Advice blogger (and friend of Scarleteen) Captain Awkward has a concept they call "team you." Team you is something to gather when you're going through tough times and need support, and consists of people who, well, support you (and can include professional support, such as therapists).
So how do you go about finding and identifying team you, especially when there can be people who you thought were on team you until something goes wrong and you find otherwise? One way is to think about the people in your life whose words and actions tend to line up. So, people who offer help and then follow through when asked. Also, you can think about how they react to other friends or family who have been in need. If they tended to be caring, understanding, or supportive, then they're a possible team you candidate. If they tended to be critical or doubtful, then maybe not.
What about y'all. How did you find people to be on team you when you went through tough times?
Identifying Team You
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We ask that users looking for general, ongoing emotional support post in this area of the boards, and that you use this space to both ask for, give and receive that support primarily from each other, rather than from our staff and volunteers. As a staff, we simply are often too overextended with all we need to do in running the organization and its services to do that for extended periods of time, and one of our main aims of our community at the boards has always been to facilitate peers to better be there for each other.
Users often report that they have no in-person peers they can talk to or seek support from: we want this to be a space for online peer support and somewhere everyone can get some practice asking for, getting and giving support so that doing it with people in your lives feels more doable.
Please remember that neither staff, volunteers nor your fellow users can provide or replace mental healthcare when that is something you need. Users struggling with issues like anxiety, depression, abuse or physical health issues are strongly encouraged to seek out qualified, in-person help with those issues in addition to peer or staff support.