I was always anti-groups. For some reason I always thought "a room full of BPs in different states of minds = chaos" ... this was though until last year. I was hospitalized for about 5 days May 2010 and of course, 'group' was mandatory in order to see the light of day again. I never really opened up too much, just enough to get participation points and increase my chances of going back home.

Then - my pdoc who happened to work at that same psych hospital, told me he would let me go home only if I agreed to do IOP. (Intensive Outpatient Program) Basically I had signed up to coming to group every day from 9am until 2pm. I was dreading it!!

I ended up looking fwd to it!! We had a pdoc running it, and the whole floor had groups going on. We got free breakfast and lunch, and I made some friends. Yes, there are all sorts of people there in all sorts of parts of the healing process. BUT, every day was a different topic and we tried to get to everyone's daily issues.

I was able to cook again and have a little more confidence in myself towards having a happy life knowing I wont be able to work a normal 9-5 job again. So in a nutshell, my view of group was changed after giving it a shot. BUT IT REALLY SHOULD BE LED BY A PROFESSIONAL!!