ABSTRACT
Patient.co.uk lists over 1,800 UK support organisations, self-help groups, and health and disease information providers. There are support groups for almost every disorder, e.g. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and diffi culty, e.g. dental fear. Under the category ‘mental health – stress/phobia/anxiety’ there are fi fty-two groups listed, with thirty-two listed under ‘mental health depression’, seventeen listed under ‘mental health eating disorders’, eleven listed under ‘mental health psychosis/ schizophrenia’ and twenty-six listed under ‘mental health children’. But the highest listing of eighty-fi ve is for ‘addictions alcohol/drugs’. The following example indicates how a support group can fi gure in an individual’s journey to mental health:
John drank socially on weekends before his retirement; he found that afterwards his days lacked structure and he began drinking daily. By fi ve years post-retirement he was drinking one to two bottles of wine a day. He loved his grandchildren, but over the past nine months he had repeatedly broken arrangements to go and see them. John had attended Alcoholics Anonymous on a number of occasions in this period, resolving each time to go regularly, but never had.
