If there were some reason why I could not find a RL group with which to meet then I guess it would be better than nothing at all. But, it wouldn’t be my preference.
I don’t have a specific mental illness per se but I did grow up in a severely dysfunctional family.
For many years I went to Al anon or ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) groups and it helped greatly in my understanding of some of the typical issues we face. I always jokingly said we should call it “Neurotics Anonymous” since we didn’t have a specific mental illness to claim but we were all uniformly neurotic as hell.
Those close to us were often mystified by the typical selection of eccentricities, quirks, insecurities and general weirdness which was part of the typical constellation of symptoms resulting from growing up with that severe type of family dysfunction masked expertly by apparent normality.
One of the descriptions I heard from a speaker fit so perfectly and clarified so much for me that I’ve never forgotten it.
He said : “ACOAs spend a lifetime guessing at what “normal” is.”
And it frequently was exactly the opposite of what transpired in our ass-backwards childhood households :)
I’m not sure if an online only framework would have been as helpful.