Helping Hands Support Group with Dave Nawrocki
There’s an online self-help support group which calls itself the Depression Forum (DF) where last February a new member signed up.
He or she, using the compelling, fictitious name of “noselfesteem,” writes:
Hi,
Because of all my issues I’ve gradually severed all contact with people. Until now I have no friends or anyone else I see. I live alone. I thought, maybe, I could get a friend who understands what it’s like to have issues.
So here I am.
This is followed by 15 fellow members who respond with encouraging invitations to become part of the “DF” cyber community. “Wow,” I thought, “we have a lot of people at Sage Neuroscience Center like this.”
The issues vary a lot of course. Some have chronic pain and other debilitating medical conditions so it takes effort to go anywhere. Many can’t work and are trying to live off of $600 per month; outside resources for them can be extremely limited. Some are OK once they get to know you, but they shun crowds; they might even have the experience of feeling they don’t fit in. And it’s true, our society can be very unkind to those who behave differently.
- Woody Allan
Well, it ain’t ever over ‘til it’s over, right? Like Woody Allen says, “Eighty percent of the art of life is showing up.” But showing up to what? And here the differences grow even larger!
Yet for those who have this in common – loneliness, isolation, fear, deep despair, a need to have someone to talk to, someone who understands and listens: let us get together and help each other. Let us even band together at Sage, meet regularly, form our own community. Together we can discover strength and direction which is greater than any one of us.
If these thoughts appeal to you and you can make it our clinic weekly, between 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM, well, let’s just get started…
I can’t wait to be a part of this group !!
I moved here from Oklahoma City in November. I’m living in my childhood home with my 86 year old mother…because of my health, not hers. I definitely need to get out more.
I would love to be part of such a group. Anything would help at this point, as I feel I am headed once again down that old familiar “slide of no stopping”; the one that makes me feel paralyzed to help myself, much less anyone else. I know for a fact maintaining communication is helpful and uplifting, but the dynamic doesn’t work with family, or friends for that matter- no matter their good intentions. And one can hardly interact with strangers- so a group is the source for the kind of help I need, as well as being helpful to others, merely by interaction and experiential dialogue.
Being w/o funds makes everything worse; but I recognize I can fall into depression with or without funds. It is the feeling of powerlessness that I must find the strength to fight somehow. I sincerely hope to find help with that for myself and others in a group.
Could I be so lucky? I hope so!
I was doing so well, finally getting my life back together after the devastating sudden loss of my beloved mother, my best fiend, my rock. And then it just hit me like a brick – the depression is back. Like when we’re having nice weather here one day, and then the next day we’re slammed with 40 mph winds and dust storms and allergies from hell. I’m thinking about suicide again and I don’t want to tell anyone. I am afraid that I will lose my friends and family if I tell them — I put them through so much before when I was hospitalized for depression and suicide attempts. I see people every day at work and put on a good face, but no one REALLY knows what’s going on. My mom was the only one who really understood me. I need a group. I had one in California but when I moved here, I had nothing. My fiancee left me and my mom died and I don’t really know anyone here except for a few friends from my childhood (I grew up here) but they are always (understandably) busy with their husbands and children. I feel so alone.
Catherine, I’m glad you reached out us. I’d greatly appreciate if you’d call our office (884-1114) and leave a message as to where I can reach you more privately. Thank you, Dave Nawrocki