Hi – I’m Sort of New Here & Group Therapy

I have been coming to this forum for a few years now, but this is my first post.

Just wondering if anyone has any positive stories about group therapy?

For my part I attended an 8 week Social Anxiety group which was mostly a waste of time and a 4 week Anger Management group where I actually learned some useful things about conflict resolution and being assertive.

I am asking because I am meeting a psychologist next week about some therapy options.

Also, I would like to thank everyone for contributing to this forum. Over the last few years consulting it has occasionally made me feel a little bit better.

Hi,

You're welcome - thanks for the comments. I suppose that group therapy will never be anything magnificent, but you can get from it what you want to get. If you don't take active part, then you might have less opportunity to benefit from it. Howevr, I'm sure that you can also sit there and observe and still get something beneficial. So, it relly depends on you and how you approach it. I think that if it's offered to you when you see your psychologist, then you should avail of it. It cannot do any harm to try again.

For the record: I had group therapy too and enjoyed it.

Kevin

Group therapy changed my life for the better. I guess it can depend on the group, though. Mine is a general one offered through my school. It's my first experience with group therapy and I've been it for about six months now. It's just for anyone wanting to improve their relationships with people. The other people in my group are much higher functioning (in terms of jobs, relationships, social skills, etc.) than I am but they still accept me and we relate a lot to each other. (I suspect a lot of the success of group therapy depends on the mixture of personalities you get in both participants and facilitators.)

I actually found opening up to a group of peers to be easier than opening up in one-on-one therapy. That said, if you don't eventually open up you won't get anything out of it. Of course, that can be an especially challenging prospect for AvPDers.

You'd be surprised how many "normal" people struggle with feelings of inadequacy just like we do.

I take a lot more risks now and I'm a lot more accepting of myself. I'm better able to deal with my depression (the lengths between each episode are getting longer and longer, and I've had far fewer suicidal thoughts). I still suspect I have AvPD, but I'm a lot better at pushing forward in spite of it.

BTW congrats on your first post, John!