Mountaindewed, I understand your hesitation. Yours might be the wisest approach, just to avoid them entirely. The downside for me is that I have very little social interaction otherwise. But if it is upsetting, then why bother. They may even be bad for my mental health. It's a conundrum.

Whatever2013, I've also found the experience of the ones I go to to be pretty uneven. I've attended some run by paid, trained facilitators of a mental health organization that gets tax dollars in Canada. In one another participant interrupted while I was answering a direct question to me from one of the facilitators and told me to 'stop talking'. There were 3 facilitators in that meeting but they let him take over the group. After i was interrupted and the group moved on I left the meeting feeling bad and disrespected.

I think these peer support organizations for mental health or emotional well being can be plagued with problems. I left an international one before covid because they appointed someone who was convicted of attempted murder to their board of directors. They were featuring quotes from him in their newsletters. I didn't want this person to be affecting my life in any way and I wondered why that org couldn't find anyone else to be on their board. I still find it creepy. Now he is their vice president. One day he'll be president. According to what I found on the web he denied his guilt and never fessed up to his crime.