My close relative, who has suffered YEARS of emotional, mental, and verbal abuse, has spent the last 6 years in Group Therapy.

For the last SEVERAL months of the last 6 years, my relative has been facing verbal abuse from a fellow patient in Group Therapy; over the weekend, he decided he had enough.

Despite the fact that my relative has NEVER had a drink of Alcohol beyond a few sips in his ENTIRE life, he decided once and for all to run away from the abuse by going to local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings by walking there EVERY DAY in an effort to run away from the abuse he's been suffering.

As of this writing, my relative, as he told me last night via email, is in the process of walking a mile to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in an effort to escape from the abuse.

If you were in a similar situation my relative is in right now where your relative told you he was going to run away from a problem, how would you readers handle it?

Hopefully I understand this but if your relative has no problem with alcohol I believe attending AA meetings would be a waste of time.

Your relative should continue group therapy - maybe there is another group he can join without the fellow patient who is abusing him.

Another option would be for the counselor/doctor who runs the group to speak to the fellow patient. I'm assuming others have seen the abusive behavior.

I hope everything turns out OK for your relative.

i'm going to have to think about this, but what infuriates me is that nobody seems to be standing up for him. That's the first thing that came to my mind when reading this, confusion.

The way i was raised, if someone else is being verbally, or physically abused, you stand up to the abuser, and stick up for the abuse victim, no matter what!!! i don't care if the abuser is Mike Tyson, you stand up.

It always amazes me the way so many people cover their eyes and ears to these kinds of things. My whole life my family taught me to ALWAYS stand up for those being abused. My faith taught me the same thing. When people say i'm weird for standing up to someone who was abusing his girlfriend, or for getting physically involved when an older man is beating up a young kid, when the old man is the purpotrator, i get shocked, sad, and often angry, cause it seems unimagineable to me to not do anything. Walking away is disgraceful!!!

i will think about this deeper, and if i have some thoughts, i will share, but i just want to say this. i wish i was in this program with him, because i guarantee you it would stop within five minutes one way or another. i will pray that someone has the courage to take a stand, and defend him. Nobody deserves to be treated that way!!!

One thing i forgot to mention. When a newsstory hits about a guy who was beating up a woman who ended up getting killed, and nobody helped, or a baby dying in a 130 degree car, people are outraged, and say how evil it is that nobody got involved. Yet when you stand up to a person doing wrong, many of those same people will lambast you for getting involved, saying you could have gotten hurt. Yeah, i could of, but better me then her. Atleast i'd die a martyr, and she would be safe and warm in bed.

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.