and only mildly affected emets on this forum (I mean, besides sage)? And if so what do people feel their place should be?


This line of questioning may sound strange, but I have been thinking about it off and on for a while because, well frankly, sometimes I believe that this forum does not create a hospitable environment for the recovered or the mildly phobic (yes, I am in the mildly phobic category, so this thread is addressed to a self-interested concern).


One reason that I believe this is because of the sense that I get from the forum that disagreement and dissent are really not tolerated. And I think that this lack of tolerance toward disagreement is connected to the severity of the phobia. Some members have mentioned connections between disagreement and their reliance on this place for support.


From what I understand, if you (you being used in the general sense) are very, very anxious and the phobia is very severe, and you post something about the phobia or even something off topic, and someone disagrees, then I have heard that your comfort zone becomes threatened. You feel that you can no longer give and receive support on the forum because it's no longer a safe place. It's my theory (and of course, I could be wrong) that if your phobia is less severe or you've recovered that disagreement becomes much less threatening because you don't feel as if your main solace in this forum is being jeopardized.


I believe that people who are no longer as affected by emetophobia may tend in general to be a little more challenging and a little less validating in their posts, and maybe they can't help it because they now have a different perspective. Is there an opening for that perspective on the forum? Or should this forum only be a place for those debilitated on a daily basis by this phobia and for sage? Should less phobic members only answer in threads in which they can unequivocally agree with what is being said so as not to offend those who "aren't in the same place with their phobia"? I realize that many recovered emets no longer bother coming to this forum, and that may just be because they don't need the help from here, which is fine. But for those of us who are recovered or who have less intense phobias, some of us do still come here, and we must all have our individual reasons.


Feel free to disagree with the premise of my post [img]smileys/smilies_02.gif[/img]Edited by: japa