This is an interview of an in named male who after the loss of a family member, decided to join a social club where he could meet new people who had also been through things in their past and he could reconnect with the outside world, I asked him to share his thoughts on the social club and how it has helped him through the lonely and hard times, this is what he said:
person A “well errm I’m not quite sure where to start. Its just a meet up group that allows anyone of any age of 20+, gender or sexuality to join different meet up groups through a meet up website. I decided to try it out after I lost a close family member and was struggling with depression, I had tried therapy but it I don’t feel as though it helped me and I found it difficult to talk to someone in that way, and I new I was spending too much time at home, on my own. you see when I was struggling to socialise with family and friends I very quickly became very isolated and miserable however I didn’t know how to get out of that bad habit. I first heard of it through a friend who wanted to start his own ‘diving meet up group’ and had researched other meet up groups. I then searched it up after to see out of curiosity what it actually was and found that the age group of a meet up in my local area on the website suited my age I noticed that many of the people who attended had profile pictures I was then intrigued to who goes, and they all looked like nice people roughly my age. After I then explored the page where they post what they have done and where they have been and I saw that they had been to all different places some in which I have wanted to go to and others that I never thought was in my local area. I decided to join the group I found that it was easy to join and then you simply add your name to a list for whatever meet ups you want to attend. I mainly joined to experience new things and to help me learn about what there is to do in my local area and in other places. However it has also given me the chance not only to get out of the house but to meet and socialise with new people, I now have a small community of friends which I speak to daily and who I see weekly at meet ups. It has completely changed my prospective on things and people and I’m hardly ever at home now. I often go to different restaurants which I had not even known existed, long walks through thick woodlands, art gallery’s, bowling and even the occasional visit’s to places such as Liverpool. when my friend first mentioned setting up meet up groups as it was something that people said was easy to do, when you asked me about it for your project it came to mind that for extending in the future you could set up your own meet up group for example, one just for women or just men or both, but I think its a great way to help others connect with the outside world and to talk about their issues, as I can say it definitely helped me to heal and to become a much more confident and happy soul. I have also met someone there a woman who has also been through the loss of a loved one and she is now my partner and is my rock, so to put it simple the social club has helped me a great deal, and has also helped my family too as they had to live with me being a depressed and negative person “.
FMP Domestic Violence 