Thanks @BirdDancer, the anonymous fellowships all claim to be non-denominational, but I think this is more an ideal than what actually happens in practise. I was blinded sided by the remarks on mentally ill people too. Imagine if something like that were said about gay people or black people or overweight people. It was clear to me that group was about defining a circle of 'us' that was healthy vs. 'them', the mentally ill who are not. This woman also talked about how she had invited over 20 people to a party and her mentally ill daughter was there a long with her mentally ill spouse, and how they were an embarrassment because they started eating all the food she had prepared before most of the guests arrived. She had to tell them to stop, which they did. Later they left without eating a bite more or saying anything. How weird is that, she said. Then she added the line 'of course mentally ill people don't relate to others the same way the rest of us do'.

I was so glad I hadn't revealed anything directly about my mental illness to that al anon family group.