Analysis of electronic support groups for recovering addicts. Introduction ESGs are a type of virtual community.
Virtual communities are a new phenomena.
Addicts in recovery have formed ESGs on many local and international networks. Very little is known about the therapeutic value they receive from exchanging ideas this way. This is very different from traditional support groups . Among the advantages are the thoughtfulness of the replies to issues that recovering addicts face in common. Writing can be different from spoken conversation in that thoughts can be formed more slowly and edited more carefully.