Guideline Reminder - Giving Advice

[Kizzie]

For those who are new here, occasionally we will post a guideline reminder about something we're seeing creeping onto the board.  We discourage giving advice in the form of "You should do this or that" because none of us knows what is best for someone else. 

What we can do is share our experience and make suggestions that might help then leave it up to the member to make their own decision. 

The only exception to this are if the member is in danger (suicide, domestic violence, self-harm) and then we do recommend they seek help as soon as possible.

While we encourage members to support and encourage others in theirs recovery, it is important to remember that we are each here to work on our own recovery first and foremost.  Many of us with CPTSD have been trained to be caretakers and recovery for us involves resisting the temptation to do so here at OOTS.   

Feel free to share how you cope or have coped with various situations and to make suggestions (as long as they are phrased as such) - that's the purpose of this forum, but please don't make blanket statements like "You *should* do this and that" based on what you think and/or have read in the resources about CPTSD.  Another person's situation may be very different from yours.  Often, people need to come to their own conclusions in their own time frame. We are all coming from different stages, situations, and backgrounds.