Thinking of starting a depression support group

I'm thinking of trying to start a depression support group where I goto church. The problem is I don't really know what to do in the group. I know I don't want to read from the AA handbook for depression because I don't believe depression is an addiction.

This group will not be "lead" by a professional, & will be informal. Would it be a good idea to just go around the room and let people talk? Let them say what's bothering them and what's going on in their life? I think that sounds like the best idea, but I'm not sure if there is something better.

It's a good idea, and you could also explore different coping methods. maybe also stories of people who have overcome depression to live full lives, like a message of hope

That's something that's always eluded me. I never have understood coping methods. That's always been a forgien concept to me. I've suffered with depression for 3 decades if not longer & I've just always, and still do, kept it to myself. Maybe if I get enough participation I can learn things while helping others.

You might want to set some ground rules for support group. Otherwise you’ll inevitable run into people who like to hear themselves speak and will preach and lecture others on topics they know nothing about or make uneducated assumptions. That would cause you to lose participants as people won’t stick around.

You might have to limit the length of time people could speak and the type of comments people could make. I’d look up online wgat type of ground rules work for this type of support groups

Thanks for the advice. I will look into that.

It may be a good idea to decide first of all whether the group is going to be led by one person (you) or whether it should be a peer support group perhaps taking it in turns each time to have someone different leading. That way everyone gets their turn to lead and hopefully everyone (who wants to) gets their turn to speak.

You could ask for input from the group as to what kind of format they would like, topics for discussion around the theme of depression etc. Unless you particularly want to take on the role of facilitating the group each time, it may be best to get everyone as involved as possible.

Hope that helps.

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I think this is a great idea as many of us are going through mental health issues and need support.