Wow, these people are all so much better than me on giving advice. (Must be my heart of stone Martin, Sam and Corey are always talking about.)
All I can add is I've always found the boards - these boards in particular - to be a nice, safe, friendly environment. We're all accepting of each other's quirks and for all the disagreement, a rather fiercely loyal bunch. When one of our members leaves we feel the loss because everyone contributes something to our unique and flavorful stew. We can even sometimes tell when one of our own is having an especially up or down day. But what's important is we do not JUDGE each other's character and we will not stand for others to do so. The Mods are especially good at keeping debate away from the personal.
So for many of us, these board make for good therapy and often it isn't related to any personal subject. You simply join in on a discussion, comment on a post or start your own idea, and what's bothering you can move to the back of the brain and continue working itself out without all that shouting for attention. Meanwhile we get to share and talk about movies, and who doesn't like to do that? Best of all, if you feel a conversation is getting too heated for you (like the recent piracy discussion did for me) you simply stop paying attention to those posts. It's not like anyone is aware that you've tuned them out.