FWIW, I used to take my patients to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting whose regular members were a very tight knit group, and they did the "goodbye" thing too--very similar to the threads I see on this forum, in fact. As an "outside" observer, I found this curious. As I listened to the goodbyes over and over, I realized there was a valid purpose to them:
- The entire purpose of the group is to discuss the healing process. Saying you're moving forward in your healing process, and for you as an individual, regular contact is something you'd do better to decrease, is a mark of healing. The regular members who felt a need/desire to continue regular attendance sometimes got a little defensive, saying their regularity didn't mean they weren't healing. That wasn't the point. Everyone heals differently, and for some people, it's healthier to decrease the focus on "the problem" and distract themselves with other pursuits. For others, it's perfectly healthy to keep in regular touch. There isn't a Healing Rulebook. Anyway, the point of saying "goodbye" is very much appropriate to the topic of the group discussion--the healing process and what it means for everyone.
- Sometimes there is a valid reason to worry when someone suddenly drops off the face of the earth. Relapse (for us, that would be returning to the borg), illness, suicide--who knows. I think it's kinder to say goodbye than to have a group of people who have been so supportive worry and wonder. (I have started a thread asking "where is so and so" in the past because I had a valid reason to worry about that person.) I think it's really touching that people who've never met IRL care enough to worry about each other.
JMHO