I came to a realization last night in therapy. It was regarding my experience last week in group, my bipolar group. A group that is grounded in safety, love and unconditional support for each other. We have a template to follow if we want and it’s voluntary who starts the meeting. I volunteered for once to go first. I had a bleeding heart so to speak and really wanted to get it off my chest. As I started to talk, Joe, the founder of this great group walked in and stood behind me. Now I can’t remember what I said but I remember I was only 2 sentences into it when he put his hands on my shoulder and made a seemingly innocuous crack about what I said. It was supposed to be funny and maybe if it was outside of group it would have not mattered so much. But it wasn’t, it was in group and I did feel the flash of irritation heat up. I pushed on regardless and finished pouring my heart out to group. That’s not my style typically because as one of the group elders I try to be optimist