Self-help has been documented to be cost effective, life-prolonging and helpful. Yet a lack of information about the benefits of the groups and how to access them prevents people from attending self-help groups.

One in five people suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder, yet only one person in 28 receives treatment and services, according to the National Mental Health Association. Consumer Reports (November 1995) endorsed self-help groups as "real help" for mental health problems. They also reported "Most people who went to a self-help group were very satisfied with the experience and said that they got better." (p.734).

Recent studies have established a link between poor social relationships and poor health. Being part of a loving community, such as that offered by a support group, prolongs and even saves lives (Shaffer et al 1995). Ornish, a California specialist in coronary heart disease, was surprised to find that support groups helped his heart patients more than improving their diets or exercise plans (Shaffer et al 1995:65). Support groups are communities of caring individuals who understand and therefore can really support each other in their common problem.

With public and private resources for medical and mental health care strained, supplements to professional care must be sought. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General, said "Mending people, curing them is no longer enough; it is only part of the total health care that most people require... I believe in self-help as an effective way of dealing with problems, stress, hardship and pain." (US Dept. HHS 1987)

Areta Crowell, former Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, stressed to the Los Angeles Times "the need to reach people in their communities, before a crisis lands them in the hospital. We're working with people who need to take charge as much as possible of their own destiny." Improving support group attendance can help consumers take personal responsibility for their health and prevent such crises.

Self-help support groups offer early intervention for a multitude of serious health concerns which can become much more difficult--and costlier--to treat later on. People who use self-help groups to change unhealthy behavior have a higher rate of success than those who do not attend support groups (e.g. Jason et al 1987). In addition, self-help groups make it easier for people to deal with an issue they may be ashamed of. People can attend anonymous self-help groups when a problem first arises, without fear of having it on their record or of losing face with family, friends or employers.

Despite the clear benefits of self-help support groups, relatively few people actually use the groups. The California Department of Mental Health Office of Prevention found that although 75 percent of those queried felt that support groups were a good idea, only nine percent had attended one (Gartner et al 1984:17). With the possible exception of Alcoholics Anonymous, which was founded more than 60 years ago and is reasonably well-known, the vast majority of self-help, mutual aid groups are not well publicized and information about them is difficult to come by.

There is tremendous need for up-to-date and accurate information about self-help groups, yet the groups themselves cannot get the word out. Self-help groups, by their volunteer nature, do not have the resources to let the greater public know about their meetings.

A typical donation at a self-help meeting is a dollar. There is no money available for paid advertising, and free advertising requires time and a level of sophistication. Self-help group leadership, often by design, is transitory and therefore unable to mount the necessary public relations campaigns to reach newcomers. In addition, the 12-Step programs are philosophically opposed to active programs of outreach, preferring word-of-mouth advertising to promotion. Support groups need help in letting people know about their valuable services.

Because people in self-help groups come together around common problems, there is a remarkable degree of egalitarianism in support groups, even among people from diverse backgrounds, economic statuses, racial and ethnic groups. Support groups create communities which transcend the usual societal divisions. Attendees learn to accept people from different social, racial and ethnic backgrounds because the shared feelings and understanding of their common problems dwarf the importance of their differences. Nonetheless as most self-help groups rely on word of mouth to get new members, the existence of self-help groups is not well known in diverse and minority communities.

Members tend to invite people like themselves, thus minorities and those who have not traditionally participated in self-help groups are underrepresented. African-Americans are less than one-third as likely to attend self-help groups as whites (Snowden et al 1994:57). Lieberman found that self-help group use for mental health problems was predominately a white, middle-class phenomenon (1994:45). While other factors may play a role in this underrepresentation, the central referral service offered by SHARE! removes some of the barriers to African-Americans and other minorities finding the same support others do in self-help groups. Word-of-mouth referrals also exclude people who are socially isolated in the community, who can particularly benefit from self-help.

SHARE! the Self-Help And Recovery Exchange, addresses the need for better access to self-help by offering the only comprehensive self-help support group referral service in Los Angeles County. This free service matches people with the best support group dealing with their issues. The database comprises 10,000 groups that address more than 350 concerns. Most of the support groups are donation only. A typical donation is $1 to $5, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. Call 1-877-SHARE-49 for a referral.

To read more about scientific research on self-help groups, see, “Research on Self-Help and Mutual Aid Support Groups” by Elaina M. Kyrouz, Ph.D. and Keith Humphreys, Ph.D. http://psychcentral.com/library/support_groups.htm



Support Groups helped me deal with my abusive childhood
My life had been filled with fears, shame and anxiety for 40 years until I found the Monday Night Women Survivors of Childhood Abuse meeting at SHARE!

My SHARE! Story begins when my first lesbian relationship broke up after 12 years. Initially, it hurt but it wasn't devastating. Then after about a year my ex-partner got a new girlfriend and I broke down. I could't stop crying. I became very suicidal. I had been seeing a therapist and agreed to be hospitalized me for thirteen days. In the hospital, they treated me for co-dependency and when I left, gave me a referral to Co-Dependents Anonymous. I started attending several meetings near my home in Long Beach. The pain was so bad.

About three years before the break up I had remembered that my uncle had molested me. I didn't have all the details but I had the beginning and end of it when he gave me a quarter for my troubles. I wanted to know more and soon I remembered details of the things he forced me to do as a child. So many feelings came up, and I had to find a way to deal with the pain.

At the meetings I attended I picked up a SHARE! directory with the Incest Survivor Meetings listed in the back. I held on to that thing for five months before I took the plunge. I finally chose to go to the Monday night meeting at SHARE! even though it was 45 minutes from my home because it used the "Courage To Heal", a book recommended by my therapist. I was still extremely suicidal, staying alive only to not hurt other people.

When I walked into the meeting I felt like I was home. Everyone there knows what I am talking about. SHARE! taught me that there are people who care. I found at the meeting people who cared for me, even if they shouldn't have. I remember one weekend, it was Memorial Day. I didn't think I was going to make it. I called people from the meeting. They helped me make it through. I called them, I went out, and walked, did the laundry and got through the weekend.

Despite the long drive I haven't missed a single meeting at SHARE! except when I went back East to tell my parents about the molestation.

That was an incredible experience. I told them what happened and came out to them as a lesbian for the first time. They were able to take it and understand because I didn't have to blame them for what had happened.

When I got back to LA, I felt so much better. The Monday Night Meeting at SHARE! has been the single most important healing resource in my recovery.

I have made a commitment now not to kill myself. I can do that for me now, not for someone else. Life is still hard, but I have decided to live and I have to do the things I need to live.

Before my nose was below water but I could see. Now my nose is above water. I can breathe. I have strength. I can live. Thank you SHARE!

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Before I attended support groups, I was a basketcase
"Basketcase" is the only word to describe me before I came to SHARE! I was unable to work or to have relationships. I was non-functional and totally miserable. I didn't want to live another minute. It was that horrible.

I heard about SHARE! through the ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) directory. Initially I went to the noon ACA meetings, but they didn't last long so I moved over to the noon CoDA (Co-Dependents Anonymous) meetings. At SHARE! I got the tools to work my way back to wholeness; to become a functional human being. The fellowship, the structure of the meetings, and the interchange between members of the meetings--whether good or bad--always resulted in recovery. Yet as I used the 12-step tools, my depression continued to manifest itself unaffected by the recovery I received in the programs.

Don't get me wrong, I needed ACA to deal with my dysfunctional family. My mother never hugged me or kissed me or told me that she loved me during her entire life. She was feelingless, without a heart.

My father had enough feelings for both my parents. He was an alcoholic and a rageaholic. He terrorized me as a child. He never hit me. He did not have to. He would burst into my room violently while I was reading or playing quietly. It was terrifying. It sounds so trite, but when You’re a little kid it's absolutely terrifying. He wouldn't let me call him Dad, because he saw the name "Dad" as a term of respect and endearment and he knew he didn't deserve it. He wanted me to call him by his first name. I couldn't, so I didn't call him anything.

ACA helped tremendously. Yet I used all of the tools and was still subject to this incredible, devastating depression.

People in my meetings didn't want to hear about clinical depression. There is such a stigma against mental illness and depression is a mental illness. To serve my needs, I started the Wednesday Night Depression Support Group at SHARE! Getting to a meeting where depression was the main agenda, was like an alcoholic finding an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting after going to Overeaters Anonymous meetings. The Depression Support Group provided a venue where I could deal with my specific needs.

Both ACA and the Depression meeting empowered me to trust my own judgment and to trust myself. They took me out of victim mode and showed me how to take full responsibility for my own recovery. I had been seeing an ineffectual therapist and doctor. The meetings made it possible for me to seek better help. I got a new therapist and a new doctor. I now have a medication that works.

Today, I am in control of my life. I am in control of myself. I feel like an adult, not an adult-child. I have a good perspective on life. I have confidence. I have ability and I accept myself and others. I am becoming the person I always wanted to be. I like myself. I accept my defects while I continue to work on them. I am graduating cum laude from Cal State this year. I am financially stable for the first time in my life. Relationships continue to be a problem, however, I now have tools and resources to support me as I work through the difficulties. The CoDA meetings are helping me improve my relationships. I have a lot of gratitude for what I have gotten from meetings. I owe my life to the recovery movement and SHARE!

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Support groups helped me find new relationships and cope with my dysfunctional family.

When I came to SHARE! more than two years ago, I was very lonely. I have always been able to survive much better than the others around me. Nevertheless, I had not been in a relationship with a member of the opposite sex since childhood. There was an imbalance in my life. I was unable to correct it despite all the efforts I could muster and my best intentions. I had even looked at the smartest people around me to try to pick up their methods of dealing with the problem. Nothing worked.

A friend referred me to a meeting of Co-Dependents Anonymous at SHARE! It helped me so much that I wound up becoming secretary of that meeting for a year and a half. During this time, I explored the twelve step network. I went to different programs, Overeaters Anonymous, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Debtors Anonymous, etc. either at SHARE!, or using SHARE!'s directories to investigate programs that did not meet at SHARE! I attended incest survivor meetings that I learned about through SHARE!, and finally started one at SHARE!

I eventually accepted that the members of my family were irresponsible children. I started giving myself credit for taking care of them, and stopped letting their epithets bother me.

My last visit home, I was able to stand up to my entire family. I let them know that I could walk away from them whenever I desired, and that they could take me or leave me. They chose to take me.

SHARE! has advantages over the other local meeting places in that it is not only larger (has more meetings) than other meeting places, but also is set up for that purpose, and thus the staff was well able to answer questions I had about various twelve-step (and other) programs.

Today, my life is less lonely. My relationships with my friends, both male and female, are closer, tighter knit relationships. I make ends meet. Thanks, SHARE! You've made my life better. ________________________________________________________________________________

Self-Help Groups at SHARE! Changed My Life in a Thousand Ways

"SHARE! is the best thing that ever happened to me. So many of SHARE!ts meetings have helped me. In the Anger Release meetings at SHARE!, I learned that all I had to do to get well was to feel my feelings. I learned anger was okay. Being able to pound and scream in a room is so valuable because I was never allowed to be angry as a child.I come from a totally dysfunctional family. My sister is emotionally disturbed and can't hold a job. My brother is a heroin addict. My other sister was molested by my father as a child and committed suicide a year and half ago. Everyone in the family is either anorexic/bulimic or a drug addict. >

I was a prostitute. I used to eat and throw up between customers. It helped stuff the feelings. The Women Survivors of Childhood Abuse Meetings at SHARE! made me realize that my being a call girl was my way of remaining loyal to my father. Prostituting myself validated his sexual abuse of my sister. I stopped being a prostitute when AIDS hit the headlines. I thought it was because of my fear of AIDS, but I received a letter from my dad around the same time telling me he didn't approve of my "work." I was doing it to make him okay.

The noon Co-Dependents Anonymous meetings taught me about boundaries. I developed respect for myself and others. I learned how to be compassionate and understanding, and that not everyone thinks the same way.

SHARE! helped me overcome my eating disorder. I though I was hungry but I discovered that "hungry" feeling was really shame and guilt. SHARE! let me express my feelings. SHARE! helped me reveal who I truly am and feel good about it. I am not my fathers or mothers primary caretaker. I am responsible for me.

SHARE! has made such a contribution to my life, in a thousand ways, not just the first time I came to SHARE! in desperation. Knowing that SHARE! is available is helpful even when I am away. SHARE! is like a home--I don't have to call in advance, the door is always open, and it's safe. Thank you, SHARE!"