DBSASF Depression Bipolar Support Alliance

This is a bipolar support group. Lots of med talk, especially antipsychotics. If I were bipolar, I’d love meds too.
If you’re depressed but not bipolar, search elsewhere.
Seemed like a good, supportive group of folks.
My main issue is the false advertising. Really just for bipolar people.

ok as long as no one else is volunteering, I’ll be an anonymous support. I have struggled with depression for many years, and after negative doctor encounters and meds that ruined my health more, I located DBSA. I would like to say they are a not just a ‘free support group’, though they are a free (suggested $ 1 donation certainly not enforced). They tend to be very organized as well, which is good and offer community events as well. I do not currently take medication and actually found out about DBSA from some listing somewhere.

This is a great support group for people willing to empathize with the fact it is made up of crazy people, by crazy people, for crazy people. The problem with mentally ill people reviewing (or running) a support group is that their own dysfunctional tendencies tend to play out in said review or group.
For my part, I tend to think this is a fluid group, with people joining and leaving over time. While I am sure there is drama at certain moments, I would suggest that is due to the dynamics and tendencies of the illnesses involved, not the persons struggling with them.
Give DBSA San Francisco a try with an open mind and heart. If it’s not for you try the Icarus Project or some other support group. But don’t let just one negative review (or a positive one for that matter) by a mentally ill person sway your judgment. Try out what works for you first.

This group was a terrible experience. In reality, it deserves negative five stars. Certain people in charge of the group, especially a man named Paul, think that they can tell others which meds they need to take. These people have no medical training whatsoever and should not be doing that.
Facilitators do not even follow their own guidelines. Meetings are supposed to be confidential, yet certain facilitators have maliciously talked about people outside the meetings. Many have gone to the group’s board of directors to discuss people they don’t like, without the other parties’ knowledge. The facilitators claim to get advice from «medical advisers,» people whose training in such matters is doubtful to say the least.
The group’s president, David Brunn, has created a lot of problems for people. Any time a person brings up a concern or disagreement, David tends to respond with abuse and rudeness. On several occasions he has threatened to have people he did not like banned from the group.
David is a very unstable person, known for having a questionable sense of reality, and therefore should not be the group’s president. He claims to know what is best for others, when it seems that he is not getting the treatment he needs.
Obviously, all this crap does not help someone suffering from a mood disorder. I left the group and found much better avenues for help. I advise everyone out there to avoid DBSA’s San Francisco chapter and find true help elsewhere.
Also, this is not indicative of DBSA as a whole. DBSA is based in Chicago and has chapters all over the USA. This review only pertains to the San Francisco chapter