# Group Therapy



## LoungeFly (Jun 25, 2011)

Has anyone ever had success with group therapy? How did you find out about the group? By your doctor? Researching online?


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## jeremias (Mar 19, 2013)

Finding a group may be difficult depending on where you live since there aren't many people with SA doing therapy. I live in a city with 1.9 million inhabitants and I remember my psychiatrist saying that to form a group he would need to talk to several of his colleagues. A group for SA should have 7 or 8 participants according to him.
The only way to find a group-as far as I know- is to talk to a mental health professional. I don't think it would be easy to find it on your own since most people want discretion about it.


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## LoungeFly (Jun 25, 2011)

jeremias said:


> Finding a group may be difficult depending on where you live since there aren't many people with SA doing therapy. I live in a city with 1.9 million inhabitants and I remember my psychiatrist saying that to form a group he would need to talk to several of his colleagues. A group for SA should have 7 or 8 participants according to him.
> The only way to find a group-as far as I know- is to talk to a mental health professional. I don't think it would be easy to find it on your own since most people want discretion about it.


dang. And here I live in a city with 10,000 ( yes, ,that's right. ten thousand )

My biggest problem is, is that I cannot afford a therapist.  I know some offer sliding scale fees, and I'm not overly sure how that all works, Plus, I hate to offer them less than what they charge. I work in business, if my clients asked me to take less than what my owners charge, I wouldn't be happy.

I'm not sure what the next step is. I thought maybe it would of been a good idea for me though. Get together with people who understand how hard it can be. Thank you for the response though.


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## UKguy (Sep 30, 2013)

I don't know if this counts but I tried a 1 day workshop in a group setting. The session was run by the counselling service at my university and it was setup to help people to be more confident and assertive when working in groups.

To cut a long story short I realised after that session that group therapy would probably not be suitable for me. It sounds like a good idea to get a group of people with SA together but I found it a painful experience.........and not in a _'it's hard but you will grow as a person'_ kind of way.

Plus as selfish as this sounds I just don't give a **** about other peoples problems, I'm overloaded with my own crap right now.

I really would prefer 1-2-1 therapy but unfortunately I can't afford any type of therapy anyway.


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## whitelight (Nov 4, 2013)

*helping others can help you*

I'm new to the website but just want to answer UKGuy's comment that he has too much crap in his life to be interested in listening to other's problems at group therapy.

I think group therapy is a good idea because the more we listen to other's problems, the more we get perspective on our own issues. Sometimes I get relief from my own thoughts by listening to the problems of work colleague and friends. It is like taking a 'holiday' from myself for a while.

I hate my own thoughts - if I could divorce myself, I would!


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## UKguy (Sep 30, 2013)

whitelight said:


> I'm new to the website but just want to answer UKGuy's comment that he has too much crap in his life to be interested in listening to other's problems at group therapy.
> 
> I think group therapy is a good idea because the more we listen to other's problems, the more we get perspective on our own issues. Sometimes I get relief from my own thoughts by listening to the problems of work colleague and friends. It is like taking a 'holiday' from myself for a while.
> 
> I hate my own thoughts - if I could divorce myself, I would!


I understand what you are saying but I'm not convinced. Part of my issues are I have a lot of family stress going on - sick relatives etc. I feel like I already have a lot of other peoples problems 'onboard'.

Perhaps I was a little too harsh. I would consider group therapy IF I was also having 1-2-1 therapy alongside it. However I feel group work on its own would not be sufficient as I do not think I would feel comfortable discussing all my personal issues in a group.

Last year I joined another support group for those with MH issues at my university. It isn't counselling just a get together where everyone has a chat and we do some activities (like mindfullness). I've found that I'm fine talking about the superficial stuff and sharing coping strategies about the day to day anxiety and crappiness of life in general. However I would not discuss the deep underlying stuff that I believe is the root cause.


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## ew4055 (Nov 7, 2013)

I have gone to many counselors in my life, my first counselor told me one time "I think you should try group therapy, I think you'd really benefit from it!" to which all I thought was, that sounds really stupid all I'm going to do is sit there and not say anything! LOL I only went to group therapy once, it didn't work for me, and I didn't talk the entire time. I'd rather have an individual therapy session.


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## UKguy (Sep 30, 2013)

RobMorrow71 said:


> Group therapy may be good.


I have seen a couple of your posts today....... just out of interest, why do you bother? One line replies that add absolutely nothing to the thread discussion at all.

Has anyone that has tried group therapy made any friends out of it or met people from the group outside of the therapy sessions? Or is that against the rules ?


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## dorean (Nov 14, 2012)

I went to group therapy for the first time last week by invitation from my case worker. It was an interesting experience and I'm looking into going again. I didn't participate so much as observe. It might take me a few visits before I'll be comfortable sharing as openly as some of the ladies in my group were able to. My therapist thinks group will help me to be comfortable speaking to strangers and forming strong bonds with other people. Fingers crossed!


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## TiredTracy (Nov 14, 2013)

I looked into it locally. There is one "open" group run by the community mental health center. It uses a book. Maybe I'm just being stupidly arrogant (something I do a lot), but from what I've gleaned after hours on this board, more theory will not help me (I will get a A+ in class, but it will not help me).

Maybe that's the problem with groups - they tend to gravitate around a particular text. That's great for a book club . . . but if I'm going to go through the trauma of being the newbie, I'd rather attend a book club. At least then everyone begins with the assumption that the text is fiction. Not to sound cynical or anything. 

But if I was attending a book club, I wouldn't need a group.


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## legday (Nov 3, 2013)

id never do group therapy, it's too scary being in a group lke that and haing to open up to everyone no thanks id probably skip every meeting.


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## NicoShy (Jun 11, 2009)

I go to groups that have helped a lot. DBSA (depression bipolar support), and NAMI have people with all types of disorders. Some of us go out after group as well.


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## addie20t (Nov 18, 2013)

I found one on my university website, it's only students and it's also cheaper. So if your a student I would ask to your health center. I'm starting next week, I think it's gonna be hard, at first, but we'll eventually feel more comfortable. The best way I found to reduce anxiety on the long run is to confront myself to scary situations, so I'm pretty confident this is going to help as it is super scary lol


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## inerameia (Jan 26, 2012)

I went to two different group therapies; one for NAMI and the other was a mood disorder group. The NAMI group only had a few older people so I felt pretty awkward there. The mood disorder group was alright. I'm going to an anxiety group tomorrow.


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## sirsnits (Nov 1, 2012)

I'm currently in group therapy. It's different when you're in a setting of like minded people. We all get it, we understand, we know why we are there. 
It makes it easier to see that the people in group look just like everyday normal people. because we are normal.

SA is a common thing. Group helps lighten the load.

You Might even make some "true" friends along the way, possibly help each other out.


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## badgerparty (Nov 26, 2013)

I went to a group once after my therapist insisted, and while it did help me in believing that I could walk into a room of strangers and not panic, I found the one on one sessions much more helpful. 

Hearing other ppl's problems didn't really help and made me feel like something of a fraud; like I should just get over my issues because others have to deal with bigger things. That made me feel worse, but the people there attended regularly and seemed to get a lot out of it, so I can see it working for some.


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## dkarazhov (Dec 2, 2013)

Why don't we try something like this over Skype?


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