April 16, 2022:
The absurdity of group therapy. As though people with anxiety could benefit by speaking in front of an audience.
I had to leave a group session for ADHD when the therapist chose to read the slides word-for-word. There were a million words on each page — certainly the most densely-packed slides I've ever seen. And while she read them word-for-word I read them beginning to end many times over. She was visibly nervous, and forgetful of exactly who her audience were.
AA meetings were different. The people there were experienced: respectful of each other and the nuances in each other's points of view. But this was an earlier world, before lockdown, in a room face-to-face with coffee and cigarettes and suffering. They were there to help each other, peer-to-peer, while the group therapies I've attended relied on the skill or lack of skill of the official in charge.