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9th in our series introducing you to each of ourur BlogHer Conference '06 sessions and their speakers, and finding out what you would like to get from each session. Today, inspired by Health & Wellness editor Denise's recent post about self-harm, I bring you from Day Two:
Outreach Blogging is not for the faint-hearted
The debate: Life savers? Or Enablers? There's no doubt the online world can provide tremendous support, but can a blogger get in over her head? danah boyd will discuss with bloggers tackling the most sensitive subjects, such as anorexia, addiction and mental illness. Join Leah Peterson, Jenn Satterwhite, Denise Tanton and an anonymous blogger for a conversation you won't forget.
Denise is just one of the BlogHers willing to share her experiences in order to help others. We all know the Internet erases boundaries, but for many dealing with sensitive issues boundaries are exactly what they need to draw.
Meet the women who will share the responses they've gotten to blogging to help themselves and others...the good, the bad, the overwhelming. And find out how they deal with all of the above.
[img_assist|fid=512|thumb=1|alt=danah boyd] danah boyd is a well-known voice around the blogosphere. You might call her a social media anthropologist, studying what makes us tick online. She focuses on youth culture and has lately been turned to by technologists and the media alike as an expert on MySpace. danah will be on hand to give a big-picture perspective on the personal stories that each of our speakers will be telling.
[img_assist|fid=516|thumb=1|alt=Leah Peterson] Leah Peterson has a story to tell. She blogs and has written a book about her own mental illness. Leah had multiple personality dissociative identity disorder and finally was integrated in 2002. She is extremely open, answering all manner of questions in great detail about her experience. But she also gets way more incoming communication from people needing to talk or get help or get answers than she could ever deal with. So much so that this is a message on the page promoting her book:
I get a lot of emails from people that are or have suffered from a mental illness and/or depression or know someone who is or have read my book and want to contact me. My heart goes out to you and PLEASE know that I appreciate your emails and I read every single one. I regret that there is no possible way for me to answer them all. Please understand that if you write me and I don't answer, it's not because I don't care about you and your situation. The best advice I can give is Take Good Care of Yourself. Find a support group or contact a therapist. Look at your resources and see where you can find help that is close to you and preferably from someone that is licensed or has a degree, because I do not. I do want and wish the best for you in every way.
If you still want to, you can write me an email here. Sometimes I post the questions and answers on my blog. I can't tell you what you should do. I won't tell you what kind of medication to take. If you are in danger of hurting yourself or someone else, please call 911.
UPDATED: This post has been updated to delete identifying aspects of this speaker at her request. This anonymous blogger is a college student in xxxx, studying psychology. She is also a woman who has struggled with depression, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders and self-harm since her teen years began. She is brutally honest about all of it in her blog:
Why did I want to do that? I have been deliberately blocking out so much lately. Numbness takes over if I let it. I'm good at distracting myself with "not thinking". But sometimes the emotion is too overwhelming- too strong. And sometimes I can't even identify it. And that scares me.
I sat there for a long time. A really long time. As I sometimes tend to do during these crisis moments, I ran out of hot water, hoping that no one else in the building would know. I don't know why the tears don't come. Sometimes there just isn't anywhere for them to go. And I exhausted myself the other day when I had the worst flashback of my life.
So what exactly is
