Support groups in Adelaide

Hi @Ginger12 and @TiredSoul,

Its great that you are reaching out for help and I can't reccomend support groups more highly, but I just wanted to flag that although we can refer people to organisations due to this being an anonymous forum we can't refer to specific groups in specific areas as it encourages meeting outside the forum which moves away from the anonymity our members hold dear. I hope this makes sense and I hope you can both find a service that is suitible and effective for you.

ps what kind of support groups are you both looking for? so many agencies run them for different groups of people for different reasons

I've read the moderator's comments, and I'm not sure I really understand, but I'll try to keep my comments generic to avoid any problems.

Ramsey Health has sites accross Australia, in most major urban area's. I have participated in several of their out patient group therapy programmes and found them to be brilliant. The staff are kind, caring and knowledgable and its been really good to relate to others with bipolar. The group therapy has kept me out of hospital.

Good luck!

I haven't found any for bipolar in Adelaide - not any that have people who are experienced with their illness, quite a way on in their illness journey, well and stable - my pych's attitude is that people who are well, professionals, don't hang around support groups! Despite being well I would like to connect with others with bipolar, and I know when I was more unwell and early on in my diagnosis would have liked to connect with others further on their journey, who were well and high-functioning. I guess I find the focus on education frustrating - I'm very much been there, done that, just interested in making social connection with others with shared experiences.

I find the 'safe forum' rules patronising and infantilising... and frustrating, I think they get in the way of offering useful support.

I would refer you to a couple of organisations that I know in Adelaide run education-orientated programs for people with bipolar but I gather that contradicts the rules of this forum.

There are Grow groups in your local area, just visit the official site and look for the one closest to you. (I am not sure if this breaks the forum rules.) Oh and these groups are free, not for profit and usally meet once a week.

Grow groups arent bipolar-specific, they are targeted to all psychiatric illness - or even just people in difficulty without illnesses as such, and they are based on a AA-style 12-step program; you need to take that ideology on board.