Has access to Internet helped you throughout your depression, loneliness and anti-social periods?

Yes, that’s why I started visiting this site in the first place. Felt alone but found strangers ready to help. Flutter has helped me talk and think about my problems better than any conversation in the ‘real world’ could have.
Facebook is nice but I can’t share with them the problems I do here.

Yes – it helped me through some of the rough times.

Without the internet, I would have been a mess during the fifteen months I was stuck at home getting surgeries. Sad as it may be, internet, chiefly Fluther, was my main source of communication and socialization during that time. My friends from high school had scattered to colleges all across the country, and my college is not in my home state. I wasn’t very mobile, either, so it’s not like I was going out. I had my parents, and I had the internet. A 19 year old girl needs more people than just her parents in her life.

That part of my life was pretty bad, but it could have been a lot worse.

It probably made things worse.

@ARE_you_kidding_me did it bring you closer to reality which made you feel even worse or did it close you up at home isolating you from the outside world?

Not me. I’m not depressed, anti social or lonely.

This last 14 months, absolutely! I am an extroverted little creative dynamo, but, I lost my fortune in 2013, my home, beloved pet, and after years of peace and prosperity am now living back in a town and in a situation I loathe. Boomer gone bust if you will.
Fluther, especially has been a great outlet and source of distraction, fun, stimulation during a bleak phase of my life journey.

Prior to my fall from extreme joy, I still loved being here for the stimulation, but, this last 14 months, fluther has been a good friend to come home to, not just a whimsical flirtation.

It’s a nice distraction from problems, but I agree with @ARE_you_kidding_me.

There is so much stupid and negativity on the internet. The bad outweighs the good for me.

Yes. After I befriend with Dr. Jelly, I find myself more cheerful. I guess it’s because Dr. Jelly provide me with fun, distraction, and help, and I can show my true self here, the self that I try to suppress in real life.

Suppressing thought is just stressful, and Dr. Jelly is a great stress releaser :)

@Coloma What the hell? Those nasty things happened to you? Good God! Why didn’t you say that earlier? You could have shared with me and I could have comforted you!

It’s the prime cause of my antisocial behavior.

It worsens my depression. It allows me too stew in my bad feelings, as misery loves company.

The fog lifts a lot faster for me now that I don’t spend nearly as much time in internet communities. I’m more likely to be information searching (for fun) than chatting these days. I no longer use the internet as a surrogate for my lack of friendships.

@ZEPHYRA It distracts you from dealing with your larger issues. When I have periods of hypochondriasis google is my enemy. Fortunately that does not happen too often and I deal with it much better now. Stress must have a release and if you let it build then things like this happen.

The Internet can help me, but it depends on what I’m reading. Being in public areas, or out and about, where you have to watch other people being happy with each other while you’re alone is even worse in my opinion. Television shows that highlight wonderful families, friends and couples increase my depression too.

Hiking, walking, fishing, driving or being in secluded areas, especially in wooded areas help me. Sometimes a good book, internet article or working on a project helps me too. Socializing doesn’t help me, and more than anything it appears many people avoid you the most when you’re hurting or most desperate.