Community Rules

These rules apply to all activity on Mental-Health-Community.com or Health Union operated properties, including but not limited to the website, Mental-Health-Community.com, and all Health Union Facebook pages, Instagram, etc. The term "activity" includes, but is not limited to posts, comments, replies, direct messages, status updates.

Please see the complete Mental-Health-Community.com Terms of Use for more information.

We encourage open conversation within Mental-Health-Community.com – it is our goal to create the best and largest online community of experts and patients dedicated exclusively to mental health. But please be courteous, and stay on topic. We realize that discussions around healthcare can be sensitive and sometimes emotional, and disagreement is okay. However, all activity must be respectful, non-inflammatory, and non-threatening.

The content of Mental-Health-Community.com is intended for users 18 years of age or older. If you are under the age of 18, you are not permitted to register as a member of Mental-Health-Community.com.

Your activity (which includes, but is not limited to posts, comments, replies, direct messages, status updates) may be edited or deleted at the sole discretion of Mental-Health-Community.com moderators if it does not comply with the following community rules:

1. Activity must relate to the subject of mental health or living with mental health. Posts completely unrelated to this topic may be deleted.
2. Conversations about religion, sex, and politics should be in the context of mental health. Also, they must be worded in ways that are not offensive nor inflammatory. For example, talking about legislation that affects a person living with mental health is fine; making disparaging remarks about a specific politician or political group is not.
3. Posts cannot contain any personal contact information such as an e-mail address, physical/mailing address or phone numbers. And please remember that Mental-Health-Community.com, like the entire Internet, is discoverable by search engines, etc.
4. Posts must be written in English; we can only moderate comments written in English.
5. Posts cannot offer medical advice of any kind.
6. Posts cannot encourage any illegal activity. Posts that discuss illegal activity but do not encourage it may be allowed if they pertain to the conversation at hand as well as to mental health.
7. Messaging many users at once, sending repeated messages, and/or sending any form of unwelcome messaging is not permitted. Continued violation of this rule may result in your account being closed and banned from the site.
8. Content copied from another person or site must be fully referenced and credited to the original author. If you’re not sure, don’t use it.
9. Posts cannot be commercial in nature or contain any direct or indirect solicitations, including solicitations to participate in legal action or fundraisers, offers to sell a product or service or participate in surveys, studies, invitations to join closed/private groups, etc., without the prior approval of Mental-Health-Community.com. Petitions that advocate for community members based on the condition, that do not involve commercial interest, may be allowed. Oh, and usernames can’t be commercial, either. Usernames like “MyProductIsTheBest” will be deleted.
10. Posts cannot promote the sale of anything, ever. We do not allow users to offer to sell, barter or trade any items of any kind. We suggest you use any of the many other sites/services that are specifically dedicated to those types of transactions.
11. All user-generated and/or submitted activity may be viewable to the public and visible to search engines. While users may be able to delete some posts and user activity, stories cannot be deleted.
12. Users must only post information that is true and factually correct, to the best of their knowledge.
13. Posts must be respectful; it’s OK to disagree but personal attacks against moderators, bloggers, writers or fellow community members will not be tolerated. Please be careful about making derogatory statements or accusations about others by name, including other community members, employers, physicians, etc. While you should feel free to speak your mind, remember that you are accountable for any written statements you make. Any post that can be considered libel may be deleted.
14. Multiple comments or posts of the same content (i.e.: posting the same article multiple times) or posting multiple articles with no context can be interpreted as spam and may be deleted.
15. Blatant profanity is not permitted, however, self-censored swear words are allowed. For example, using asterisks or other symbols instead of including the word in its entirety is permitted. Many individuals find this to be a helpful way to express themselves while being considerate to those who are sensitive to and/or offended by the use of profanity.
16. Community Members in clinical trials are asked to respect and adhere to the guidelines of their trial protocol, with regards to communicating information about the trial. Some clinical trials have rules that ask participants not to share information, such as reactions to medications, until the trial has been completed. While we encourage discussion about participation in clinical trials and recognize it is important for people to share their experiences, certain blinded studies require participants not to disclose symptoms or details to anyone other than their health care professionals, as not to bias the study or other study participants.
17. We do not allow nudity or sexual content on our platform unless it specifically refers to living with mental health. When warranted, we report violative content to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and/or other relevant legal authorities.
18. Completing activities for the purposes of cheating or gaming rewards, giveaways, and/or surveys will not be tolerated.

Individuals who violate these rules may have their posting privileges revoked without warning.

Last updated April 16, 2022.