EA Community Mental Health Survey

[Bary Levy]

Link to survey (The survey is intended for everybody—not just those with a mental health condition)

Hey everybody, my name is Bary, and I’m currently recovering from a 2-year-long depression and anxiety episode, which I partly attribute to me joining EA around that time. I’m really thankful for this community, and for the amazing people here that helped me recover^[1]. I created this survey to see if EA messaging is encouraging destructive thoughts, and to see if we can maybe improve it to help people like me.

If you would like to talk about your emotional or mental health experience with EA in detail, I’m also looking to do 1:1s! so ping me on the forum or on my email: [e-mail]. Just note that I’m not a mental health professional, so if you feel like talking about it can cause you distress, please pass this opportunity.

note: I’m not currently planning on submitting the resulting piece to the red-teaming contest, but I will publish the results and some thoughts on the forum.

1. ^

   Some of them even helped me without knowing so

[Julia_Wise]

Hi Barry—really sorry to hear about the bad time you’ve had, and glad you’re coming out of it. I wanted to be sure you’ve seen this earlier survey: https://​​forum.effectivealtruism.org/​​posts/​​FheKNFgPqEsN8Nxuv/​​ea-mental-health-survey-results-and-analysis There was also a 2021 EA mental health survey connected to the EA Mental Health Navigator, though I’m not sure the results have been written up. It might be worth talking to Emily Jennings of that project if you haven’t. She’s at [e-mail]