Thank you for writing about an important subject! I’m sorry about the ways I gather EA has been difficult for you. I’ve found EA pretty emotionally difficult myself at times.
People who fill out the EA Survey are likely to report that EA has a neutral or positive effect on their mental health. This might be because participating in a community and having a sense of purpose can be helpful for people’s wellbeing. Of course, you’d expect bias here because people who find EA damaging may be especially likely to leave the community and not take the survey. An excerpt from a colleague’s summary:
“An interesting bit of information is that the 2022 EA survey asked how EA had affected the mental health of individuals in the community. While some people reported that their mental health had reduced as a result of being part of EA, on average, most people reported improved mental health. Obviously, there is some sampling bias here in who filled out the survey. Still, this was more positive than I expected. That’s not to say that we can’t do better—it would be really great if no one was in a situation where they found that this was personally harmful for them.
. . . I asked Rethink Priorities to do a more thorough analysis of this question. They’ve now done this! TL;DR: There are only small differences in responses across cause area/engagement level/location/career level/time in EA (students + newcomers were slightly more likely to say EA improved their mental health than other groups).”
About existing efforts on mental health in EA (some of which are mentioned in other comments):
MentNav (formerly the EA Mental Health Navigator) aims to list mental health resources that will be useful to people in EA or elsewhere
You mention Rethink Wellbeing, which is running projects similar to some of what you suggest
The EA Peer Support Facebook group is for informal peer support, and allows anonymous posts
The Effective Peer Support Slack is one location where people have worked on related projects, although it doesn’t seem to be very active currently
Some other resources, like community contact people in local groups and at EA conferences, or the community health team where I work, aren’t focused on mental health specifically but do end up assisting with some situations related to mental health.
Some efforts to provide volunteer support with accessing mental health services proved difficult, because of liability to the volunteers.
On imposter syndrome, there’s enough content that there’s a Forum tag specifically on this topic.
I’ll note that I think it’s good to have mental health resources tailored to specific communities / populations, but this doesn’t necessarily mean much about the prevalence of problems in those populations. E.g. there are lots of therapy resources aimed at people with climate anxiety, therapists who specialize in treating medical professionals, clergy, etc.
Thank you for writing about an important subject! I’m sorry about the ways I gather EA has been difficult for you. I’ve found EA pretty emotionally difficult myself at times.
People who fill out the EA Survey are likely to report that EA has a neutral or positive effect on their mental health. This might be because participating in a community and having a sense of purpose can be helpful for people’s wellbeing. Of course, you’d expect bias here because people who find EA damaging may be especially likely to leave the community and not take the survey. An excerpt from a colleague’s summary:
“An interesting bit of information is that the 2022 EA survey asked how EA had affected the mental health of individuals in the community. While some people reported that their mental health had reduced as a result of being part of EA, on average, most people reported improved mental health. Obviously, there is some sampling bias here in who filled out the survey. Still, this was more positive than I expected. That’s not to say that we can’t do better—it would be really great if no one was in a situation where they found that this was personally harmful for them.
. . . I asked Rethink Priorities to do a more thorough analysis of this question. They’ve now done this! TL;DR: There are only small differences in responses across cause area/engagement level/location/career level/time in EA (students + newcomers were slightly more likely to say EA improved their mental health than other groups).”
source: EA Survey 2022
About existing efforts on mental health in EA (some of which are mentioned in other comments):
MentNav (formerly the EA Mental Health Navigator) aims to list mental health resources that will be useful to people in EA or elsewhere
You mention Rethink Wellbeing, which is running projects similar to some of what you suggest
The EA Peer Support Facebook group is for informal peer support, and allows anonymous posts
The Effective Peer Support Slack is one location where people have worked on related projects, although it doesn’t seem to be very active currently
Some other resources, like community contact people in local groups and at EA conferences, or the community health team where I work, aren’t focused on mental health specifically but do end up assisting with some situations related to mental health.
Some efforts to provide volunteer support with accessing mental health services proved difficult, because of liability to the volunteers.
On imposter syndrome, there’s enough content that there’s a Forum tag specifically on this topic.
You suggested mental health materials like articles or podcasts by mental health practitioners. Readers interested in this might explore the 80,000 Hours interview with with psychotherapist Hannah Boettcher, writing by psychologist Ewelina Tur, another mental health provider who writes as Daystar Eld on the Forum, and other writing under the Forum tag self-care and wellbeing in the effective altruism community.
I’ll note that I think it’s good to have mental health resources tailored to specific communities / populations, but this doesn’t necessarily mean much about the prevalence of problems in those populations. E.g. there are lots of therapy resources aimed at people with climate anxiety, therapists who specialize in treating medical professionals, clergy, etc.