Beware of Listeners who may try to harm you
About a week ago I got really upset while talking to a listener. The person encouraged me to harm myself . I ended up taking 4 nyquil I actually think I took 5 but don't remember taking the last one. There was that one missing from the blister pack. Now my liver enzymes are elevated and who knows what else will happen. So just beware.
I am so, so sorry that you've had a poor experience with a fellow listener Unfortunately, this can happen to everyone - even the best of us. If this happens again, please leave a poor review and rating for the listener after the chat, and they will promptly receive an email to connect with a Quality Mentor to improve their listening skills. Depending on the severity of their listening skills, you may also report them at community@7cups.com or flag their profile by going to their profile link and clicking the flag icon in the top right-hand corner. I hope this doesn't happen again to you!
@Emily619
I hope it does happen to the best of you. Then you can deal with it appropriately .
@Emily619 Just a note, only verified listeners can flag inappropriate profiles of members/listeners.
@Compassionatepeace72 I'm so sorry that this happened. You can follow that Emily stated and just to also let you know that listeners shouldn't give advice nor can they tell you what medications to be taken. Listeners aren't professionals, we're only volunteers and anyone can just sign up to be a listener, apparently. Please, for your own good too, don't follow the advice given by any listener. It's so sad to see that not all listeners are aware that we're not supposed to give advice as advice could be harmful especially if it's related to medications. We're not supposed to also put anyone in danger nor in much worse situation that needs immediate medical attention.
Perhaps it is worth mentioning that @Compassionatepeace72 did not say the listener gave advice, and did not say the listener told them what medications to take. Of course we all know listeners should not give advice or prescribe medications, and as far as we know this listener didn't do either of those things.
What this listener did was give encouragement for a harmful act. Many listeners seem to think they should validate everything people tell them, and that being positive and encouraging is always a good thing. In this case, it seems, the encouragement went wrong and someone was put at risk.
Personally, I agree that this was worse than just a bad experience with a listener. A member could have suffered lasting physical harm.
In my unofficial guide for listeners on the subject of chats involving harm, I warn about the risks of making positive judgements:
Some listeners make positive judgments about members, even when they might be causing harm to themselves or others (giving a green light to harm).
Perhaps it is also worth mentioning that this thread names a specific medication, contrary to our forum guidelines:
6. Do not share names of drugs or medication with others.
@Erato