We occasionally have (nondiagnosed) high school or university students come onto the forum to solicit information for a school project.
How do you feel about this—should this be allowed?
- Yes
- No
0 voters
It makes me feel like a lab rat and I didn’t sign up for that. I don’t mind the occasional research project that has been vetted, but I think the students should always have szadmin post the requests so we know they are approved. Some of them just word things really tactlessly.
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Personally I’m for spreading awareness and knowledge through any means. What better way to gather information on the illness than from those who actually suffer from it…
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I agree with Anna, I prefer openness to closing the door on awareness
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If it were a journalist, spreading awareness, that is a cause that many would volunteer for, so I’d be okay with that. School related stuff is not, in my opinion. They need research from somewhere, and a forum is an easy target. I dislike it.
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@Ninjastar I agree wholeheartedly. I’ve spent enough time in the ‘system’ being a lab rat. I don’t come here for the same.
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I feel that as long as it was prefaced with a mods warning (and approval) I have no problem giving my thoughts and opinions. It would be optional, so no one would be forced if they didn’t want to participate,
and remember, people have to start somewhere.
How do you expect people to become competent in their field if they can’t gain any experience by practicing on ‘real’ dx’d people?
You never know, they may be the person who ends up helping you in the future with their knowledge that stemmed from your participation.
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I believe they can learn from us.
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I must be turning into a grumpy old cow. I dont like it. I don’t want some student using my schizophrenia just so they can benifit themselves by getting an A on their assignment.
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I have no problem with it so long as they seek approval from @SzAdmin first and he gives the go ahead. The more students can be educated about mental illness, and in turn educate their fellow students, the better.
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For those people who regularly deal with paranoia (including yours truly), people without MI popping in here to pepper us with questions is destabilizing. It makes this less of a safe place. I can tolerate legit research projects that have been vetted by @SzAdmin, but lazy students looking for us to do their homework for them should go elsewhere. There is so much content posted here regularly that there is no need to intrude and ask questions. Just read the stories already posted.
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The more people know, maybe the more they understand and can spread that understanding to others. I’m all for legitimate research, as long as it’s okayed by sz admin.
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I thinks it is a good thing, people have to learn somehow, better to get information from those who know first hand, If allowed on this site there should be a verification process of some sort to make sure they are doing what they say they are and must provide Admin with information on who they are.
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Bumping the Poll back up to the top of the topic list.
I guess I have kind of mixed feeling about it. To ride off what other posters have already said, if they have approval of Szadmin and we can authenticate their identity then I suppose it’s not such a bad thing.
Anything to raise awareness and education is good.
On the other hand we do need to protect our anonymity and our online community as a whole.
Sorry I haven’t voted yet. 
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I agree with @shutterbug and @Ninjastar. I ignore posts by students unless @SzAdmin has endorsed them.
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it makes me feel uneasy, how do we know they aren’t going to use the information in a negative way?
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Only if they’ve gotten approval from szadmin. If he thinks they’re ok, then I’d rather spread awareness rather than let them get their info from any old random place that may be incorrect or negatively biased
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I find this very interesting…because researchers usually do not suffer from the illnesses or phenomena they are"experts" in, and their only way of knowing what those who do in fact have the illness or phenomena suffer from is by asking people who do have the thing. Well, I have the things I have researched. LOL
I approve of members of this community who are diagnosed performing research only if they themselves are diagnosed, to make sure that there is both clinical objectivity in the research and accurate information about the nature of the experience, as I am an educated scientist.
Heheheh
But no, go ahead and get them to get cleared by an IRB and by the admins of the site as coming from IRB cleared projects. I know the process- it is a legal agreement, I had to write and revise one for my empirical thesis.
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