Welcome
@mango-meridian, if you're focused on recovery right now, it can be a little overwhelming. You're correct about the different forums. The Suicide Forum has the most activity, followed by offtopic (if i remember correctly). While we want to highlight the recovery section, historically, that's not why people end up on the site.
I'd recommend posting in the Recovery or Offtopic forums. Start your own thread and use it as your own log. You can you so the same thing with a profile post. While the site has a lot of resources, imo, it's greatest strength is its community. Keep working on making connections. And if you lost access to chat due to recent changes, keep posting and you'll have access again.
As far as concerns about strangers, they are valid. This is an anonymous community, so you cannot be 100% sure who your dealing with. But we really try to stop trolls and scammers from the accessing the site. I don't know the count, but we probably reject more applications than we accept. And we will respond to reports of any type of abuse quickly. In short, if you have any problems, report them as soon as possible, or reach out to the mod you feel most comfortable with.
And if you get stuck, post here or dm me and we'll try to figure out the next steps.
Wishing you and everyone else a little peace in their lives.