum members have done on the forums to help others 

- Starting a discussion thread to celebrate daily achievements which I started to help me deal with my depression episodes with the idea being just waking up is an amazing achievement each day.

- Having connections with a wide range of people on different topics such as sports, crafts, cats, etc. 

I like being part of the SANE forums community in that I know that I can reach out for support and advice and will usually get it from a forum member. I also like knowing that I don’t have to be sick to use the forums as my mental health is episodic and being both well and sick is accepted here. If I’m not the best mentally, I can post about it and often feel better because my thoughts and feelings are out of my head and I know that someone will acknowledge what I’m going through so I’m not alone. If I’m well, I can support others and pass on my knowledge to help them with their issues as well as learn from them at the same time.

One thing I’m proud of is the fact that the forums are on online community to help people with complex mental health issues and are free and accessible to all people experiencing mental health issues which is very important to me. Mental illnesses are complex and challenging and it can be very expensive to manage as it often requires a psychiatrist, psychologist and other medical professionals and facilities and treatment options. These people/items aren’t cheap and often there is a waiting list to see them, if at all, so that is a major problem, especially for country areas. People often attend a hospital to try and get treatment for their illnesses only to be turned away due to not enough beds or they aren’t sick enough to require treatment, making the situation even worse for the person involved- coming from experience. Having lived through the recent COVID pandemic, I saw the increase in people requiring mental health treatments and services yet not being able to access them due to costs and limited number of qualified professionals to deal with this crisis. The pandemic saw a whole new element of mental health issues with isolation and other mental health problems and symptoms emerging due to people being restricted on what they could and couldn’t do with lots of people who were previously healthy developing mental illness for the first time and not knowing how to deal with it. By the forums being free and accessible, it allowed this group of people to utilise mental health knowledge and options to assist them to deal with what they were going through without having to find money for the service which they may not have been able to afford otherwise. I know from a personal perspective that I can’t afford a psychiatrist and have benefited greatly from the knowledge and expertise of others to help me with my mental health issues which have at times been life saving for me. Keeping the forums free is very important.

Overall, I’ve loved being part of the SANE forums community. There’s been so many different things I’ve seen, learnt and been part of and I hope to continue to do this now and into the future. Good luck to the next 10 years!

Judi9877☺️🌻🍀