Hey, pearleaf, I think the goals of this forum are to share problems we each have, such as you have here:

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pearleaf said:
Social isolation, lack of self-confidence, frustration, the impact of disability in all aspects of my life and in my identity are just some of the things that I can recognize inside myself and that move me towards some kind of support group.

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and see if other people have stories, ideas, ways they've coped with similar problems. Dr. Clay has written his wonderful book which is kind of a backdrop reference for how to "do" self-help, has the psychology behind problems, teaches how to goal-set, and generally makes some problems seem more manageable and open to applying self-help to them.

Sky's great wording of this particular post suggested by Dr. Clay is to explore any experiences we've had with support groups, whether this one, other online groups or face-to-face support groups.

When I was moving a couple years ago, from the neighborhood I'd been in for 20 years and terminating my therapy and quitting my job/retiring it was a very stressful time and I thought it might be a good idea to join a women's support group. I found one I thought would be good but I was the only one who attended regularly! It was only once a month but for the first 3-4 months I pretty much met different members each month :-) That was kind of stressful for me and while the group leader (an MSW, it was at her home) tried to get both more people coming and pin down people to attend more often, it didn't happen. Too, there was one vivacious woman who was into doing a lot of online dating/meeting and pretty much had a "hobby" of meeting/dating new guys. I didn't think she was really looking for a serious relationship and she did all sorts of things I didn't agree with "morally" (she'd arrive late at a meeting site so she could see if she liked a guy's looks and if she didn't, she'd leave without even talking to the guy or letting her see her, etc.). Too, I'm happily married and most of the other women were single or having trouble with their relationships so I never felt like I fit in. When I actually found a place to move to, the packing/moving part was time consuming and the new place was too far from the old, so I used that as an excuse to quit the group.

I agree with Wants2fly, you have to make sure you're compatible with the other members!