We understand that individuals suffering from depression or anxiety may have difficulty meeting new people, and may not wish to read sections of the book out loud, or may not want to participate directly through examples. Its okay to come to a meeting and just listen, or only ask a few questions and not say much about yourself.
Recovery meetings are attended by volunteers, we are not professionals, but rather individuals with a shared concern and interest in practising better mental health. While we acknowledge that members may be facing difficult circumstances and we accept that people come to meetings for a variety of reasons, we don't generally discuss traumatic subjects in any depth. Our focus is learning new positive habits. Experienced members attend each meeting who are patient, respectful, and who will not ask questions but rather present ideas through illustrative examples of how they have dealt with their own mental health issues.
There is an expectation that everyone who attends is respectful of others at the meetings. We make an effort to avoid contentious topics like sex, politics, religion and legal issues. We discourage complaining, sarcasm, teasing, judgement, and other behaviours that we consider to be instances of temper. We do not attempt to diagnose one another, or provide medical or psychiatric advice.
We encourage members to seek additional support for issues that we cannot address. We don't require that members attend only our meetings, there are many other resources in the area and we encourage members to attend meetings provided by other groups, or one-on-one therapy from an established counsellor or medical professional.
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Hamilton Recovery Meetings
