Hi @ihatediabetes, There are 3 things in the message above that I would like to address separately:

1. Ground rules about suicide and self-harm
- You said "can we agree to not attempt or commit suicide while we are engaging people on mayo connect? Can we agree to not self harm like cutting or burning or hurting anybody else while we are talking to people on connect?"
- These would be great ground rules. However, as you know, this is a promise that may not be possible to keep. We cannot guarantee that no member will talk about suicide or self-harm in the Mental Health group. If someone does talk about it, I hope that the community can help in its limited way.

2. Lay people vs health care professionals
- You said "In my opinion we lay people can't substitute for professional mental health care."
- I totally agree. These discussions are peer-to-peer connections between lay people. The power of connecting with other people who have been there can be incredible powerful for healing, understanding the experience of disease, getting support with personal health goals, advocating for better care and so much more. But the discussions on Connect are not a replacement for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This is outlined in the Connect Disclaimer: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/disclaimer/

3. Managing your settings and email notifications
You can set your preferences and choose which email notifications you receive from Connect. You can set your preference in you Account Settings: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/account/

If at any time you no longer want to receive notifications from a particular discussion thread, simply click "Unsubscribe" in the bottom of the email. For more tips about following groups and setting notification preferences see this page https://connect.mayoclinic.org/get-started-on-connect/

Thank you ihatediabetes for bringing up these 3 important topics!

Thanks for reply. I think I will take break from mental health since it's been destabilizing for me.

@ihatediabetes It's important to take care of yourself and I'm glad to see that you can do that. Please rejoin us whenever you are ready. You will be welcome! Best wishes, Teresa

Hi, I am doing ok. I talked to psychologist about remembering looking for my mom - to see if she was ok. So that memory came back to me from this group discussion. I didn't remember. So it turned out to be helpful even though discussion was triggering for me. I was in the park yesterday and today walking through trees and being happy.

Thanks for coming back to share this @ihatediabetes. While I'm sure the trigger experience was difficult, it is good to know that there was a benefit and that the Connect community could contribute to that benefit.