Support groups are like any other form of treatment...for some people they work and for others they arent a good fit....

in general a support group is where people with the same type of problems get together to talk about their problems and how they can help their self with coping with their problems...

examples of common support groups....

Alcoholics Anonymous
narcotics Anonymous

how they are run, what the perimeters/rules / topics/ goals....and all varies depending upon ones own location and what the focus is of that group.

I have attended a support group for dissociatives for many years..

what happens is we all enter a room, take a few minutes to gather our refreshments that each person has chosen to bring to share with each other...coffee, doughnuts, rolls what ever...say hi all that coming together chit chat. then we just take turns talking about how our week went, any problems we encountered and how we worked through that problem or ask for suggestions that may help...

example last week someone came in with a question of whether they should or shouldnt get ECT for their depression. Just like here at psych central we dont tell each other what to do. those that have had ECT told about their situations. we shared the pros and cons of what we knew of that treatment and how it can affect those with dissociative disorders. those that had resources shared them.

what we dont do is act like each others treatment providers...we dont discuss in detail traumatic events that caused the dissociative events...that requires one on one treatment with a treatment provider. We stick with present day how to deal with our day to day lives, ....

example one session someone had come in and shared they had gotten into a fender bender because they were driving while dissociated. She asked for ideas on how to stay grounded/ what other drivers do to prevent their self from dissociating while behind the wheel.

we leave the therapy work with our treatment providers up to each of our treatment providers and share commonality/friendship/ ..

since very group is different and not everyone is suited for the same things..to find out whats available on your location and how those groups are run / whether it would be good for you to join a group and what they consist of you will need to contact your own treatment providers.