Self Help groups have always rendered a great service to society. They provide help to the people who need it most at crucial times. They are essential to people suffering from problems like addiction or divorce, because social support is a basic human need and any human can be helped by getting social support. Over the years, many different types of self help groups have emerged. Some of them gained enormously in credibility over the years.
Self help groups for addictions
The most common type of self help groups are geared towards people with addictions. The most famous example of this is alcoholics anonymous. Such self help groups are very effective because they bring people suffering from the same problem together into the same room. This allows them to frankly discuss their problems which they might hesitate to discuss openly otherwise. This type of self help has proved to be very popular. Many alcoholics who reverted to Alcoholics Anonymous have found themselves successfully rehabilitated within a very short time. This model has now been applied to other problems such as drug addiction, stealing, and divorce. Some measure of success has been found in these other fields as well. Over time as more people try out this venue of self help, perhaps more people will be able to solve their problems too.
Self help for trauma and survival
This type of self help groups are targeted towards people who have been the victims of abuse or neglect. They are also meant for people suffering from post traumatic stress disorder like war veterans. This type of self help provides a healing process for the survivors. The survivors get to share their sufferings with other people who have similar sufferings. While this may not completely solve the problem caused by the trauma in the first place, it does help to alleviate it to a large extent.
Self help for the terminally ill
Many times, terminally ill patients like those with Cancer or AIDS find it very worthwhile to sit down and talk about their lives with others. This is sometimes beneficial for them because even though they may have a few months left to live, this provides a new level of meaning to their lives. Many patients have expressed the belief that they were positively benefited by the self help process during their dying days. They noted that their lives were enriched before their death.
Finding self help groups
Today it has become easier than ever to look for self help groups. Many self help groups will advertise their meetings on the Internet or put up notices in newspapers. It is also possible to get in touch with members of self help groups who will then provide guidance as to how join and participate in these groups.
The members of self help groups are expected to be honest about their problems and not hide them in their best interests. Only then can they benefit from the effect of self help groups.