Immediate support
Immediate support

BB Social Zone

Talking about mental health can be heavy. We get that. BB Social Zone offers a space where you can chill out and socialise with other members.

Start a discussion

FAQ

Find answers to some of the more frequently asked questions on the Forums.

View the FAQ

Forums guidelines

Our guidelines keep the Forums a safe place for people to share and learn information.

View the guidelines
Jump to
Start a discussion

Pinned discussions

Sophie_M Welcome to the BB Social Zone - guidelines for posting in this section
  • replies: 0

Hi everyone, This section of the forum is a little different to the others, as you may have noticed in looking around the threads. Elsewhere on the forums, we discuss some pretty heavy topics: mental health issues, thoughts of suicide, trauma, abuse,... View more

Hi everyone, This section of the forum is a little different to the others, as you may have noticed in looking around the threads. Elsewhere on the forums, we discuss some pretty heavy topics: mental health issues, thoughts of suicide, trauma, abuse, relationship breakdowns. Here is the place to come to get away from that and have a bit of fun. Distraction can be an important tool to draw on if you're finding yourself overwhelmed by distressing thoughts and feelings. As this is a section for respite from difficult topics, we will remove posts made in this section that attempt to discuss personal issues. Please use a support thread in the appropriate section for these discussions. Happy posting!

Kazzl The BB cafe
  • replies: 20502

The BB cafe is open for business! Welcome all to a new chill and chat place for everyone on the forum. The BB cafe is whatever you want it to be. There are comfy sofas, tables and chairs, coffee machines, a kitchen stocked with everything. There's a ... View more

The BB cafe is open for business! Welcome all to a new chill and chat place for everyone on the forum. The BB cafe is whatever you want it to be. There are comfy sofas, tables and chairs, coffee machines, a kitchen stocked with everything. There's a pool outside, a bbq area, an annexe with comfy beds for a quiet sleep, tv, dvd, books and whatever else you would like to have here. Most of all, it's a place to meet friends and fellow travellers for a bit of company. Talk over problems, tell jokes, share your day, escape into a world of your making. Grab a coffee and pull up a chair ... So, with a nod to the wonderful Carole King (Hard Rock Cafe) ... Now if you're feeling just a little bit lonely Don't sit at home just mopin' Come on down to where the friendship flows freely You know the door is always open At the BB cafe Come to the BB cafe They will help keep your blues at bay At the BB cafe Important Message from ModSupport: The main intention of the BB Cafe is to encourage light conversation. Please look after your fellow community members by nuturing the BB Cafe as a place to escape some of the more pressing issues in life and save those conversations for personal threads.

All discussions

Start a discussion

Guy40s Very Depressed - Islamic Terrorism
  • replies: 19

I am very depressed and concerned by what is happening in our world thanks to Islamic terror groups and Wahhabism. I am extremely alarmed at what I see happening in Iraq with regards to ISIS.What is occurring in our world today is unacceptable and it... View more

I am very depressed and concerned by what is happening in our world thanks to Islamic terror groups and Wahhabism. I am extremely alarmed at what I see happening in Iraq with regards to ISIS.What is occurring in our world today is unacceptable and it saddens me deeply. Tears in my eyes when I look at my 2 year old daughter. It upsets me to think of what her generation might inherit in her world. It breaks my heart to watch the news.The worlds people must unite and stop this immensely anti-social and in humane belief system which is robbing humanity of freedom and diginity.I am troubled, concerned and worried. Sadness consumes me daily. I keep thinking of the quote "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." I haven't seen any good men yet.

AGrace Back from holidays
  • replies: 6

Hi Everyone, I know I had mentioned to a number of you that I was going away for a bit, so I thought I'd let you know I'm back. My partner and I spent 9 days in Langkawi (Malaysia). A must see destination if you're thinking of travelling somewhere wh... View more

Hi Everyone, I know I had mentioned to a number of you that I was going away for a bit, so I thought I'd let you know I'm back. My partner and I spent 9 days in Langkawi (Malaysia). A must see destination if you're thinking of travelling somewhere where you can relax and recooperate. The weather was fantastic, around 30deg each day with about 80% humidity. It was good to finally shed those winter clothes for a while. Each day we did something touristic from riding the cable car, to island hopping on a speed boat, shopping, visiting mosques, and enjoying the wonderful wildlife. We spent a lot of time sipping pineapple juice by the pool, and I indulged in plenty of spa treatments. The people on the island, and those who came to visit were extremely friendly, and the food was incredible with so many different influences from all across Asia. I'm glad to be back home, and I'm already planning our next holiday. It's great to see so many new people on the forums, and it's great that so many of the regular community members have been supporting others. I've spent a lot of time over the weekend trying to catch up with some of the posts that have been coming through, and look forward to reading more of your experiences over the coming weeks. Hope you all had a lovely weekend. AGrace

Neil_1 Canada - other highlights (the last one, I promise :)
  • replies: 17

I think I could write forever about this time away, but I might wrap it up here; although another thing that I did that I didn’t think I’d ever do was to go zip-lining and that was FUN! Firstly with my daughter up at Grouse Mountain in Vancouver; and... View more

I think I could write forever about this time away, but I might wrap it up here; although another thing that I did that I didn’t think I’d ever do was to go zip-lining and that was FUN! Firstly with my daughter up at Grouse Mountain in Vancouver; and the 2nd time on the cruise with both son and daughter at a little place called Skagway, in amongst a huge pine forest. That’s pretty much the major tree over there – pines. And zip-lining is awesome fun. Other highlights In Kelowna, we got to hire a speed boat (250 horsepower engine) and boy oh boy, that was some awesome fun. Driving a speed boat out on a massive lake was just AWE-some. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do and is also on a list of things that I’d like to own in my future and to do some fishing, etc. What a buzz that was. And in Ketchikan (Alaska) we took a tour off our cruise ship and boarded a float plane. The float plane business in Alaska and Vancouver is massive and we saw so many of them taking off etc, that we thought, we really should do this. So in the plane there was room for 7, including the pilot and that’s another incredible experience that’s really hard to describe. We flew over some great scenery near Ketchikan, mountains, streams and many lakes. Even landed on a lake and we got to stand out on the float of the plane for a little while, with gigantic mountains rising up all around us. It was peaceful beyond words. In Banff, we also were able to hire a little boat with a small-ish outboard motor and took it out on a lake and the kids were able to operate that one, which was a big thrill for them. Alaska and Canada, over and out. Neil

Filee WRITING HELPS ME SO MUCH< I HOPE YOU LIKE THIS ONE <
  • replies: 2

WHO ARE? You visit without warning, Who are you that visits? You visit in the depths of the night, sending chills throughout my body, Who are you that visits? You visit as day breaks, Who are you that visits? You stay although you are not welcome, Wh... View more

WHO ARE? You visit without warning, Who are you that visits? You visit in the depths of the night, sending chills throughout my body, Who are you that visits? You visit as day breaks, Who are you that visits? You stay although you are not welcome, Who are you that visits? You clutter my mind, you consume my every thought, Who are you that visits? How come you have chosen me, what makes me so special that you want to be with me? Who are you that visits? You trap me in a dark place not wanting to venture out Who are you that visits? You make the light of day seem like the darkness of night! Who are you that visits? You feed off my tears, my fears, my fright, and you push me into darkness, that feels like a deep pit There seems no end to this bottomless pit Try as you might, I won’t let you beat me no I won’t Who are you that visits without an invite? Yes I now know just who you are Well guess what? DEPRESSION IS OUT!!!!! `��f

Neil_1 Canada - holiday experience (whale watching) Part 3
  • replies: 3

We went on a whale watching tour which was one of the best things that I’ve ever done. We got out to see a group of about 10-12 humpback whales and they were feeding at the time on small fish (herring, if I remember rightly) – it’s called Bubble feed... View more

We went on a whale watching tour which was one of the best things that I’ve ever done. We got out to see a group of about 10-12 humpback whales and they were feeding at the time on small fish (herring, if I remember rightly) – it’s called Bubble feeding and the tour guide told us that only a very small amount of people in the world ever get to see this phenomenon. A quick rundown of it: What you see are a stack of seagulls circling around and then when you see the seagulls zoom down to the water that means that the whales are about to explode out of the water. You see, as underneath the water, the whales are creating bubbles (thousands of bubbles) and they create the bubbles in a circle – and the bubbles trap the fish. The whales then move up toward the surface and the fish swim to the surface (seemingly trapped by the bubbles) – and that’s what has the interest of the seagulls because moments before the whales appear, you fleetingly see the fish jumping up out of the water and some of the seagulls are lucky enough to score a fish. It is THEN that the whales appear in a rush out of the water travelling straight up with their mouths open and hundreds of litres (gallons) of water enter their mouths and they come out of the water – how far out of the water is hard to say, but it would have to have been around several metres; they then turn and glide along the top of the water and jet out massive sprays of water out of their blowholes and the sound is something else and they do this for about a minute and just before they dive again to try for another bout of feeding, this is when they kind of arch their back (hence their name of humpback) and you see their enormous tail arch up into the air and then slide back into the water. They are a huge huge mammal and it’s something that I’ll remember forever. On that particular evening, we also saw two Orcas – amazing because our guide told us that it’s not an often thing to see them. Then as we were heading back, we went past a giant water bouy and just lazing in on it, we saw 6 sea lions, just sunning themselves. At that particular time it was 7:30pm. Sunset over there was on average sometime after 9pm, and sunrises (never saw any of them) were around 4:30am. We also saw salmon spawning up some tiny creeks, masses of salmon jumping in the waters of the inside passage, heaps of sea otters, seals.

Neil_1 Canada - my holiday experience (Part 1)
  • replies: 3

Hi all Now, this will be a fair read – and it won’t make the one message, so I’ll try and split it up as appropriately as I can so it flows from one to the other in an ok and readable fashion. Well, we’re now back from a most amazing trip. Still kind... View more

Hi all Now, this will be a fair read – and it won’t make the one message, so I’ll try and split it up as appropriately as I can so it flows from one to the other in an ok and readable fashion. Well, we’re now back from a most amazing trip. Still kinda jet-lagged at the moment, as we flew all night from LA to Brisbane and as a result, we by-passed Tuesday completely. I hope nothing major happened on that day, cause we saw none of it. How very weird really. Firstly as I’d imagine a lot of you are wondering – I had lots of up times which was fantastic, but I also had to deal with some bad down times as well. I won’t go too much into the down times as I want to try and keep this post as ‘up five’ as possible. The parts of Canada we saw - amazing. Calgary – we were there a week before the Stampede hits their city and when I say hits their city, I mean it – it is one massive event. Edmonton – wasn’t too bad either and by now we had our hire vehicle. We had to firstly upgrade from a Dodge Chrysler to a Ford SUV simply because the boot (trunk) space wasn’t big enough for all our bags!! The SUV was a neat little car though and was a breeze to drive and for the most part I did keep on the right hand side of the road. The Rockies (Jasper and Banff) – um, breath-taking. Stunning views every which way you looked and the amount of snow still up high was incredible, as they are well into their summer months. And with summer comes mozzies (or as they know them as, Skeeters) and it’s an unwritten funny fact that the mozzie is Canada’s national bird – as they’re that BIG! Holy smoke, I swear at one stage I was being half carried by the buggas at one stage. Fortunately though, we didn’t encounter too many of them which is a very good thing. Photos – well we took a bit over 4,000 of them. My daughter is an avid photographer and she is simply sensational with taking photos (or as the American/Canadian’s call them, pictures). We scored some very good photos of Black Bears and we even got one of a mum and her cub and oh my, the cub was cute; and as you’re driving along it’s so easy to see if there’s something by the side of the road as you’ll see anything between 4-10 cars parked by the side of the road and you cruise up slowly (and if you don’t see anyone out of their cars, you know it’s a bear). Otherwise, people jump out of their cars and snap off photos of goats, deer or elk.

Neil_1 Canada - my holiday experience (Part TWO)
  • replies: 0

We actually saw more bears than elk or deer. On a horse ride, me and my daughter saw a deer actually chase off a coyote that was quite close to the horses. That was pretty special. We also saw a fair number of goats and some baby (kids) which were ve... View more

We actually saw more bears than elk or deer. On a horse ride, me and my daughter saw a deer actually chase off a coyote that was quite close to the horses. That was pretty special. We also saw a fair number of goats and some baby (kids) which were very cute also. In between Jasper and Banff (about a 4 hour drive) we stopped off at the Columbia Icefield and we took a tour to stand on the Athabaskar Glacier and had to get onto it via a specially designed bus – amazing stuff; and then we did a walk on a skywalk that is glass based, so you can see right down to the bottom of the canyon. Standing out on an extended walkway with glass bottom looking down to a river far below! If you’d told me that I would have done that before we left, I would have told you that I thought you were bananas, but I did do it and it was pretty amazing. The cruise from Vancouver up to Alaska via the “inner passage” was simply awesome. We went on the Holland America line, ship’s name was the Zuiderdam (pron Zoo-der-dam) and for a period of 7 days, we encountered roughly two days where it was cold. All the rest we just lucked out with brilliant weather. In fact, Canada is experiencing some amazing summer weather – warm days (although they call it HOT HOT HOT) and next to no rainfall where we were. On the cruise we did a whale watching tour from Alaska’s capital of Juneau (and what an amazing capital – not overly big and there’s only 3 ways of getting to Juneau – by air, by water and by birth). They have a road that goes for 9 mile in one direction and then it ends and in the other direction it goes for about 40 miles and then it ends. So over the years all vehicles that are there have had to be ferried in. If I recall correctly the population of Juneau in summer is around 2,500 people and in winter it drops down to about 500 people.

Cameron66 New here :-)
  • replies: 3

Hey everyone I am 42 years old and live in Melbourne. (Permanently migrated from south africa 18 months ago). Have been on meds for anxiety for past 13 years but last two years have been noticing a pattern of monthly highs (for a week) where my perso... View more

Hey everyone I am 42 years old and live in Melbourne. (Permanently migrated from south africa 18 months ago). Have been on meds for anxiety for past 13 years but last two years have been noticing a pattern of monthly highs (for a week) where my personality changes, I am extremely extrovert, louder, confident and so positive. (This is where I sign up for courses or gym memberships freely). I also catch up on dreaded phone calls and seem to interact with utmost confidence with strangers. A week or so later I seem to get lower and barely interact, self esteem low and generally tired. After this I seem flat with underlying nervous energy. Rinse. Repeat. Oh I also have lupus (very manageable, hardly symptoms except tiredness) Enough about me. Looking to make friends in similar situations. Thanks for reading.

geoff Geoff just letting you all know
  • replies: 8

dear All, well even the longest responder can't go without having a relapse, so at the moment I am climbing up the black hole again, so you never can overcome depression even though I often say that I have, but there is always some catalyst lurking i... View more

dear All, well even the longest responder can't go without having a relapse, so at the moment I am climbing up the black hole again, so you never can overcome depression even though I often say that I have, but there is always some catalyst lurking in the background ready to pounce again. Many times I can push it away, but we all have our weak points and by having OCD hasn't helped me at all, moving into a new residence where all your 'friends' disappear when you want them to help you, funny that because we all know it happens with our depression. My sons have both offered to help, but one lives about 9 or 10 hours away, and the other has 2 young children and works 12 hour night shifts, so I declined their offers, as much as they wanted to help me. I know that I will get better, it's happened to me before, and this will be no different, so I will be still be posting back to you but only slowly at the moment. I care for you all and want to thank you all who have kept this forum alive, with many new members joining each day. You endeavour to help people is what is so lovely about this site, and to those people who I regularly reply back to, I am still here so never give up. Sorry guys look away, but L Geoff. x

geoff now I have to re-join
  • replies: 1

I am so sorry that I have not been able to pull my finger out, because there are so many posts that need attention, and the beautiful people who have been carrying the weight, you are all just brilliant, and have being doing a fantastic effort, but n... View more

I am so sorry that I have not been able to pull my finger out, because there are so many posts that need attention, and the beautiful people who have been carrying the weight, you are all just brilliant, and have being doing a fantastic effort, but now I have to get over this relapse which I am now doing and I am starting to gain my strength back. There are so many posts which I can relate to, and hell I want to assist you all, because it's too big a job for those that continually respond, so I will 'be back' tomorrow as there are some issues for myself which I have undertaken, after this relapse which seems to have been my worst, and that can be spoken about later on. Geoff. x