What is This Guide Here For?

Read Damston's guide before this, if you need a reminder on what a response letter should be. The guide below will share some interesting points that I have picked up from many people, and are useful while making requests / responses to others.
I won't tell you how to write a response, you should stick to your own style. Don't follow any format for your responses either. Now if you get stuck writing a response, are socially stiff, want to be better prepared, or are just looking for some inspiration, you're in the right place!
Remember that you can help people fix problems that you still need to fix in your own life, and help people when you need help too! Additionally, kindness you show in the game should extend on and offline, to those you don't know and to those you know a little too well, no exceptions.
Skip around this guide all you like- there is no order (or organization...) here.

Check all the resource links at the bottom of the guide for more stuff. You can join the Popcannibal Discord Server[discord.gg] to talk to other players. Also, comment below with any suggestions on how to upgrade this ever-changing guide.

Things to Keep in Mind While Responding:

• No personal info, obviously. (As much as you might want to, they are using Kind Words so they can be anonymous.)
  
• When someone makes a request, don't respond to only fix their problem, since you very well may not be able to, and that may not be what they need anyway. I will say this over and over: people don't always need someone to save them, they just need someone who will listen and validate their experiences, instead of just saying "mood" or "same lol."
  
• Find the middle ground between comfort and statistics. Telling the whole truth and more can hurt people much worse, and telling someone they're just "wrong" or what they're going through just "really isn't that bad," is not what you should do. Never lie in a response, just put yourself in the requestee's shoes first, and find out what they really need. If they have an obviously-twisted outlook on something, then suggest the direction you would take it, and why. Forcing your view onto them is never the answer, and won't work. Although you can always give your own positive perspective if nothing else.
  
• Again! Someone (maybe you,) who is currently struggling with something, can more than likely help someone else having difficulty with it. Don't worry if you haven't solved all of your own problems, give others a head-start with their's. You're the best person for this since you have experience in it and you understand more than those who don't.

Don't read this list to "learn" how to respond, read it to find out how to deal with some requests you may have trouble with. As I come across more and more I will expand this list to cover all kinds of situations that can help you respond to more requests.

Common Requests:

• Venting:
  The request is basically taking about a rough situation or many situations, where the person making the request has a lot of emotions they're going through at once. Either way, they feel the way they feel for a reason, whether it sounds natural to you or not. Venting gets a bad wrap from some, but it's just freely expressing emotion, try to stay with them and be uplifting on their end of the struggle.
  Don't expect to fix their problems, venting can often be them telling you their outlook on a thing, and not even giving a problem. You are responding, not repairing, most of the time a word of advice to help them cope with a situation is more than enough. Let them know your experiences with similar times in *your* life, (or someone else's life,) and how you defeated/lived with them. (Or maybe mentioning if you're still struggling with the problem today.) If you or anyone else cannot relate, don't give up! Just giving them sympathy and making them feel like you understand can help them understand others DO care about them. Fixing someone's problems when they're venting is frequently impossible, and they don't need you to!
  Additionally, this is a good example of a place to use negativity. Not towards or against them in any way, but to reassure them and validate their reasons for venting. The push to be constantly positive is insane when in reality we need to be understanding and accepting of how we feel. (and in turn how we are.) The world ain't all right, so don't pretend it is, and don't have your mission be to make it seem that way. Negative x negative = positive, but within reason of course.
  
  
• Pretty Vague:
  The request doesn't tell you a problem, or maybe not even how someone's really feeling, it might just imply that the requester isn't doing so great. Or maybe they are just looking for a conversation, and not to touch on an issue at all. Sometimes they want to know how you're doing!
  A surprising amount of requests are actually more like prompts, asking about you. Reply to one of these if you want to take a break and cool off. Maybe give them some support by saying what's happening in your life, if they want. Don't overthink it.
  
  
• Needing Advice:
  The request is very specifically asking about a certain issue or "apparent issue." Some topics are just beyond your knowledge. You most likely do not have immediate contact that knows about those problems either. Go to the last part of the guide if you feel like educating yourself a little more. You may just have to turn them to a different question that you CAN answer, that might help them answer their main question later. If you (reading this right now,) have advice on how to solve some of the hardest questions, lemme know!
  
  
• They Don't Know the Problem:
  The person writing the request knows there is a problem but doesn't know what it is. The person is experiencing an obvious mental stab, but there's seemingly no thorn to cause it.
  Depression will kill someone's motivation and happiness. It comes from a place in the brain that might as well just randomly make you feel a certain way, for no reason.
  With no *reason* to be sad, someone can feel like an absolute idiot to say anything about it to anyone they know. Therefore, only anonymously, do people usually come clean about their feelings. How do you respond, (not to mention help,) with such a common problem, if there is no real solution? Give them a goal to aim for. (Over the day, the week, the month, whatever.) The "you'll get through this" is overused, but everything counts. Trying to relate and sympathize with their situation is about all else I can think of to do. I need ideas on this one, it's a difficult case to crack.

You have 14 (short) lines to get your response to them with, and no follow-up messages. You might need to be pretty creative to get your message across to them. Prepare to be concise and quick with your main point, and be thoughtful with your wording. Take as long as you need to figure out how to fit it all in. If you're taking a REALLY long time, maybe copy and paste what you have so far in a google doc or something so you don't accidentally lose it somehow.
As nice as it is to start with "Dear Friend, I hope you're doing well...", you may have to cut straight to the chase to cram all your response into the space provided. They'll be thankful you did. Don't feel like you have to use up all the lines, sometimes a short response that hits home is all that someone needs. Overall, it's for you to decide, and it depends on your writing style. Don't bother signing off on your response, because it does that for you. Smack a sticker on there to give em' some possible decorations too i mean, I know this isn't a guide on how to do responses but, c'mon...
Sometimes you just need a couple more words, so abbreviate what you can with internet slang they should understand.[en.wiktionary.org]

You can skip this if you're not a fan of disturbing/painful discussions, but they equally as important and should never be avoided for any reason.

A More Difficult Topic:
What if this person is struggling with something and you aren't sure if they will really be ok? What if you think they're abused/abusing themselves? You can only respond once and you don't know them. There are many ways to deal with this, but here's a couple:

• Report the request, without choosing any specific option press next, and fill out your concerns about the requester. I am not sure what exactly happens to these requests, so maybe do the following option in addition to this one.
  
• If you feel comfortable, reply with a gentle check-in. What someone may need in these situations is to know that others see and know their struggle, that they're being heard, and that they aren't in this alone. (Thanks, TheInvisibleHoot.)

It's an understandable and recurring issue, that I cannot pretend to know much about. If you have a better way of dealing with this, let the world know!

Not your typical healthline resource collection. Kind Words lists some resources but most people are not at the point where they need to call a hotline. Chill and read up on some things that might help you better understand yourself, or understand those you can't relate to very well.
More urgent at the top, more casual near the bottom. I hope to have all kinds of stuff here for anyone soon! Submit some entries in the comments too, these are only resources I know about well.

Hotlines and Lifelines:
http://www.suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
https://www.gogentleaustralia.org.au/suicide_help
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines

Discord Servers With Help In Mind:
Love and Support Mental Health[discord.gg]

Websites:
Take This. (It's Dangerous to go Alone!)[www.takethis.org]
Checkpoint! A Charity to Provide Mental Health Resources for Gamers.[checkpointorg.com]
(As well as a list of games that can help you in your tough times.)[checkpointorg.com]
MentalHealth (Let's talk about it.)[www.mentalhealth.gov]
7 Cups: For Connecting to Caring Listeners for Free[sevencupsoftea.com]

Specific Disorders: (The more you know!)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)[g.co]
Depression (chronic, clinical, and major are all similar prefixes.)[g.co]
(These will often appear due to other mental conditions/disorders.)

Content Creators:
HealthyGamerGG's Youtube, and his Mental Health Webinar Series!

Airplane Inspiration Wall!~[docs.google.com]
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"The Answer Initiative"

The Answer Initiative is a simple challenge to everyone who owns the game to answer a request every day, or every week, or something. If you fall behind, respond to two or more next time the chance comes up. This can apply to anyone, no matter how skilled in speech or how experienced. I suppose the only requirement is that you're slightly literate. The more experiences you've had, good and bad, the better.
Maybe you can respond to more on the weekend, roll some dice and answer a random one? Make your own rules and see how it goes. Here is some inspiration for airplanes if you just want to write some of those instead, that's cool too. <<Airplane Inspiration!!>>.[docs.google.com] Overall, making responses has helped me stabilize my brain just as much as receiving them, and I'm not the only one.
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In closing, prioritize your own mental health before worrying about others'. If you're going through something, no matter how big/small, please tell someone. (And not just in the game.) Thanks.