These guidelines helps Anxiety Space keep to its mission of a community for the half a billion people worldwide who battle anxiety. With this in mind, everyone has to follow these guidelines when participating on the Anxiety Space.



About the Guidelines

The guidelines are written as principles rather than clear right-and-wrong rules, examples and quotes are included to help define the principles. Don't use the wording of these guidelines to 'win' arguments, common sense should be used to interpret its underlying purpose and apply it to the given situation, on a case-by-case basis.

The guidelines was written based on community feedback, accreditation and legal requirements while complying with our mission. Anyone can propose changes or additions to these guidelines, as long as the change is support by the community, complies with our accreditation and legal requirements, and is within our mission it will be adopted.

Staff and their decisions

The moderation staff is task to implement the guidelines and help Anxiety Space keep to its mission. Staff has the discretion to do or not do whatever they think is necessary to do so, including issuing advisories, restricting access to specific or all areas of the site for a period of time and referring for permanent restriction. A referral of permanent restriction is considered by all staff and only is implemented when there is consensus for it. Staff can suspend a restriction if they feel it is no longer necessary, although staff are not required to suspend all restrictions given out.

Constructive criticism of the site and actions of the staff is encouraged when raised in the appropriate locations such as the 'Helpdesk' or in a PM to a staff member, however, personally attacking staff members either publicly or privately will not be tolerated. As volunteers, staff give their own time to help Anxiety Space keep to its mission, due respect should be shown.

Belittlement and Harassment

Quote Leo Buscaglia
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Anxiety Space has a clear mission of supporting all sufferers, excluding no-one. All sufferers should be welcomed and given your understanding and respect, not belittled, bullied, dismissed or harassed. Belittlement and Harassment may include:

  • Arguing who has it worst, e.g. [blank] has it worse than [blank], or I rather have [blank] than [blank].
  • Suggesting some people can not suffer or is better placed therefore can't suffer.
  • Unsolicited and unwelcome advice on curing a person's suffering.
  • Downplaying the suffering of others or suggesting their suffering is not as bad as your own.
  • Assigning undue blame on a person, people or groups of people for your suffering.
  • Patronizing, condescending or talking down to others, e.g. "just get over it".
  • Making others feel intimidated or vulnerable, either directly or indirectly, i.e. bullying.
  • Being passive aggressive against or stalking another member.
  • Unsolicited and unwelcome sexual advances, flirtations or repetitive date requests.
  • Dismissing or downplaying others' suffering or views because of their appearance, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, race, health conditions or type of suffering.


Personal Attacks

Quote Eleanor Roosevelt
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Do not make personal attacks anywhere on Anxiety Space. Comment on content, not on the contributor. Personal attacks do not help make a point; they only hurt the community. Personal attacks may include:

  • Inflammatory, intolerant or hateful remarks towards a person or a group of people based on their appearance, age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality, religion, race or health conditions.
  • Using someone's affiliations, whether mainstream or not, as an ad hominem means of dismissing or discrediting their views, e.g. you're a train spotter so what would you know about fashion?
  • Unduly comparing people to Nazis, dictators, or other infamous persons. See also Godwin's law.
  • False statements, spreading of gossip or revealing private information that is not of the concern of others.
  • Accusations about personal behaviour that lack evidence. Serious accusations require serious evidence.

When in doubt, comment on content without referring to its contributor at all.

Conflicts and Dramas

Quote Mahatma Gandhi
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Anxiety Space is not a soap opera. Be adults, settle disagreements and lets create and share good times. Sometimes it gets hard to communicate over the internet, because it's difficult to know the tone of the contributor's words or their body language as you are not looking at them only their text. Unless there is clear evidence to the contrary, assume good faith, assume people are here to join the community, not hurt it.

Sexual and Adult Content

For the comfort of members, limits are in-place for sexual and adult content on Anxiety Space. One of the founding principles of Anxiety Space is no unwarranted censorship, but sexual and adult content is censored for the comfort of members. The discussion of these topics can be triggering for members with PTSD. While others may just feel uncomfortable to discuss such topics publicly. For these reasons, this content is limited to the restricted 'Adults Only' section.

Although the 'Adults Only' section is exempted from this censorship, other guidelines still apply, especially the Belittlement and Intolerance guideline. Sexual topics can be hard for some people to discuss and talk about. Members should be aware of this and not mock, bully or belittle others and instead be understanding, otherwise members who do so will find themselves locked out of the section. Access to the section is not given out automatically, access is only granted to adult members when a number of conditions are met. If you have any questions, contact a staff member.

Inappropriate Content

For the well-being of members, any contributions made should not be inappropriate, disturbing or harmful. Anxiety Space is a mental health support online community, not a place for pornography, crime, violence, or anything else that is inappropriate, find somewhere else for that. Inappropriate content may include text, images or video that:

  • Discusses or promotes illicit drug use that is not a medical treatment prescribed by a doctor. For this guideline, illicit drugs is defined to only include designer substances, cocaine, MDMA, GHB, heroin, methamphetamine, mephedrone, PCP, PMA, PMMA, intoxicative inhalants, and nootropics.
  • Promotes, incites or instructs in overdosing, harmful mixing, illegally obtaining of prescription drugs.
  • Infringes others' copyrights. Under the Berne Convention, all works are automatically copyrighted by their creators. Permission must be acquired or the usage must falls under fair use before it is republished here.
  • Is considered to be pornographic. For the purposes of these guidelines, pornography is any material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement.
  • Is excessive, duplication, irrelevance, advertising or considered a nuisance.
  • Is considered disturbing, criminal, violent, hateful or cruel to a reasonable person.


Self-harm and Suicide

If you feel like you're going to harm yourself or others, please take a look at these links, it only takes a few minutes.

Quote Phil Donahue
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Because of the nature of this forum, we aren't going to permit suicide threats or discussion. On your personal blog space, sharing your feelings is fine, but please do not share threats or methods.

Last updated: 28 February 2017