PsychHelp is an online mental health support group, which actively promotes the questioning of cognition and behaviour in a way that encourages positive thinking and empowers people towards recovery. We provide a message forum for both mental health support and psychological debate, both of which guide members to question and examine human behaviour in individuals and in society as a whole. We are one of the most popular groups on MSN and we endeavor to continue to maintain this high standard of activity.

We currently have over 1000 members at our MSN group and almost 400 at our YahooGroup. Both groups continue to grow at a steady rate daily and we aim to continue to try and help as many people as possible. Members are from various countries, of varying ages and professions, and have a variety of mental disorders. They are encouraged to work together and learn from each others experiences, as well as to focus on the positive aspects of their lives in a way that will empower them to deal with the not so good aspects of their lives.

We aim to take a broadly based approach to our member’s problems, rather than only focusing on the surface issues. We encourage people to question, explore, learn and grow from their experiences. By gaining an understanding of themselves and others they become stronger and gain more control over their recovery.

We firmly believe that everyone should have a voice and that they should feel that their thoughts, feelings and opinions are valuable and worthy of recognition. The Member’s Poetry section gives members the message that their feelings and emotions are worthy and that they can share these feelings if they wish to do so.

One of our main philosophies is that good can come out of bad and that our problems can make us stronger if we allow them to do so. This positive approach is encouraged in many ways, but the most effective of these is the Gratitude Journal whereby members are able to share their positive thoughts with one another.

We currently provide a wide range of information on the diagnosis and treatment of Depressive Disorders, Eating Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Self-Injury. We aim to add further information on other disorders as well as providing personal accounts. These personal accounts are being done by members of the group, which encourages member interaction and allows members to have a voice. We feel that personal accounts are an important move towards gaining a more in-depth understanding of specific mental disorders.

Member interaction makes the group what it is today, a friendly, safe, secure and informative community for various professionals and mental illness sufferers. We have five active message boards:

• INTRODUCTIONS: This board is to enable people to get to know each other and to share their stories with one another. It is very much a starting point for new members to become comfortable with other members and to form friendships before deciding whether the group is for them. We keep a close eye on the activity of the group and have found that a large majority of members do decide to stay with us.

• MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT: This board is used for members to ask questions, share experiences, and gain hope and reassurance. Also found on this board are tasks that enable members to gain some sense of self-worth and confidence. We promote the recognition of our positive characteristic traits as well as the recognition of our achievements, hopes and dreams.

• PSYCHOLOGY DEBATE: This message board is used for debate and discussion on various issues within psychology. Not only does it allow members to expand their thinking and learn more about their disorders, but it also gives them a much needed break from the psychological turmoil that many of them suffer from. This is a very popular board and one which brings the members together in some thought-provoking questioning.

• SOCIAL DEBATE: This message board is very much related to both the psychology debate board and the mental health support board, namely because it is often social issues that influence psychology and mental health. Many mental health support groups focus on the individual, but we strongly believe that we need to explore the social context in order to fully understand the individual. This board allows us to take our understanding further and to question our social surroundings in relation to our psychological issues.

The group is closely moderated, including any posts that go through to the message boards. This takes a great deal of time and effort, but we thrive off the fact that such efforts make the group a safer place to be for both our vulnerable members and those who wish to carry out constructive discussion.

We recognize that it is our members’ who make the group what it has become and what it will become. This is why we actively encourage feedback from them in the hope of continuous improvement. Some of the comments and feedback we have received can be seen below, the first two being taken from the Gratitude Journal and the final two being taken from our message boards:

"I am grateful for the fact that I have found this site and am able to share things with other people who might be interested in sharing their responses with us…"

"I am grateful for this Group’s Site because I learned about a kind of therapy for my condition, BPD, that I’d never heard about before, and that I think would work very well for me."

"So far this club has been amazing, I feel so welcomed and it’s a feeling that I haven’t had in a while…"

Our hard work and continuous efforts at improvement are not limited to what takes place at the group. Even when we are not moderating messages, providing support, debating, and adding new resources to the group, we are working hard behind the scenes. We are continuously working to improve and expand the group for our present members and for any future members. We do this through member feedback and by taking time to make future plans. Our primary aim at the present is to work towards becoming a registered charity so that we can offer more security to our members as well as gaining the opportunity to help more people.

Email Managers, Alex Buckley and Nicola Davies: nicnac234@hotmail.com.