How has this forum helped you?

I like that everyone is supportive and here for one another, I feel like if I am on here long enough I will make friends eventually but I am shy around new people I don't talk to on a regular basis haha, I live in the united states and not everyone is supportive here either, but at least we have a place to come to that is friendly and supportive.

 

I like that it has a focus and still has different categories of things to discuss. It's good to get things off the chest. It's good to seek feedback and advice.

Some threads don't go as far as I would like. The main thing is that most people's sexualities are so different even if they identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual and you can't expect someone to understand the patterns of your personal sexuality. Maybe just the overall concept of it.

 

Consider this an add-on to what @Tightrope replied. While the forums that deal with a person’s sexuality may not go as far as they could, I do appreciate that they are still divided into individual categories. If you combined those forums together it would make a person feel overwhelmed in my opinion. Especially if that person suffers from sensory overload or anxiety.

 

EC is an amazing place. I am not sure if I can explain exactly how much it helped me. I arrived at EC really confused, scared and embarrassed about my sexuality. I have always been quite shy and socially a bit awkward and so had no idea where to start with figuring stuff out. Everyone on EC was so warm, welcoming and friendly. It helped me figure out my sexuality and for that I will always be eternally grateful. It is more than that though it has made me a better person by listening to other peoples stories and hearing peoples journeys. I try and offer advice where I can to try and repay my gratitude for all the site has done for me. I hope it continues to help people long into the future.

 

I just glad to be associated with a caring, supportive and nonjudgemental group of people. I haven't told much about myself in these forums, but maybe I will when the time comes.

 

I was on a forum long ago in my country but it was tiny and didn’t have the numbers or staff to cover everything. One person asked about rimming and they shut the forum down after a few days notice. The six of us who used the forum most often made a Facebook group. I left at 24 because that was the age limit on the original forum. After that I would see or hear something I thought that other gay people would like or appreciate but had nowhere to share it. I also had no gay people to interact with. I remembered hearing about empty closets so I looked it up and landed here. It was so much better than I expected. There’s even a section where the person who got the first forum shut down could actually ask their questions and get answers. This site is my only interaction with people outside of my family. I’m an introvert so that’s enough but without this site I’d be a lot more lonely and have a lot of unanswered questions that I’d have nowhere else to ask.

 

It's helping me a little bit every single day to uncover the woman I am under all the wreckage of self left behind from the life I've led.

It's a long and rather unpleasant story at times, so I'll spare you, but she comes out bit by bit as I interact with the personalities and characters here. I'm so ready to love myself, to be authentic for the first time in my life without fear, and each day I get another piece of the roadmap there.

I've also learned a lot in the process, and I've come to look up to some of you and even consider at least one of you to be one of my very good friends. You know who you are, though I am always open to more, as well! ^o^

There is so much love in this community, so much acceptance that humbles me every day, I'm getting kind of hooked on it. I learn so much here, so much about everyone and really - through it all - myself, that I just want to keep digging!

I love you guys. I hope I've been appropriately supportive and entertaining along the way, if not exceedingly long-winded. I will work on that, I promise.

Just not yet!

 

Simply put, it helped me accept my bisexuality. The overwhelming support made a huge difference.

 

I have been on EC for over 8 years. This site has helped me so much.

When I first started on this site way back in late 2013, I was not out to anybody. I was in middle school. I finally admitted to myself I was gay, but didn’t feel like I could come out yet. I felt so alone until I found this site. I have communicated with so many people on this site and it really helped me feel connected and to be a part of something.

Now, all these years later, a lot of people I knew or went to school with at that time have since come out as lgbt. I’m surprised at how many have. It almost makes me a little sad that none of us felt we could be open.

Since joining this site, I have come out to most people in my life, graduated high school, met my boyfriend, nearing graduation for college, gotten advice for many things, and I have learned a lot from this site as well. I don’t know where I would have ended up without EC tbh.

 

I think that I would never told my therapist about my sexuality before. It would have remained some dirty little secret eating away at me. So I would not have this current sense of relief.

 

For me, it has provided an outlet to express my homosexuality and help others (I hope) in the process of doing so.

 

I found EC sometime in 2007. Wow .... I almost can't believe that was 15 years ago...
Anyway, it really helped me a lot back then with my coming out and with accepting myself. I did not know anyone at the time who was remotely gay, so this was the only place where I could talk about it freely. I remember finding EC and finally being able to talk about this stuff felt like such a huge relief. It really did change my life I think.
I haven't been active on the forums for over a decade but I still come back sometimes just to check and to make sure EC still exists. And I'm glad it still does

 

I joined this forum sometime around 2011ish. It is crazy it has been 10 years now! When I joined, I was freaked out because I was bisexual female. As time went on and I read the experiences of others, I started to realize that I was experience gender dysphoria. I originally went to my colleges' transgender group as an ally after reading some suggestions on here. I probably never would have gone otherwise. I eventually became one of the founding members of that group and I came out as being transgender and started transitioning. I don't think I would have had the courage to come out or even speak out about how I was feeling if I had not found this site. I have since transitioned socially and physically. That was stressful at times, but I was able to post on here and talk with others. This site also helped me cope with both transitioning and handling my mothers' terminal cancer diagnosis. I also went through a very nasty abusive relationship and a messy breakup that left me homeless and being on here helped me to be able to handle that as well. Having a place to post where I was not judged for how I was feeling during these times was very helpful to me.

 

Hi @Warrior999, I'm in a sorta similar way; I joined almost 7 years ago then went inactive after a year... but I'm back, this time for good hopefully.

There are so many things I love about EC. One thing being it is kind of an "old school" forum, if you will, an anonymous board, which I love. Even if it's a little slower paced, it's really well moderated, really safe, and you can have a real discussion and meet real people, unlike a lot of other sites. On that same note, it is honest-to-god one of the healthiest internet communities I have been a part of.

When I first joined, I just really had to get something terrible off my chest, and I posted on Anonymous Support... and instead of the harsh judgment I was kind of expecting, I got this incredible amount of sympathy and support; People who DIDN'T EVEN KNOW ME knew that I could do better, get to a better place, and wanted me to get there. They didn't even know me, and yet THEY BELIEVED IN ME!

I can honestly say I had never had that experience before, no one had ever believed in me, wanted what's best for me, and just having that has made all the difference. It's been seven years and I still think about it.

Thank you for starting this thread, this has been really wonderful to read all the stories. I hope you'll keep posting on EC @Warrior999

 

For me its been an amazing resource. Its the only place in my world where i can share my experiences and discover im not alone in this world.

 

I don’t have a lot of people I can talk to about certain issues or emotions. I’m pretty reserved as a person and not quite open about my sexuality to the wider world (though I don’t actively pretend to be straight). My closest friends are wonderful and a few are also bisexual, however I find bringing up certain things with them difficult for reasons that I won’t get into. I suffer from anxiety, low moods and intrusive thoughts (many of which revolve around my sexuality and feelings of unworthiness) — I happened to come across this forum when I was in a very poor mental state, and being able to get my struggles out in a post and then be welcomed by a diverse bunch of strangers was so refreshing. Everyone has been so kind. I like having a place to vent or ask questions when I need to without fear of being judged by people who know me irl. Comments and advice I’ve received have helped me to feel less alone, as well as less guilty about some of my “quirks” which turned out to not really be that quirky or strange after all. I haven’t been here that long but already this forum has helped me to feel more normal, I guess you could say. I also enjoy reading through other’s experiences here whether they’re similar to my own or widely different. I find it enlightening in a way.