As I sat in a circle of strangers on hard plastic chairs, I felt like my world had ended. This was a part of my mum’s terms, and quite frankly it was something that I could really do without. Although, this option had been the lesser of all the evils! Mum originally tried to sign me up to one-on-one counselling sessions, but there was no way I could do that. All of that intense, scrutinising attention gave me a mini panic attack just thinking about it, so when she’d talked about a group, I figured that would be much better. It made it even more appealing because it was run in the local community centre. I didn’t even think it was being organised by a professional, just some guy with an online qualification, which was absolutely perfect for me. The less real this was, the better. If it ha

