Quote:
Originally Posted by Moose2
... The meetings became less about helping people, and more about people fighting for attention and trying to convince the others to stop their meds-because in their head, they were all "experts"...
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Wow, sorry you had that experience, Moose2.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueoctober
I had tried a weekly support group and I found it wasn't helpful. There wasn't any structure to it and it was just a time for people to talk about their week. I prefer therapy groups that are run by a mental health professional(s) and for support groups I prefer PC.
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Yeah, no structure is frustrating. I do go to a (peer led) support group pretty regularly. Yup, people talk about their week, then there is general discussion (which, btw, does not mean everyone talking all over each other
. It's a time for people to discuss some things that may have come up, express empathy...like that). It is structured in that there
are rules. Which is nice, because otherwise, things tend to get pretty chaotic (think about
any group, lol, it's sure not just psych stuff!
) There are quite a few, but they are common sense in avoiding just such a situation. Some examples... speaking from "I" statements (ie. no "you should"), no cross-talking, not judging someone's pain to be less than your own, etc. For support, PC is my go-to choice. But still I usually attend the other because otherwise I'd know no one IRL that "gets it", and it's nice to have that contact (and get out of the apt.(!)) That meeting is the extent of my social life anymore, sad but true. So I find it useful in those ways.