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Hi, I'm J. and I'm neurotic.
The barrel-chested man with jet black hair stops and sighs. Then, with quick cadence and a booming baritone, he shares his obsession: I sniff my girlfriend's clothes for the scent of another lover.
Hi, I'm M. and I'm neurotic.
The buxom Latina, who wears severe black eyeliner and habitually sniffs and sprays her hair with perfume at meetings, talks about her exercise addiction and how she can't stop sobbing.
Hi, I'm A. and I'm still neurotic.
The Mexico City transplant with a well-groomed mustache and pristine white Converse sneakers blinks rapidly and smiles as he explains, proudly, that it's been five years since he punched someone.
Neurotics Anonymous is in session. In Spanish.
Inside a crowded room wedged between a Zumba studio and an income tax business along Whittier Boulevard in East L.A., strangers gather for two hours each night to share their struggles and anxieties. Some people come only once, others sporadically, but many show up every day to this chapter of Neuroticos Anonimos, known as Grupo Serenidad.
Members accept strangers with warmth, make small talk about their favorite Mana songs and show love by sharing good food. Speakers have 12 minutes at the lectern. There's a timer, although no one pays it much mind.
Like Overeaters Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, the self-help program for people with emotional issues -- not neuroses in the classic sense as much as a struggle to control feelings -- is one of hundreds patterned after Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-step recovery plan.
Neurotics Anonymous was founded in 1964 by Grover Boydston, a psychologist who had spent years nursing his anxieties with liquor. He joined AA and sobered up but still struggled to control his emotions.
Boydston wrote the literature for his new group, weaving tidbits of personal experience with AA's standing methodology. One chapter focuses on some of his favorite lyrics -- "No one would care, no one would cry, if I should live or die." He called that song, "What Now, My Love?," the most accurate description of mental and emotional illness he'd ever heard.
He scheduled the first Neurotics Anonymous meeting in the Washington, D.C., area. A small group turned out, but it grew steadily. Soon word spread into the western U.S....