Disappointed

@GenerousLychee4993 I guess you haven't been here in awhile? It's been sad to watch the decline. Listeners ghost members or they're inappropriate. There used to be genuine conversations but now you get the usual canned response (not always but a lot of the times) there's a lot of positivity bordering on toxic at times in all honesty. The censoring can have you scanning for an hour  something you typed and tried to post but it wouldn't let you.  And well, chances are this thread or my post will be deleted because it doesn't fit the narrative. But the forum mod will pm you to let you know they deleted it and why lol oh and we both might get behavior points but I'm not 100% sure about that. Guess we'll find out. 

@GenerousLychee4993  Any time I come here, it's a coin toss as far as whether I will leave here feeling better or feeling worse.

I stopped trying to talk to listeners because I kept getting ghosted.  On the other side of things, I stopped being a listener because of how members acted in those sessions.

If anyone else's experience being a listener has been like mine was, I can understand why the quality listeners are in short supply.  People would message me about things that made me wonder if I was being trolled.  People would tell me about things they wanted to do that would harm others and/or were illegal.  When I went to the listener support chat, I was scolded instead of supported.  That -- along with my own declining mental health -- was enough to convince me I didn't need to be a listener anymore.

It's a shame that things have declined to the point that it's hard to find a good listener, but I can understand why.  I come to 7 Cups to use the chat rooms and I try to keep my expectations fairly low in order to avoid feeling let down.  But I sympathize, as I have felt the same disappointment at times.

This is one of the reasons why I decided to become a listener myself.

I knew that it couldn't only be me. Imagine all of the people in a vulnerable state, opening their heart and reaching out, only to be ghosted, or indirectly rejected with a two word generic response after several minutes of waiting between each response.

So I stopped trying to find a listener. I estimated that about 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 listeners actually listen, and maintain a dialogue. So the overall effect it, you're having a bad day, or a bad life, and you come looking for support because you don't want to bare the burden of it all alone. If only just one other person can know and understand, otherwise you almost feel like you might go crazy, because you're not sure of anything. Because it's all just in your head alone, and nobody to talk to, and nobody who knows. So you reach out. And then you a cold response or no response and you feel, exactly as you described, 10x worse than before.

Because here you are, in the place where others just like you are seeking support. A place where you feel you might belong. And the feeling of rejection is ten times worse than if you got rejected by a person on the street, or a family member.

People do not seem to understand this? They think it's nothing.

So I became a listener, for a few reasons, this being one of them. I'm not changing the world, but I know for a fact that I am in that pool of 1 in 10 or 1 in 20.

Been a member since Feb 2015, I just take breeaks and come back in anticipation of something new Sparking, it's just the same old stuff!