Bipolar 2 From Inside and Out

Posts tagged ‘support groups’

What Does FINE Mean?

I get tired of acronyms—letters that spell out a word and may also stand for the first letters of a word. NASA is okay with me, but I dislike SMART goals, TSA, ATF, and every other government agency. Even more annoying are ones that go on too long and are mystifying to those not already in the know. For example, HHGttG stands for Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy to SF (science fiction) fans or SMoF (Secret Masters of Fandom).

There are also lots of slogans that make more or less sense, depending. Just Say No. Just Do It. Me Too. Hold My Beer. Keep on Truckin’.

Plenty of acronyms are associated with mental illness, too. SMI. AOT. CARE Courts. BPD. There’s also the infamous FINE. When someone asks how you are and you tell them, “fine,” what that really stands for is Freaked out (or fucked up), Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional (or empty).

One acronym I’ve been seeing lately is ASK, which stands for Acknowledge, Support, Keep-in-touch. It’s meant to be the “Stop, Drop, and Roll” of how to help a friend who’s having emotional difficulties. I’ve seen PSA (another acronym) ads promoting it on Showtime and MTV (another acronym that is no longer valid). As slogans go, it’s not too bad, although Acknowledge seems a little vague until it’s explained, but Support and Keep-in-touch are pretty clear.

The acronym ASK is associated with the Active Minds organization. Their website is easily findable if you enter “Active Minds” into Google. (The search term ASK brings up too many unrelated hits.) The website it takes you to offers interactive YouTube and “digital experience” links that demonstrate the principles.

Less memorable is ALGEE Assess risk, Listen nonjudgmentally, Give reassurance and information, Encourage appropriate help, and Encourage self-help. It’s a “Mental Health First Aid Action Plan” for helping someone in mental or emotional distress. Assess risk refers to risk of suicide, which may be too complicated a task for non-professionals. The second E, Encourage self-help, refers to suggesting “self-care, self-help strategies, or other ways to get support, such as going out for coffee to talk things over.” Personally, I think the acronym ALGEE is not very memorable and the explanation of the letters is not exactly intuitive.

The slogan that I found most puzzling (although it did get my attention, so it was effective there) is “Seize the Awkward.” The phrase focuses on the idea that, while it may feel a little difficult or awkward to speak to a friend about mental health concerns, you should accept that feeling as natural, then move past the awkwardness and start a helpful or meaningful conversation. The Seize the Awkward website has a lot to offer. There are nine ads for young adults featuring popular or famous spokespeople from music, sports, and other categories. The Ad Council has also provided GIFs, Instagram images, and posters you can use to spread awareness on your own site or location. There is a Campus Toolkit which includes resources on break-ups, loss, suicide, LGBTQ suicide, and racism.

I hereby retract my objection to Seize the Awkward because of its memorability and thoroughness. It’s wonderful. Right up there with Just Do It.

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Mental Health

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Support Group Spam

I belong to a number of Facebook support groups for mental illness issues such as anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. I’m even a co-moderator for one of them, Hope for Troubled Minds.

What’s troubling my mind right now is the scammers and spammers who try to take advantage of the group members.

There are the typical posts of course about how much they admire your comments and think your profile picture is very appealing. They’ve tried to friend you, but it hasn’t worked. Then they beg for an “add.” I know that as soon as I friend them, they’ll DM me with a wonderful opportunity. I find these posts annoying, but since I simply hide and block them when they happen to me, I don’t worry too much about them.

The ones that really bother me are those that are targeted to support group members specifically. Here’s one I’ve seen in various groups:

[Product] on Instagram helped me overcome Osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, LUPUS rheumatoid arthritis, ptsd, Chronic gastritis, chronic-pain, joint pain, muscles spasms, intense sweating, Raynaud’s Syndrome, inflammation, diagnosis, Fibromyalgia, skin-itching, ADHD, arthritis, spasms, swollen, blotchy hands, shingles, numbness, Anxiety, Autism, feet nerves, and flare-up permanently after taking various meds that didn’t work, look him up.

I suppose I should find it amusing that diagnosis, feet nerves, and flare-up are among the many disorders that the product is supposed to relieve. And the idea that any one product can alleviate PTSD, anxiety, and autism along with all the other listed conditions, is ludicrous.

Another piece of spam along similar lines says:

Truly, natural remedies do work. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have used them for thousands of years. And, pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t be studying plants, taking extracts of them, and patenting them as lupus drugs.this is not a claim or lies I was totally relieved from pains of lupus disease and CFS by [Person]. His remedy is surely the best. I suggest you try him out if you are having any health challenges and also get cured too, give him a try

This piece of spam is less hyperbolic than the previous one, but it still appeals to people seeking relief from difficult-to-treat conditions. But why post it in a support group that deals with mental illness? It doesn’t address them directly. Perhaps the poster thinks that, since SMI is not thoroughly understood, people who live with it are desperate for any treatment, however unlikely or unconventional.

It’s easier for me to understand how the next bit of spam might appeal to the distraught and lonely people who find that SMI has shattered their most significant relationships. But again, it offers false hope of a “love spell” and the opportunity to become a millionaire.

My appreciation goes to [Person] for restoring back my relationship with his powerful love spell to bring my boyfriend back and also for setting my son free from Courtcase and helping a friend whom I recommend with money spell that made her a proud millionaire are you having any issues that needs urgent attention kindly contact

Finally, we have one that might actually appeal to someone who’s been in an emotionally abusive relationship.

Living with a narcissist can be very difficult due to the gaslighting and lies. If you are interested in obtaining a basic analysis of what your partner does in secret, there is a resource called [product] can provide you with access to text messages, call logs, emails, games, and social media activity (including deleted messages) send a direct message

Never mind that it’s the gaslighter who is more likely to use apps like this to keep track of their victim and isolate them from friends and family.

When I see posts like these, I report them to the group admins. What they do about them, I don’t know. I do know that I haven’t seen people trying to post similar spam in the group that I co-moderate. Unless a person is well-known to us, they must submit a message before it’s posted. So far, no one has proposed a spam post to our group. Occasionally something a bit off-topic, but that’s about it.

I think the spammers intend to prey on people they see as weak and vulnerable. And while there are people who post about their trials and tribulations with brain illnesses, they’re far from weak and vulnerable. You have to be strong and determined to live with them.

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Mental Health

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