Recovery Guidelines
The
site wide rules give the outline for what is and what is not acceptable in the Recovery, Mental Health, and Physical Health forums. These Forum-specific guidelines clarify those rules specifically for this area of the site.
Recovery is a place for member peer support and encouragement, not as a substitute for professional care, nor a place for ethical/moral discussions. Only those who are seeking help may start threads in the recovery forums. Informational posts may be submitted to the recovery library for review to be posted.
Recovery Staff feel very strongly that members need to seek out real life licensed professional services and local pastoral care in addition to asking for support and advice here.
These things are considered off topic and will not be allowed in the Recovery forums:
Promoting yourself as an expert in your posts, or in your user title
Diagnosing anyone's symptoms
Offering treatment or any kind to other members
Prescribing/promoting medications of any kind, including over the counter or herbal remedies
Discouraging someone from taking prescribed medications, using or seeking professional services, using hotlines or crisis lines.
Ethical and moral discussions are dealt with in other areas of the forum. These discussions will be removed from recovery or moved to another area if possible.
Any posts dealing with, instructing or suggesting the need for spiritual warfare will be removed. Insinuating that members are possessed or that their Mental, Emotional or Physical health issues are caused by demonic or spiritual issues are not permitted. This includes the "devil is the whole problem" or "You need to get right with God" or "You do not have enough faith" type of statements would be examples of these types of posts. Linking to sites offline that address spiritual warfare are not permitted as well.
Asking or requesting that members engage in research topics or volunteer as research subjects, or links directing web-traffic to another site for this purpose is not appropriate and will be removed. Requests to post a research topic in other areas of CF need to be brought up in
Support for permission and if granted, the most appropriate forum for posting it.
No polls or surveys are allowed.
Endorsement of certain topics - This is not allowed and staff will remove any posts which endorse or encourage any of the following behaviors/topics.
- abortion
- alcohol and/or drug use/abuse
- bisexuality
- extramarital or premarital sexual activity
- gambling
- harmful and/or hurtful behaviors of any nature
- homosexuality
- polygamy
- transsexuality
- suicide
- violence
Recovery is a place people come to get support and encouragement in the process of stopping these behaviors/lifestyles and using the Christian faith to help cope with problems. Other areas of CF can be used for discussions of many of these behaviors/topics. Included in this rule is posting triggers to harmful behaviors.
Over the Counter & Alternative Remedies
- Over the counter remedies can interact with prescription medications. Because of that, do not recommend what someone should take, including alternative medications. Limit discussion to your experience with a medication.
- Cannabis (Marijuana) is an illegal drug in many states though some states have made it legal for medical purposes only. If you live in an area where it is legal for minor use or medical use, you may find more information about the drug from your physician. Discussion to promote it as an alternative drug not permitted in the recovery or main areas of CF, as this should be addressed with your physician.
Harmful or hurtful posts:
The Recovery Team Staff will remove posts or threads that we think could be harmful in any way to any member or group of members, Even if the post or thread might not be intentionally harmful. Members will receive notification if it is the only post removed or edited. If there are a group of posts being removed or edited, the thread will have a post that advises of this and states why they were removed/edited (not who specifically).
The Recovery Team Staff will edit or remove posts that we see as being a trigger for someone who is trying to stop doing some behavior. For example, a post that "argues a member should do x, y or z anyways because it doesn't matter" or "I'm just going to drink myself sick."
Because of the risk of triggering suicidal thoughts in others, we remove threats and/or endorsements of suicide. This includes posting that another member others know have killed him/herself. If you are having thoughts about suicide but have no immediate plans or intentions your posts may be able to show. Make sure to **Trigger Warn** the title and the top of your post. If you are having serious issues, log off now and contact 800-SUICIDE in the US,
www.imalive.org online in the US, or
www.befrienders.org for international crisis centers (found in the upper right hand corner of their site).
We want to allow you to have support from others but we must be careful not to have posts that might trigger others to follow suit. Staff will err on the side of safety and caution for other members in these situations. Please utilize local professional services such as calling 911, going to the emergency room or to a local medical clinic.
When Staff remove these suicidal posts or self harm posts of any threat or description from view we are encouraging the members to seek professional services in their local area and provide phone numbers to local crisis lines if available. Christian Forums is NOT a crisis center, nor are the Recovery Team members trained in Suicidal Intervention. Members continuing to post outside these guidelines may be banned temporarily to seek help offline.
Please note, the Eating Disorders forum may not have numbers in any format in posts, and they will be edited out without notice.
Posts that are graphic in the description of a type of event (such as in trauma that was quite abusive, details of substance use or graphic descriptions of surgery) will be edited or removed to protect others. Our site is open to those who are as young as 16, and may be read by individuals who are younger than 16.
