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Two car crashes in the span of six months already put 55-year-old Doris Shewchuk out of full-time work. But now the tail-spinning economy has thrown a few more challenges her way: a nagging collection of worry, anxiety and outrage.

Hunting for a part-time job in Thunder Bay, Ont., has been tough. Reading negative headlines day after day in the news has been disheartening. And being cooped up alone in the house doesn't help.

But by joining “Recession Survivors,” a 462-member Facebook support group, Ms. Shewchuk finds comfort in knowing she is not the only frustrated soul out there.

“You get to talk with different people and you realize you're not alone,” she says of the group. “You can talk about your fears. You can ask, ‘Well, what do you think?' You kind of take your power back.”

It has also given her a place to share her thoughts on how to get out of a huge financial mess. She feels empowered and has spent the past few months swapping ideas about saving money and economic reform.

The online world has been a saving grace for people trying to cope with the anxieties and issues the economic downturn has sprouted. Groups offering support to recession victims have cropped up on websites such as Facebook, Craigslist and Meetup.com. The members, from all over the world, share stories of loss, tips for survival and a connection that proves that while the downturn has left people broken, it has also brought them together.

“People have long used support groups to get through times in their personal lives, so it's not surprising they would turn to a support group when the economy gets tough,” says John Grohol, a psychologist from Boston and founder of PsychCentral.com.

Sylvain Henry from Gatineau, Que., started Recession Survivors in October after he was laid off from his sales job at a Montreal software company. Faced with the reality of a very limited income – and knowing many others were in the same boat – he wanted a place for people to share stories. But soon the group was overshadowed by wallowing and while the intent is to support group members, he felt negativity wasn't helping anyone.

“It's just that I don't want to hear complaints all the time. I want them to transform their complaining energy into productive energy,” he says.

So he started doling out tips about bartering, buying local food, turning the thermostat down in the house to save money. Others reciprocated and soon there was a solid resource list of suggestions compiled by a network of people trying to make something of their economic distress.

Jolted into reality by a short-term layoff from PPG Industries, which supplies paint and glass to the auto sector, Sona Voice created his Facebook group “15,000,000 RECESSION TOUCHED PEOPLE” in December.

“I started the group as a means for people to kind of console each other,” says the 22-year-old Milwaukee, Wis., resident. “It's for people to bounce back off of each other and kind of help each other instead of one person saying, ‘Oh my God, this thing is only happening to me.'”

While they have a highly visible Web presence, these groups are not just hovering in the online world. Mr. Henry also hosts in-person chat sessions with about 10 Ottawa members at a public library or coffee shop. Anxious New Yorkers meet every Monday night as part of the “New York City Global Depression Support Group” to share their worries and learn more about the economic turmoil, says therapist Kazi Kearse, who organized the sessions via Meetup.com.

He sees people whose anxiety has been spun by the threads of economic disaster and others whose pre-existing worry has swollen since the Dow dropped.

“The tendency is to feel helpless against all of this,” he says. “The antidote for that is abundance thinking … the glass is half full instead of half empty.”

Other support groups are less concerned about healing recessionary pains and more interested in refusing to take part in the doom and gloom.

Douglas Martin, a Winnipegger who conducts much of his wine business in the Bahamas, started the Facebook group “I will NOT be participating in any Recession” which boasts 2,664 members.

“We define it as an empowerment group,” he says. “There's a whole group of people who should be supporting economies as much as [they] can. People spending money, it's all going to stimulate the economy.”

Josee Archer, a 29-year-old wellness consultant in Sandown, N.H., is a member of the group. She says the recession has spurred her to be more positive and was the best thing that ever happened to her career.

“While everyone is talking about this bad economy, I'm getting promotions and more business,” she said.

Other groups such as “No Recession Attitude !” and “North Bay Recession Fighters” encourage people to shake off the doom and gloom and glide through the downturn with a positive mood.

Positive thinking also keeps Ms. Shewchuk motivated. She draws confidence from learning about the recession from other members of Recession Survivors.

“It's given me a better perspective on trying to get different ideas together,” she says. “It's helped.”