I was in a mixed support group for I think two or more years. Men n women, aging from 20 to 45. I was the only one with childhood abuse and spousal abuse issues. The only cool thing I remember about group was we sat on huge pillows on the floor. Later on the Ts brought in chairs to sit on which made group more "rigid". Oo yes, the two Ts had these cool comfy chairs and the rest of us ding bats had hard, ugly chairs. We all "*****ed" about the chairs ... lol

One girl started off with all these blond jokes. They were actually funny and I laughed along with everyone. I guess since I thought they were funny she didn't get her kicks by trying to "irk" me. So she started telling some cruel blond jokes and would always glance at me to see my reaction. I didn't give her pleasure by reacting negative. Although after awhile, after her crude joke, I said, I have yet to see an attractive person tell a blond joke. Dead silence in the room. LOL.. That was the last crude blond joke she spouted. The funny dumb blond jokes are really funny. But, some of the blond jokes are just nasty. Ok so I am blonde..

The other thing that stands out is this one guy kept saying, in an embarrassed way, he was an alcoholic. The T kept saying, oo no you are not an alcoholic. Well, years passed and finally one group member asked him how much he drank. He said 4 or 5 bottles of whiskey per week and a few cases of beer on the weekend. All this time, this poor guy was trying to get help for his drinking problem and the T kept him in denial. "shrugs shoulders. The guy eventually went to a psychiatrist and got some kind of meds to help with his drinking problem. I always felt bad for this guy. He was suffering so bad and the T just kept him in denial...

So a book later, I have no idea what the purpose was for group therapy. No problems were solved or resolved. Maybe this was the T's first time doing group and they did not know what they were doing. Seemed nobody in group "got better". To me, it was all a waste of time. I think support groups can be good, but I also think good Ts are also needed to keep things rolling.. oh yes, and good groups I would think would mean "good results" ??????

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