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T O P I C R E V I E W
joemccarthy
Posted - 03/05/2006 : 15:43:18 I just read the thread started by MaryAlma in May 05. I believe starting a support group to kind of do 12th step work with others who are suffering is not a bad thing. I go to AA meetings to share with others my experience, strength and hope and help myself and others to stay sober for another day. With TMS I think that there are people like myself who would benefit from face to face sharing. If the message gets watered down or the purpose of meeting becomes more of a problem I think it would just dissolve anyway. AA meetings can and do get boring, redundant and stray from the primary purpose which is staying sober and helping others to achieve sobriety so some I don't go to anymore. But even those meetings helped me in the beginning of my recovery because at least I knew there were people at the meeting who had what I had. Stanton Peele's book The Diseasing of America points out rightly that AA groups often scare people into switching dependency from substances to the group. He points out rightly that true self help support groups should help people to become independent and ultimately redundant themselves. I have seen many cases of an addict/alcoholic become dependent on their group for advice on every aspect of life. In the case of a support group for TMS I believe that misinformation and misreading of Dr Sarno's principles as mentioned in a recent thread are the very things that might be adressed in a live face to face forum or group especially if attended by experienced facilitators. What do you think?