Sober Living Forum Guidelines & Triggering Post Guidelines for Recovery Support

[ocean]

SOBER LIVING
Forum Guidelines

The mission of the 'Sober Living' is to create a community of support for those desiring to manage addiction and pursue a sober lifestyle. This forum supports a broad range of approaches, from 12-step and Smart Recovery, to individual and personal journeys outside of standard approaches. We recognize that a supportive and understanding peer community is essential to this process from the first step of recognition of the problem, to managing withdrawals, to information sharing about transitioning from a life of drug use to a sober lifestyle and all the challenges that entails. Many of us came to Bluelight as drug users and now find ourselves in the position of needing to close that chapter. The aim of this forum is to create a community specific to that goal.


It is of utmost importance to understand that this is not a site for medical advice. This forum is not staffed by qualified medically trained personnel.Any medical information obtained from the Internet should be researched and cross-referenced and ultimately discussed with a qualified health care provider.​

Welcome to Sober Living!

The purpose of the Sober Living Forum is to create a safe, specific community for people working towards addiction recovery. Many members of BL have experience in addiction and recovery, and continue to offer guidance and support to others who are just beginning to develop new ways of managing and coping with their own personal struggles with drug use. This is a place to discuss treatment options, medications and support group information.
This forum is a judgment-free network of support for the journey to a sober life.
We encourage sharing your experiences with sensitivity to others issues, and with an understanding that each person's experience and circumstances are different.
When it comes to Support Groups, there are many different options- we do not endorse one system over another and in the spirit of helping others encourage everyone to keep an open mind and not pass judgement on what may work for some, but not yourself. Everyone is here for a common goal, we should be sure to celebrate a persons success through whatever form of Support Group they find effective.
Please offer advice with that in mind.

Through sharing information and experiences on transitioning into a sober lifestyle, assisting each other in reaching our own personal goals in recovery, developing and exploring the many options available, as well as offering information and open discussion on various Support Group options, we can all work towards developing a more informed approach to overcoming substance abuse. Our goal is to create a positive, empowered self-awareness in order to bring peace into our lives.




SL Staff

Please do not hesitate to contact any of the Recovery Section Staff Members with questions, concerns or suggestions about the forum. We are here to help you. If your question/suggestion is either about the forum's guidelines or the way something is handled in Sober Living, it is best to PM a moderator. If you have a specific problem with a given moderator, either PM that moderator, or contact a member of the senior staff.

Moderators

PriestTheyCalledHim (Moderator)
Manboychef (Moderator)
Toothpastedog (Moderator)

Senior Staff

herbavore(Senior Moderator)
neversickanymore (Senior Moderator)
Captain.Heroin (Senior Moderator)

Forum Rules

Given the sensitive nature of this forum, it's inevitable that rules must be enforced.

Summary

Forum guidelines are in addition to the Bluelight User Agreement (BLUA) that is enforced across Bluelight.

As said above, SL is primarily here for people who are suffering from addiction of some kind, are looking for a base of support, and have questions or answers about others experiences, types of therapy, support groups or medications to assist in reaching their goal .
Recovery is a difficult road and any posts, images, videos or any other material a moderator may be triggering will not be permitted.

Specific Guidelines for Posting in the Sober Living Forum:

• Never advise anyone to start, alter the dosage or abruptly stop a medication. Abruptly stopping or inadequately tapering a medication can have disastrous effects.
• Never advise the use of legal or illegal drugs to self-medicate. Self-medication can lead to larger problems when not regulated by a knowledgeable practitioner.
• When sharing personal experiences, opinions or anecdotal information regarding medications or treatments it is important that readers understand that what you are saying is your own valid perspective but not necessarily objective fact.
• Always remember that people may be vulnerable or in crisis. When posting advice, it is good practice to stress that the person also seek professional help in addition to the support of Bluelight.
• Rude or abusive posts will not be tolerated. Mental health diagnosis and treatment is very controversial. It is a complex subject that we all feel very passionate about for extremely personal reasons. Always keep in mind that the goal of discussion and debate is to expand knowledge, not to contract it.

Additional Guidelines for Posting in Sober Living:

• Treat others with respect; i.e. no "flaming," "trolling" or posting of "memes."
• Do not use SWIM; be honest about the subjects within your stories.
• "Tough Love" is appropriate at times, but keep in mind the mental state of the individual in need and use appropriate discretion.
• Do not post images of cuts, burns, wounds and the like - self-inflicted or not.
• Do not post pictures of drugs or alcohol.
• Nudity will not be tolerated.
• Do not place "triggering" material, even behind NSFW tags. If it's questionable enough to feel the need to do so, don't post it at all.
• If a post is edited by a Moderator, do not edit the post. You can PM the Moderator or any other TDS Staff member to discuss the edit or removal of a post if you are not clear on why.
• Refrain from posting anything that may be triggering to others.

Safety Disclaimer

Even though some TDS/MH/SL members are in professional positions in real life, Sober Living is a non-professional support effort. We don't diagnose or prescribe here. It is better to give our ideas about the nature of other people's problems or the tactics they may use to get better as suggestions rather than as declarations.

Abusive Posts

Many threads throughout the Recovery Section, including SL, require more tactfulness than ordinary posting situations.
Posts that are intended to shame, humiliate, or provoke are not acceptable here.
If a member is a continuous irritant to another member, but is not attacking anyone nor breaking any rules, then the best solution is to put the member you have problems with on your ignore list via UserCP.
If someone is creating a hostile environment, breaking BLUA or forum guidelines, we ask you to please use the report function ().
The report function calls the situation to the attention of the entire MH/TDS/SL staff.
It's often tempting to reply to such posts, but by using the report function, The Recovery Section Staff will use their best judgment in order to remedy the situation.
You may also reach out to any of the moderators, if you feel that after reporting a post, the issue has not been dealt with appropriately.

 

[Black Rabbit of Inle]

Triggering Post Guidelines for Recovery Support

Hello everyone!

As part of our continuing efforts to make our new Recovery Forums as welcoming as possible to those who are working to become or stay sober, we have a rule which is unique among Bluelight's forums: the no-triggering rule. I just wanted to use this opportunity to remind people, that even though we now have The Dark Side, Mental Health and Sober Living, this rule is in effect across all three sections.

Basically, it means that one shouldn't post content of any sort that may trigger someone to relapse. This can include things like glorification or fond remembrances of drug or alcohol use, photos of drugs or obviously intoxicated people, etc... This rule, while important to how Recovery Support functions, can be difficult to enforce, as what may be triggering to one person may well be fine for another, even if they are both recovering from addiction to the same substance.

In focus threads, and other threads dealing with specific addiction or withdrawal issues, the rule remains the same: discussion is permitted, but no glorification. In the social threads, no discussion of drugs, legal or otherwise, save for caffeine, will be permitted. The rationale behind this is that there are plenty of other threads in which to discuss the ins and outs of one's drug use, and therefore this shouldn't stifle social conversation.

Discussion of psychiatric drugs in threads should be kept to personal experiences only. Also, please refrain from suggesting anyone to stop or change their medications abruptly without discussing it with a GP first.

Thanks guys for being patient and understanding throughout this transition.