I've just come back this year to the community, and I already feel like this place is like a safe haven for me. I stress a lot, overthink lots of things and those thoughts make me really depressed. The game itself and its world, the concepts are so so relaxing for me which I thank A&M for. The community is also welcoming and kind and helpful. I'm really sensitive to basic human kindness(I want to give a piece of chocolate to every driving person that lets me pass), and for example when I asked here that I'd needed a spell so many deer showed up and I felt so flattered and thankful(Shoutout to all those who helped me get that raven spell on my deer!).

It's really nice to be part of such a community, and I love being here.

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TEF has helped me with my troubles. Even just loading up the game and just sitting in one spot for hours. The forest, its design and atmosphere, is very calming for me, and I can relax and just be for that time. I am really grateful to have found TEF (even if I cannot remember how I found it.)

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I have been struggling with depression and social anxiety for so long I don't remember what "normal" feels like.

TEF is the first place, even online, where I was able to approach people (well, deer avatars) without the usual anxiety, and the peaceful atmosphere along with the fact that there's no in-game chat are probably the biggest factors. In fact, when I first heard about TEF, while everything about it appealed to me (even the human-faced deer, which a lot of people find creepy, but I love things like that), the thing that really sold me on it was that there is no in-game chat, while still having a way to communicate. Conversation is really difficult for me. Usually when I play MMOs I prefer solo-ing and not talking to people, and if I need help with something it's really hard for me to ask. So I really liked the idea of being able to interact with people without having to actually talk to them.

When I discovered the community, I was shy at first about posting, but that didn't last when I saw how warm and welcoming everyone was. The fact that it was a smaller community also helped. The community has gotten bigger since then, but it's still far from the thousands of members on other sites. I avoid posting in forums for other games, but even when I was shy about posting here, it wasn't like the fear I get elsewhere.

I stopped playing TEF and visiting the community for a while because of a variety of things that had nothing to do with the community itself or with the game. And I missed it. I put off coming back only because I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone anymore. Thankfully that wasn't the case and I'm really glad I came back!

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I have a few accounts on here that I like to keep separate from one another for I feel they each have their own personalities don't I don't want to lump them all together onto one.

I suffer form Agressive Reactive Social anxiety and Depression and have been on and off TEF for the past 5 years. And each time I come back it seems that everyone is so welcoming and kind!

I came back to the forest recently, again, mainly because I lost lost someone very close to me because of the USA election results. So I am kind of in a rut for close friendships now and thus trying to involve myself more into other communities and groups to try and move on.
I find the TEF community very kind and open as it was before in the past. So I thought coming back would be a good distraction to help me move on from that and perhaps make new friends. Yes there are those groups of friends who stick together, but in reality that is everywhere, especially considering some of them have known each other for quite a while and developed that friendship.

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There -were- times it helped me. But mostly it just fueled it. I don't know why I try attempting to stay here (well I do but people don't believe me). Most that were negative started out as misunderstandings and got way out of hand with personality clashes and fueled tempers, and some things (about me) that I didn't even realize at the time.

Been trying to build something for myself again here, doing my best to keep it positive. But that's difficult when 80% of the forest is against you. Characters won't interact because the players refuse to interact. It's a vicious cycle. People can't just leave personal information out of it anymore. If they don't know you on a personal level, you can forget it, is how it's seeming to me lately. And it shouldn't be that way.

Some of the best roleplay interactions I ever had online, long before the forest, were with people who didn't know me and they didn't care to know me, and I didn't care to know them. It was strict character interaction and nothing more than that. Never anything deeper. My personal issues weren't ever an issue with them. There was no room to be spiteful or hold a grudge. We never knew one another so judgements couldn't be called. We let our characters speak for themselves. If something happened that wasn't favorable, it was handled ICly, never OOCly. That was ideal for me. Sadly TEF doesn't work the same way. My issues DO get in the way, and people know too much and it affects the roleplay of the whole forest collectively. It's sad to see. TEF isn't really social-issue friendly for us older players. Younger players, sure. But not us others.

I tried to keep it short. Hah.

I came here after 2 years of nothing. A death in my family had me fall into a really deep state of depression, to the point where I didn't care about anything except surviving my day to day for the sake of two important people in my life who were my everything. Before the death, I used to be heavy into art and cooking. Both things I shared with the one who had passed away. Social Anxiety and fears of not being good enough or always being considered 'beneath others' has always been a problem for me. I lived through years of physical and emotional abuse, suicide attempts and dehumanization. They were able to start bringing me out of it, encouraged me to step out of my shell at my own pace and made me feel redeemable for once. With them gone, I sank back down.

A friend of mine was trying to get me back into doing something creative and she found this place, dragging me with her after she saw the community and 'voiceless' nature of the game. I spent months away from the community at first, only popping in to look around occasionally. Then finally I did a piece of digital art. My first. I used a mouse and drew with my non-dominant hand because of that. It wasn't much and I was encouraged to share it, getting praise from the person whose character I featured. They were the first person I interacted with here and in a way, I looked up to them. That was it, I was hooked. I wanted to draw more, to try and be a part of this place. So I brought characters to the forest and with a lot of trial and error and a lot of failed attempts to get over my fears. I wanted so much to 'belong' here because it always felt like I was on the outside looking in on this tight-knit community.

I've been here for several years now and sadly I haven't always been the best person or the kindest. Sometimes while here between misunderstandings, my anxiety has gotten the better of me and I've pushed people away by being hateful and cruel under some idiotic idea that I was sparing them from 'who' I've been trained to believe that I am. Old habits die hard and in the end it only served to make me seem erratic and made me even more afraid of everyone, afraid of what they thought of me. That aside, there has always been people here who are welcoming and encouraging. Who would take the time to talk to me and council when I had made a mistake or just offer interaction with their characters. Because of them I've been able to keep going, I got a drawing tablet and practiced constantly to improve my art and delved into my characters and world building. Even got help trying to mend my mistakes with people here, so that I could have another chance.

All in all looking back to things before I came here, I don't know what I would have done without TEF and the people here. I've gone from doing nothing, to sketching, writing and drawing at every moment I can. Excitedly following other characters and their antics and admiring the works of other artists - driven to improving myself and doing what I can to help others when I can. ♥

the heart symbol is just '& hearts;' Remove the spaces and the ' so that the and symbol, word and semicolon are all squished together and boom - ♥

♥ !