BC Support forum brings Vancouver Redditors together

It all started with a question on Reddit that resonated with people:

“Is anyone else super burnt out?” asked Brandon Plunkett, one of many people in Metro Vancouver struggling with their mental health. In his post, the Chilliwack man outlined his frustrations with the pandemic, the rising cost of living, and overall exhaustion with everyday life.

In just one day, the original post garnered over 1,400 interactions and nearly 600 comments.

Now it has become a forum where members of the Vancouver subreddit can support one another. Mental health and business professionals have also been offering their guidance and services in the forum.

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“It kind of evolved into a group therapy session almost, where everyone was jumping in saying, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve been really financially struggling,’ or ‘I’ve been having mental health issues,’ or ‘The days and weeks keep blurring together,'” said Plunkett.

Many members aren’t able to access counselling services, and some say the forum is the only place they feel heard.

“Publicly funded mental health has huge wait lines on it. It takes five, six months to get into a public mental health space, and private therapy and private mental health support is quite expensive, and not everyone can afford it,” said Plunkett.

“What’s interesting, though, is people are saying they feel more comfortable in this community because it’s implied that people are there to get support. They don’t have to ask for it, they just have to post, and it’s implied that they get support.”