Newsgroups for abuse survivors

Advantages and disadvantages of newsgroup support

Newsgroups have the advantage that messages are downloaded to your computer so that you can read and answer posts off-line. They are also available for access at many universities when some web based support boards are not.

The main disadvantage of news groups is that the e-mail address you use to post messages usually will show as will your IP address. Whilst this is not usually a big problem for many newsgroup users, some survivors do find it intimidating.

By clicking on the links below, it should be possible to view the newsgroups if your news reader program (there is one in outlook express) is set up and your ISP carries that group. Other newsgroup programs can be downloaded from http://www.nonags.com/nonags/newsr.html all of which are freeware

It should be noted that there are over 45,000 newsgroups available on the internet on just about any topic you can think of (and many you would never think of), including those that may trigger or at least be very unsuitable for most survivors.

Where possible, a link will be put to a web based interface that also carries the newsgroup.

This list will be updated soon to include related topics.

alt.sexual.abuse.recovery.moderated

This is the moderated version of ASAR, set up after much hard work by a few survivors, in May 1998, in an attempt to provide a Spam free recovery news group. Please visit the ASAR.M "Welcome Center" and read the FAQ before posting to this group. Although moderated, the posts are only moderated to remove "Spam" at this time and are not otherwise content moderated. There are about 20 to 40 posts per week. Spoilers and splats are used. The Welcome Center for the group is at http://asarian-host.org/asarmcenter which contains the FAQ etc.

alt.abuse.recovery

This news group is for recovery support from sexual, physical, emotional or any other kind of abuse. There is not very much in the way of Spam, but the group does have around some 300 posts per week.. which can take a lot of time to read :-) I have not as yet found an FAQ for this news group, and the group is un-moderated. Unfortunately this group does have a lot of "flame wars" at times.

alt.abuse.transcendence

alt.abuse.transcendence is a recovery group that covers all types of abuse recovery. Its main difference is that here you are encourage to have a good look at how the abuse has effected you, examine it, then move forward. All subjects and topics are open for discussion, without the need for spoilers or splats. Not recommended for those who trigger easily .... good for those who want to look at how the abuse has ruled them ... bang it on the head with a big stick ... and then start to get on with life. Recently this group has picked up due to people moving from AAR to avoid "flame wars" and now has about 20 to 40 posts per week, with almost no spam. The FAQ is at http://www.pilot.infi.net/~susanf/aatfaq1.htm and I recommend that you read it before posting to the group.

alt.support.trauma-ptsd

alt.support.trauma-ptsd This is the news group for those who have PTSD. It is un-moderated, and has around 50 posts per week. AST-PTSD has little spam, and is frequented by survivors of abuse, war veterans, disaster victims, rape victims etc. Again I have seen no FAQ for this group as of yet.

news://news.ux.com/local.the_survivors_page.news

Known to many as LTSPN this is hosted at a university in the USA, and is not carried by other news servers, so as such has almost no spam what so ever. It is very well used, and has posts in the group from many parts of the world. If your news reader supports the feature try clicking on the link and you should be able to read the group.