Just wondering if anyone here attends a support group of any kind. You know... AA , Al-anon, NA, ACOA...or any others.
Care to share?

After my divorce, I took several classes and attended different support groups. I took Divorce Recovery, Anger Management and Boundaries classes and attended Codependents Anonymous and a sexual abuse support group (not at the same time, but over a period of about three years). I found them to be very useful. Learning to deal with the situations that life throws at a person is useful. Listening to other people talk about that person's situation, offering feedback and receiving feedback are, in my opinion, very healthy alternatives to suppressing or ignoring one's feelings and experiences.

I attended NA, AA, and MA for school last semester. They were really interesting for the 3 meetings I attended. The people were really nice I would recommend these groups for anyone who wanted to attend.

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-Kristi

I attended Al-Anan meetings for about a year and a half. It was helpful to know I was not alone.

However, I attended a depression support group and all they did was make me feel worse...including wanting me to go by another name because they already had someone in the group with my name. Seems, she felt she was the only one who should be called that. REALLY STRANGE!

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

The effectiveness of a group is determined in part by its facilitator. If one group is "strange", try another. Unless a person lives in a very small town, there are probably many more.

Yes, seehorseroam, you are right, is WAS the fault of the facilitator. I was so depressed it was VERY hard for me to go to that first meeting, no way could I have gone to another. I am MUCH better and doing well, but it is still a strange thing that happened to me in a support group.

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Nutella,....
proving some of the best things in life come in a jar.

My ex SO was a recovering alcoholic (7 years) when I met him. He went frequently to AA all during our relationship. He gave AA credit for saving his life. He said without going there he probably would have continued drinking and likely would have been dead before the time I met him.
I went to meetings with him on many occations and even though I never had a drinking problem, I did enjoy the meetings. I do think going to that type meeting will provide you the assistance you're seeking if you put yourself into it.
But you have to be WANTING what they're offering or it will be a waste of time. People in AA will tell you that the drinking person has to WANT help. If not, AA cannot help them. And I'm sure other like programs are the same way.

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Barb


My GOD Bless our Country and our Troops, and rid the World of terroists.

I attended a Chronic Pain/Fibromyalgia Group and it was horrible! It was located in a huge cold room at a church, the chairs were those cold metal chairs, no coffee, no refreshments, nothing inviting whatsoever. (Give me at least a soft padding in the chair!) The meeting went on for over an hour and people were having to stand up, walk around because of course, it was a Chronic Pain Group! The leader of the group was totally lacking in whatever it was she was supposed to be doing. There was a large group of people in attendance but at least half of them left before it was even over. And it seemed when the mod wasn't talking, the rest of the group was talking about 'bad doctors' and 'good medicine'!!

I went back one more time to give it another chance, and it was the same thing.

I had really been looking forward to joining this group. It was advertised in the newspaper over and over. I thought it would be a chance to meet other people who felt the same way I did, I thought we could go out for coffee and forget our pain for a while. Boy, was I wrong!