Ironic - Therapy brings on panic attacks!

[typolisa]

I hate going to therapy! HATE IT! I started at the end of September so I've had about 15-20 sessions and I feel like I'm getting nowhere. I am getting scared now just thinking about it. My chest is getting tight and my breathing shallow. I don't know what to talk about - he just sits there silently and eventually says "I wonder what you're thinking" and my mind goes blank and I can't think of anything.

I panic every Thursday (my sessions are 2.30pm on Thursdays so I dread it all day) - I don't want to get up, so I get up late, then panic I've wasted the day and ... this is stressing me out!!!

I 1/2 want to stop going, but it might be helping. Or it might if I give it the chance. But .... I wish I didn't have to go.

Any advice? I have told the therapist I don't like going and I get stressed but ... well he talks nonsense and doesn't really say anything useful. Sometimes I think he is great and other times I think he's an idiot!

Help!

[Jamesflames]

He's probably not right for you if he makes you feel this way. Everyone is different and there will always be some people who you won't get on with. If you find he is talking nonsense then you probably aren't benefiting from the therapy either.

Do you have the option to see anyone different?

[Arnie365]

I agrees with James. My sessions aren't anything like this. We always start with a recap of the past week then if I have things I want to discuss that have popped into my head I do. If I have nothing specific to discuss then my therapist will start us off usually picking up a thread i will have mentioned previously and we just talk and the session flies by. I love going BUT for some reason I do seem to get a tight chest and a few more chest pains Monday afternoons (my sessions are Monday evening). I like to think of it as my anxiety playing up because it knows the therapy is slowly getting rid of it.

I'm learning so much about myself and things I'd forgotten just pop into my head and I think oh yeah, maybe that's why I feel like that and such a thing.

If switching therapist is an option you may want to think about it. Also tell your therapist you are thinking of changing. I'm totally open with mine because holding back in therapy is only holding back from yourself.

[typolisa]

That's a scary thought too! You could be right. I've had CBT a bunch of times with no success so I guess I thought I might need this something different... but maybe... not this. I guess I don't want to rock the boat (firstly - I wouldn't coz that's one of my major problems in life!! Secondly - because it's on the NHS and I'm scared if I turn his sessions down I wont get offered anything else)

I'll try and tell him how I feel tomorrow.

Thanks - I do feel better knowing you're all here :)