Another Tuesday and the last of the clinics or whatever they're called.

It's only been five 2-hour sessions but even so there's a sense of sadness at saying farewell. Yes, we could keep in touch, but given the realities of how we're all struggling to cope with the basics, we're not kidding ourselves it's likely we'll manage to do so. The older lady who is very local to me has swapped phone numbers as she'd like to meet up in a month or so as a motivation to keep trying the half hour 'recharges' which she struggles with. But given she's a phone person and not on email and I'm just the opposite - it could be tricky!

The session itself covered thinking patterns and negativity. Without quite saying it was all a matter of 'thinking positive' we did touch on cognitive behavior therapy and looked at how destructive thought patterns can be a rut we need to break out of.

We also looked at where we were all were on a cycle of decline-boom/bust-acceptance-improving-steadystate and it was good to hear that most felt they were in the stages of just about accepting where they were or beginning to improve. Just myself and the biker who characterized ourselves as still declining.

We have a one-to-one follow up with the woman running the clinic in six weeks time, but that's it for the sessions - although we can still access the service for a year if need be. As they said, there is no magic pill, but the teaching element has been useful and meeting others in a similar situation has been both helpful and interesting.

I wish them all the best for the future.