Healthful ChatReviews 79

Though some of the users can be nice the mods tend to be over zealous, there are many things you can't discuss and if you discuss any one topic for too long they'll ask you to stop- and if you don't your banned. This hasn't happended to me but I've seen it with issues about parents, abortion, addiction, LGBT issues. So I would say this service really isn't inclusive and others have highlighted that the mods can and actually do bully.

The moderating is awful.
CGJ Swamptoast really dislikes anyone who has an intelligent opinion and calls out their hypocrisy or their failure.
CGJ will come into the room half way through an argument and immediately shadow ban and shadow mute guests. One minute he says he is retired and the next he says "I'm a site Mod". There's no point trying to explain anything to him because he doesn't care about resolving anything, he just likes to shadow ban/kick and talk about the weather.
The way to get him on your side is to compliment him and then he'll let you get away with anything. The guy is incompetent and will let his friends do anything but ban anyone who he doesn't recognize as well as falsely claiming that you're already permanently banned when it's only your second time there lmao.
Swamptoast routinely lets chatters repeatedly use racist and homophobic terms (the n word and the f word) and when you tell him, all he says is "be respectful", if you then quote the rules which say it won't be tolerated he then threatens you with blocking your ISP. BUT he routinely lets two permanently banned chatters stay and swear all the time and talk about banned topics and only says to them "if you want to be here then behave"
There are two well known chatters who are permanently banned but show up all the time and Swamptoast says things like "I'll let you stay if you behave". What's the point in permanently banning people if you then let them come back?
When you point out this hypocrisy he threatens to ban your ISP for "arguing" with him and says things like "I'm tired of your complaining" and tells you to go to another site if you don't like it there. The guy pretends he gives so much of his time to the site when really he just spends his time there chatting about movies and gets annoyed if you interrupt that.

I find healthful chat to be an extremely useful link to the broken chain we call medical and health practices. They never close their door to peer support on you. If you lose insurance are hurt etc they are their for everyone, Peer support is what it is and is only effective to a point due to various locations of dwelling and experiences. The ability to talk with a peer when no one is around to hear you is critical to healing and health. I applaud this service and donate as much as possible.

This is the worst mental health chat room to join. The members of the mental health chat rooms are very judgemental. If you say something they do not like. The members will ignore you, and mistreat you, They will judge you and hold it against you. The moderators are enforcers. The moderators constantly abuse their power. The goal of the moderators is to enforce the rules and to punish people who break the rules. The moderators do not care about the members. They have no compassion, empathy, mercy and forgiveness. The moderators also have favourites. The also have favourtie people they bully as well. The members are very negative.

I've been a regular user of this site for quite some time. I have witnessed trolls coming in and out. The moderators can definitely abuse their power and oftentimes do for very trivial reasons. My "favorite" experience on this site consisted on two trolls spamming in the chat, saying inappropriate things, and harassing other users. Two moderators on the chat, however, decided to ban a regular user for no apparent reason besides the fact that he was telling the moderators to ban the trolls who wouldn't stop harassing other users. I do enjoy chatting with some other regular chatters, but I will also agree that the site (and moderators) need major improvement. I have literally witnessed pedophilia and perverted discussions, but the moderators are not online 24/7, so there is no watching out for the younger and more vulnerable chatters. It's disgusting. If you are looking for emotional support or advice, then this is obviously not the best site to use, so I would recommend sites such as 7cups or other chat rooms.

It bothers me that just about anyone can become a moderator of the site if they go through the trouble to do so. They admit, in fact, that the people who apply for it are mostly previous room members who suffer from mental health issues like many who view their site do.

They are by all means regular people. Like regular people, they can sometimes get a bit aggressive toward others. They can be snarky, cruel, dogmatic, single-minded, and all those not so wonderful things.

But they shouldn't be. I find in my experiences the moderators of this site can be very sour individuals who often put others into adversarial positions in which they hold power over them.

They aren't above kicking someone when they're down and making smart-$#*! remarks either. They aren't above a lot of things. Which is why you can't expect them to react with the regard for others you would expect them to in all their interactions. They don't hold themselves to that kind of standard.

I came to this site for several years and then stopped because it became so toxic. I thought I would try again after being gone and within 10 minutes of signing into the lounge this is the conversation I saw today 4/12/22 with time stamps:

12:15:05Depressedkween Omg men are stupid
12:15:05Arapaima396 Noice
12:15:16lifeless Daniela1: yup
12:15:21Depressedkween Men are mass shooters
12:15:28Guest*******?
12:15:31Arapaima396 Yes we are but its rude to point out the obvious
12:15:38 * SneakyWeasel shoots up the room
12:16:01Depressedkween I'm so nice wdym
12:16:01Arapaima396 Oh fer cryin out loud...
12:16:22Sebas pm anyone
12:16:38frenchsoap hi Angel

Despite the presence of several moderators and room assistants no one said anything. Imagine for a moment what would happen if a guy said all women are stupid and baby killers/mass shooters or whatever. That person would be kicked and banned (I hope).

This is a site where people come for emotional support and many things trigger an emotional reaction. I'm sure some people will say "it was just a joke". But this is exactly what all sociopaths say when you point out their bad behavior - and this site has more than its fair share of sociopaths who fly under the radar because the moderators and assistants at this site have no mental health training whatsoever.

Once again my vote is to avoid this site at all costs.

Hi I just Wanted to say that how healthful chat has helped me everybody is very friendly I love being there. I look forward to being there every day and spend hours just talking to people everybody is very helpful. Everybody has the same issues as I have and that is one thing that I love about this website everything that I have been going through the people in the chat room. Do understand what I've been through and they are very helpful. Very pleasant. And very friendly they do not judge. They are very helpful people. I look forward to going every day. I look forward to seeing everybody every morning every afternoon and every night healthful Chat is one place I feel safe. Health, full chat is the one place I will always be thankful for them. They have saved me from the brink of disaster if there's one thing, I would love to say about h healthful chat if you come in and you have a problem that you need somebody to talk to they are always there to help you. I'm always there to help. I am very happy with this place and I would never trade it for the world. Hopefully you consider us. We are an awesome site. I speak from experience everybody like I said, it's very helpful very pleasant and I'm very very pleased with everything. All the mods are very helpful. Everybody is helpful in that chat room. They understand you they understand what you have been going through. They understand that life is hard, but you know you will get through it. There is nothing I wouldn't do to be a great chatter. I have been in chatter since October 21,2019. It is an awesome, awesome place. If you come in, you will be greeted with a lot of love support and gentleness. This place has saved me and I'm very thankful for that. Thank you so much Healthful chat for all you've done to help me survive very thankful

Yes, as you can see I borrowed from Dante Alighieri to emphasize my words of warning to anyone who decides to use Healthful Chat for emotional or social support. I have been a chatter therein for a number of years; I am an educated adult and hold a professional degree and current medical license. At the same time, when I found myself in personal and medical crisis, I looked to this site for camaraderie and as a source for practical tips and pointers. To be clear my role at Healthful chat is that of a chatter; I do not disclose my clinical background. My experience resonates with just about every other reviewer's here: the moderators are unqualified: they have no knowledge of group theory/practice and are woefully uninformed as to clinical issues. While a number of of moderators misuse power in place of wise discretion, other moderators are simply just ignorant, and would have been better off remaining in the role of chatters. As for the chatters themselves, most (in my experience) are people in need of support. However, many chatters end up in the wrong rooms and remain undirected -- often resulting in chaos to the room in which they are misplaced. Admittedly, there are a few so-called "trolls" however, these appear to be former chatters who at some point erupted in frustration, or were falsely accused, and now remain to lick their wounds. Overall, most chatters are human beings in need of fellowship and solace. I remain out of loyalty to a few fellow chatters. However, I strongly issue a cautionary note to those considering using this site: "Buyer beware... you get what you pay for."

A lot of trolls in there and when you say hi they just ignore you, not helpful at all. Mods don't do anything about bullying.

Honestly I think the sites intentions are AMAZING. The site is trying to help anyone with any issues about anything, by having people talk about it, and is succeeding most of the time :).

But I do however think some mods are definitely a little unfair. I wouldn't say all the mods are unfair, because that is not true. 90% of mods are so nice, so amazing, and always gives people second chances even when they are being put down.

I have been banned for "creating clones" because my friends were over and they wanted to go on the site too. And, to be fair, I 100% understand why multiple logins from one wifi network is against the rules.

One of the mods just told me I couldn't do multiple logins, in a nice, but stern way, which I think is a really effective. But before I had the chance to tell my friends to we had to log out, another moderator muted me and everyone else using my wifi network. Then 5 seconds later, he banned my network from the website FOREVER. (not even a 48 hour ban?)

Then a few days later one of my friends invited me to her house, so I used her wifi and tried to find the mod that banned me. I found him and tried to explain the situation to him but he wouldn't listen. Instead he banned my friends network from the website forever too.

You might be asking, "Were you and your friends rude to the people on the website?"
And I would say definitely not. Everyone was just chatting and having a great time, which I think is what this website should completely be about.

The place is ok for distraction like if you want a chat to distract you then it's ok, but no real support but that's because there are no professionals and it's like just talking to a bunch of people who don't know anything about working through problems. They all say "distraction helps" but it doesn't.
The moderators are not like when you go to group therapy, they're there to kick people etc not to help you with your issues, so no point asking them for help, because they're not counsellors or trained.

Don't know about the moderators in general but did see Forever kick a guest for making a joke by saying "peer support and pear support, because pears need support too" first she said don't make that joke then the chatter did it again and she kicked them - seemed ridiculous especially since a guy called Stayahome78 was calling someone else a d--k and she didn't say anything to him, so it's understandable why some reviews say she doesn't like guests.

Anyways, if you want real help you have find somewhere with professionals or people with some kind of training because this is only peer support so it's regular people and all they say is "distraction helps" but it doesn't really help because after distraction, you're still no better off.
If you want distraction then it's fine but for real help you have find somewhere else.

Went to this site looking for help about how to manage anxiety and found the anxiety room filled with "regulars" that only talk about movies, music and food. When I complained I was told to join in the conversation about the show Killing Eve in order to distract myself from anxiety. How is that supposed to help me when I have a panic attack?
The room assistant called Rosie was more interested in joining in than getting them to change the subject.
A real let down thanks to selfish chatters who think "distracting" by talking about movies will help you with panic attacks.
If you want to talk about movies with people aged 25-50 who talk like their 15 then this is the place, but if you want help with anxiety, go somewhere else.

There are a couple of moderators that are ok, a couple that never seem to do anything and then there's a bunch that should find something else to do.
Not interested in drama so never had a problem with mods, but seen the cause problems with chatters and some clearly got beef with guests.
Mods gang up and they have favorites, Stayathome who is on a "break" from moderating but is still just as snarky and Jameson and Forever too. Recently Forever and Stayathome are like a wrestling tag-team setting chatters up.
Forever and Stayathome actually have ongoing petty arguments with chatters, one time in anxiety they did this with a chatter who's a nurse and basically waited for her to say something about her job and then said stuff like "glad I'm not one of your patients" and then the other said something else and they just kept taking turns in taking shots for over an hour.

Mods are chatters who volunteer for the site. Some mods have mood swings and openly admit to being in bad moods and then start muting and kicking as a way of projecting that bad mood.
If you remember that mods have issues that include personality disorders and depressive disorders, bipolar and adhd then it's not exactly surprising that their behavior can swing so much.
The site could use more mods who are more professional and less personality.
Best advice, avoid the drama and don't let moody mods spoil your time.

Supposed to be anxiety support but instead it's anything but that. This is a copy 10 seconds of the anxiety support chat, where there is a moderator participating in the conversation
Kath: whats a Honkie?
AmandaMA: kath the opposite og golliw-g
Redwelshy: Racist term
Stayathome78: honkie is a pathetic attempt at a racial slur
AmandaMA: kath its a bad word
Kath: So its a white person?
Stayathome78: yeah kath
AmandaMA: it doesnt offend me though lol
Kath: stayathome78 wow

Someone sent me a private message telling me that stayathome is a moderator and prone to making subtle racist remarks (kinda obvious from his comment that it's a "pathetic attempt at a racial slur". All that was missing was his grading it an F and saying "must try harder".
The private message also said that Amanda likes to repeat any racial slur and pretends she doesn't know what it means and in the past has repeated the question "what is a golliw--"
The whole word was written out in the chatroom, But I'm not writing it out here.

None of this is about anxiety, and I've been there for an hour and seen talk about dropping babies, ending relationships and smoking weed but nothing about anxiety support although someone said they were buying the weed that's a "special anti-anxiety variety" so I guess that kinda relates to anxiety:/
I'll be looking for anxiety support somewhere else.

Like Emily said the moderator Forever is on a power trip and a complete bully, one of the worst moderators along with CGJ.
She's well over 50yo and you'd think kindness would come with age, but it seems like it's bullying instead. Forever bullies by muting chatters and then keep them muted until she logs off. The other moderators won't unmute you while she's there which means she can keep chatters on mute. While you're on mute she either ignores your messages or just PMs snarky comments like "so how are you?" or "you seem to think you have a lot of fans here" or "not much going on with me". It's part of the bullying to avoid talking about why she muted you and to provoke you. She keeps you on mute and then logs off and you have to wait until another moderator comes on and ask them to unmute you.

The rules about warnings, kicks and bans are supposed to be: 3 warnings then a kick and then 3 kicks and then a ban. But a new moderator rule stated by CGJ who's a bully depending on what day of the week it is, means the moderators can kick or ban you straight away without warning "if they feel like it". Those were his exact words.
This means the site's rules cover any action the moderators and room assistants take, it might as well say "moderators and RAs can mute and kick whenever they "feel" like it and don't need to warn". That's fine when you have trolls coming trying to get nude pics of chatters, but it means that regular chatters can be kicked or banned whenever a moderator "feels" like it, even if it's just for disagreeing with them, which is now what happens.
If that's not rule that encourages bullying, then what is?

Moderators are allowed to talk to guests like their dirt. You're allowed to be a guest and if you choose a nickname you're stuck with it and not allowed to change it, so I was just trying to wait until I found one that I wanted to use long-term but instead of being welcomed as a guest I got treated like dirt. I'd get it if I was doing something wrong, but just joining in the anxiety chat was a problem for the moderators and some chatters who gang up on guests. Basically if you're a guest then you have to keep quiet as only nicknames are allowed to chat. Some chatter called Sonzz kept saying "I've got a nickname and I've been here for years, you're just a guest". Anyone would think having your life ruined by health anxiety for years and then getting a nickname and using a support site for years and not getting better was some sort of achievement.

All of this aggro because I said you don't have to be stuck with GAD for life but they all think you're stuck with it forever. How depressing and pessimistic.

There's definitely a guest prejudice at this site, and the moderators are part of the problem because they join in attacking guests saying that most guests are there to troll. Just because I was a guest the moderators Forever and stayathome said
"aren't you brave enough to get a nickname?"
"why come here again and again and not get a nickname?" and
"why are you here hiding behind a guest nick" Obviously "Forever" and "Stayathome78" are their real names that there parents gave them, so they're not "hiding" behind names either, pathetitc.

If they want guests to get nicknames maybe they should try being nicer to them, instead of treating them like dirt.