Navigating the Mental Health Internet

Lesson 4.3 Newsgroups

Newsgroups (also called Usenet) are a vast bulletin board system on the Internet organized into discussion groups that cover a wide variety of topics, including mental health issues. They have titles such as

alt.abuse.recovery
sci.psychology.psychotherapy

DejaNews created a powerful search engine for newsgroups that has become a part of Google. Its database includes more than 20,000 active discussion groups, and 138 million articles. It also allows you to post to newsgroups, view an author's posting history (e.g., what newgroups they've posted to), and conduct advanced searches by dates or within one newsgroup.

Google Groups

Their Basics of Usenet provides how to instructions.

Dr. Grohol's Mental Health & Psychology Resources Online
The site includes both mailing lists and Usenet Groups for professionals and consumers. They are listed in several of the categories such as Medical Disease, Grief and Loss, and Alcoholism and Substance Abuse.