Greetings new members and welcome to our Anxiety Disorders community! :).

Anxiety Zone is a 100% community-operated support group for people living with anxiety disorders. We are an open minded and lighthearted community that believes in free expression and free speech. However, because we do strive to make this forum a safe place for everyone, we encourage you to carefully review the community guidelines below before posting as these guidelines contain not only "rules" but tips that might even help you!.

The following covers the Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the Anxiety Zone forums, Anxiety Zone chat rooms, Anxiety Zone Connections and all content and services offered therein:

Please do not spam the forum or create a profile or blog for the sole purpose of driving traffic to your site or include links in your profile, blogs, in your posts (or elsewhere) to competing sites or forums (this also includes links to commercial sites). We also ask that members post at least one meaningful subject within a reasonable period of time after creating a profile. Please do not be afraid to post. We are here to help you!.

Please try to avoid duplicate posting, multiple-category posting of the same subject or the same post with a different subject line into multiple categories.

Please try to make your subject titles reflective of the actual content in the post itself. This is so that it will be easier to locate in a search. For example, a proper subject title might be "why is my heart racing?" rather that something vague like "HELP!!!!!!!!!". Also, please avoid posting in all CAPS and use good etiquette.

Agree to disagree. There are a lot of different personalities and sometimes conflicts of opinion will arise. When this occurs, the best thing to do is simply "agree to disagree" and move on. Please try to remember to be polite and respect the opinions of others even though you may not always agree with them.

Religion, politics and other "controversial" issues. We don't prevent anyone from expressing their religious or political views. It's only when these views turn into a lengthy and heated debate that it can ruin an otherwise perfectly healthy discussion and result in hurt feelings and animosity. Again, it's important to agree to disagree.

Why isn't my post being answered?. If you do not receive a reply to your post right away, please understand that it could be for a number of perfectly innocent reasons:

* Noone has an answer to your specific post/question.
* Some people are simply shy or not in the mood. Please be patient.
* Your post has already been addressed elsewhere.
* Sometimes the forum will just experience "slow" days when noone feels like posting.

Hijacking other people's threads. Thread hijacking is when one member posts a thread asking for help with a specific issue and another member uses that same thread to ask for help with their own issues. Rather than doing this, please start a new topic of your own. Your post will have greater visibility this way and there will be less chance of offending anyone.

Please remember that no one here can officially diagnose you and that none of the information contained within this forum, the chat rooms or on the Anxiety Zone Connections site should be used as a substitute for the advice and/or diagnosis of a licensed physician or other healthcare professional. If you are have a medical problem, please see a qualified healthcare professional. If you have an emergency, please call 911 or other emergency hotline. If you are contemplating taking your own life, please call one of the hotline numbers listed in the depression forum. Please do not use the forum to make threats about killing yourself.

Reproduction of any of the content contained within this forum and elsewhere on the anxiety.com and anxietyzone.net domains without prior permission is strictly prohibited unless otherwise indicated. Individual posts are automatically copyrighted by their author(s) and may likewise not be reproduced without their permission. Some of the content of this site originates from the U.S. government's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and WikiPedia, an open source project that uses the Creative Commons license.

All posts are considered the opinion of the poster and are not necessarily endorsed or approved by Anxiety Zone. By posting on Anxiety Zone and/or Anxiety Zone Connections you grant perpetual, non-revocable, non-exclusive rights to Anxiety Zone to republish, perform and display in any form, the posted material.

Members must have a valid email address in order to complete their registration and may not register more than a single account.

Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum, it's chat rooms and Anxiety Zone Connections to confirm the validity of posts and other content. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.

You agree, through your use of this forum, it's chat rooms and Anxiety Zone Connections that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum. Please do not use the forum to gossip, spread rumors or make accusations against another member or share private messages with other members that were not intended for them.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages on this forum, it's chat rooms and Anxiety Zone Connections. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason.  We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please understand that we may notify you by email or private message (ie; "PM's") in the rare instance that there is need to contact you for some reason.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.

This site (anxietyzone.com) also uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit the Google ad and content network privacy policy...

http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

Anxiety Zone users should know that...

* Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on our site.
* Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet.
* Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy...

http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html

- Rules & Guidelines Regarding Our Chat Service -

While the "Anxiety Zone Community Rules and Guidelines" section covers the rules governing the forum as well as the Anxiety Zone Connections site, the rules below specifically cover proper etiquette and behavior in the chat rooms. These rules are designed to promote peace, harmony and tranquility within the chat community and are subject to change with or without notice. You are responsible for familiarizing yourself with these rules if you choose to make use of the chat service. Failure to follow these rules may result in temporary or permanent expulsion from the chat rooms.

(1) The purpose of the chat service (like the forum) is for people seeking support for their anxiety-related disorders and for those willing to offer such support. Although the atmosphere may be casual and relaxed, the discussion of anxiety-related disorders, recovery and treatment, is the main purpose of the chat service.

(2) Please remember that no one in the chat rooms are officially authorized to diagnose you and that none of the information transmitted via the chat service should be used as a substitute for the advice and/or diagnosis of a licensed physician. If you are have a medical problem, please see a qualified healthcare professional. If you have an emergency, please call 911 or other emergency hotline. If you are contemplating *******, please call one of the hotline numbers listed in the depression forum. Please do not use the chat service to make suicidal threats.

(3) You must be 18 years of age or older to use the chat rooms on Anxiety Zone. You agree, through your use of the chat service, that you will not say anything that is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, of an adult nature, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any links to copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this chat service. Please do not use the chat service to gossip, spread rumors or make accusations against another member or share private messages with other members that were not intended for them.

(4) The use of common sense is encouraged while using the chat service. If you suspect that another member may be offended by something you say or do then just don't say it or do it.

(5) Do not give out personally identifiable information such as your real name, email address, phone number, physical location, credit card number or social security number when posting or submitting content. All information posted by you whether on the Anxiety Zone forums or Anxiety Zone Connections websites will become public and searchable on the internet. The submission or solicitation of such information using the chat service is also forbidden.

(6) If someone uses language that is offensive or is harassing you, simply right-click on their name in the left pane and select the "Ignore" button, go to another room, get a private room or use the private chat feature. This is your best recourse against troublemakers in the room.

(7) The chat rooms on Anxiety Zone (as well as the forum) contains some emoticons (smiles) that flash, blink, glitter or otherwise, animate. This may cause seizures in susceptible individuals. If you use the chat room, please understand that you do so at your own risk and take full responsibility for any consequences.

(8) You remain solely responsible for your behavior as well as anything you say or do while using the chat service. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owner(s) of Anxiety Zone, any related websites to Anxiety Zone, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owner(s) of Anxiety Zone also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of the chat service.