Take Part in an Anxiety Social Learning Experiment

[StokesM]

Hi All,
I would first like to introduce myself before detailing what this forum post is about.

My name is Matthew Stokes and I suffer from GAD (general anxiety disorder) I have also been researching anxiety academically for 5 years.

I would like to invite you the reader of this post to take part in a social learning experiment that is designed to ease the suffering of those who have different forms of anxiety.


The Experiment[/U]

The experiment's objective is to help provide some relief from anxious thoughts and feelings by having instant access to peer to peer support via Google hangouts and for group members to set themselves small achievable tasks in which they will be held accountable for completing by other group member's.

This will work by the group have 1 group meeting every two weeks at a specific time for 30 minutes where we set goals, offer advise and hold each other accountable if previous goals are not met.

The group will be small and interment. What is discussed in the group will not be discussed anywhere else outside of the group and will remain completely confidential. This group will be a place where you can express yourself freely without judgment and receive instant feedback or help.

Outside of the bi-weekly meetings the group can be used to post message when you are suffering from an anxiety attack to receive support.

I will take part in the group and facilitate the hangout. If this experiment proves useful and succeeds a charity will be created and something similar will be rolled out across the UK.

Volunteers

This section is about the type of volunteers I need. The Criteria is not strict all I ask is you keep an open mind and are willing to support other people. Any form of negative, sarcastic demeaning comments made to others in the group will result in immediate ejection from the group.

You will also need a smart phone in which you can download Google hangouts and create a Google plus account. (This can easily be done by going to your smart phones app store and searching Google hangouts)

I also need people who generally deep down want to improve their mental health and help others to do so to. I need people who can commit to this for the medium-long term which should not be difficult since all I need is 30 minutes of your time every two weeks and to answer someone’s call for help if a notification pops up on your mobile device.

If you would like to take part please direct message me to confirm your interest

Thank-you for reading.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi Matthew,

There are already groups like this so it makes sense it can work and I like the fact you are willing to commit this to a charity to make it accessible to all.

However, a couple of issues would be worth clarifying.

What is meant by accountable? This might be a terminology thing but this term implies there could be consequences of goals not being achieved and this could be offputting.

How do you plan on tackling inertia and members who do not demonstrate the mindset to move forward? These groups attract people who want to commit but they also attract people desperate for help who find it too hard.

I know groups exist on Facebook already for this and for me, its unclear how they tackle these issues and I think given you are looking to scale this into a charity, its worth ironing out. I've attended charity walk ins and seen this happen but they would have separate recovery groups but it would still not resolve it.

[StokesM]

Hi Terry,
Thank-you for your questions and I really appreciate the positive feedback.

Thank-you for pointing out how the the word accountable made you feel. Perhaps in other posts I make i will use a different word as it has the potential to be miss-conceived.

By accountable I mean others asking you why you didn't achieve your goal and offering ways to help you move forward. In a sense there is no punishment or consequences for not meeting your goals. The idea is you should feel guilty for not meeting your goals (if you was being lazy) or feel the urge to seek help if you just couldn't reach it through a lack of knowledge and this should be enough to motivate you to try again and succeed with your peers by your side helping you through your personal journey.

In answer to your second question, essentially the group should be able to change mindsets if the participants are open. However the experiment is designed in a peer to peer format and with this in mind group individuals won't have the clinical skill to dissect minds and change all attitudes so people unwilling to change in the long run will be asked to leave the group. I recognize this is not ideal but i understand the formats limitations and the limitations of the help I can offer.

People who are desperate for help are welcome as long as they are willing to help support others too !!!

I hope I have answered your questions. I personally enjoyed answering them :-)

[MyNameIsTerry]

I think its tricky.

Right now, you can simply remove people from things like Facebook closd groups and I'm assuming its the same with Google Circles? However, taking it into the realms of public opinion in the form of a charity could mean harsh reviews where people see this happen as its going to be the more vulnerable people in the group.

Therapists can't work this way, or at least shouldn't if you read various codes of ethics from the self regulation associations. They insist on helping the client access an appropriate service, so I think you would have to do this to avoid harsh criticism.

I would advise against the use of guilt in not achieving a goal. Guilt is a negative thing and whilst it may motivate some, it can lead others into low moods and depression. I would avoid lazy too as its not like we all want to be like this and motivation is very hard with these conditions. Perhaps its more about seeing the others moving forward as a lesson learnt but not in the context of then being self critical for not achieving a personal goal. I would also suggest that addressing this issue is the responsibility of the person leading the groups, not the group as a whole or you could have some real problems with that.

One of the issues I have with these types of groups is that they can turn into long running cycles of people who don't move forward. So, are you going to be acting in a coordination role? And if so, do you plan on introducing things to move the sessions in thne right direction eg talks about Cognitive Distortions, exposure methods, CBT, etc? This might present a problem in a charity setting as there may be a need to have someone able to 'sign off' material and given there is a Bill of Parliament out there to introduce formal regulation and to set a standard for counsellors & therapists, there could be a need for some partnership somewhere down the line.