SUPPORT GROUPS

When chronic anxiety enters your life it can be a lonely journey if you let it be. It is hard enough to cope with all the physical and psychological symptoms that occur as a result of anxiety than to add isolation to them. The isolation I am referring to is that from communication and common understanding, for we can be in the midst of our friends and family but do they really understand and therefore appreciate what is happening to us? If only a pharmaceutical company could invent a tablet that would induce Panic Disorder just for one day. Who would you give it to first? Good question!

In a support group you do not have to go to such lengths to get compassion and understanding. The people attending only wish they didn't know what the hell you were talking about after you have described a few of your symptoms. It can be a great source of comfort knowing that you are not the only one suffering, and in particular it can reduce some of the anxiety from perceived dangerous symptoms, e.g. heart palpitations and constant diarrhea do not mean that you need to start making funeral arrangements. It's just anxiety playing it's game in your nervous system, and in the person sitting next to you in the group. How do you know it is anxiety? Well because you, and the person beside you, have had a thousand medical tests with no positive results. Thank God! Or would you rather have heart disease or cancer of the colon? Good question!

Apart from identifying with each other's symptoms, a very important aspect of the support group, and I personally feel a crucial one, is to identify with each others "'stinkin' 'thinkin'" and in some way support each other in changing that thinking which underlies our anxiety. Habits of thinking can be changed over time but it requires a lot of patience. Courage is also required because you need to take your new thinking for a road test. Members of the support group can come along for the ride, so to speak, with encouraging comments and a genuine interest in your progress and set backs. Yes, set backs happen, I am sorry to say, and support is needed to get through them.

A support group is a good thing!

By Joe Alessia (member and facilitator of the Kew Support Group)
March 2004