Hi kj44,
I just completed a three week course of ALL DAY group therapy and felt the same way going in on my first day. I was surprised at how well I reacted to it. I've not had much time to process my diagnosis of Bipolar yet and am currently in a major depressive state that has lasted months, so I had pretty much isolated myself and interacted with no one outside my immediate family and my pdoc/T.

The group I went to was approx 12-18 people, mostly bipolar and depression/anxiety. They did ask me to introduce myself and say what brought me there. Once I got through that it was easy as pie! You don't have to say much at all if you don't want to, but you'd be surprised how much you have to say in the company of others that feel the same as you do. It was like a dam breaking for me and it felt very good!

Since my group was 6 freaking hours long, we had lots of time, so we had topics to cover everyday, like: Fear, Anxiety, Depression, Trust, Dissapointment, etc etc, and sometimes had writing assignments to complete on how those topics apply to you personally. So mine was alot like a course in psychology. If yours is shorter, you may only have group "discussion" that is lead by a therapist.

Also, fyi, alot (most) of the information on thought/behavior change for my group was based on a spiritual perspective, kinda structured to resemble the 12 step program for AA. I wasn't prepared for this and I was a little uncomfortable with it, as I follow some alternative philosophies on the divine plan. But whatever you believe can usually be fit into whatever general theory that was presented, so it still meshed.
Sorry for the long post, I tend to ramble!!
Good luck and I hope you have a good experience with it, It helped me open up!

Saywhat?