Is CBT the best therapy for health anxiety or do other things work too?

[Nighttime pacer]

Hi all
I've been battling health anxiety for years.
I've spent a small fortune on seeing private specialists who keep telling me there's nothing to worry about. The trouble is I keep thinking it's possible and worrying about getting various deadly conditions from exposure to things in my house from new furniture to paint to sand to asbestos.
I tried a few sessions of CBT but the therapist seemed cold and clinical.
I've tried talking therapy and I just turn up and moan for an hour then leave and feel like I'm making the problem worse not better by focusing on it with questions and no answers.

Does anyone think CBT would help me or are there any other therapies you've found useful.
I don't fancy trying antidepressants at the moment.

Thanks for reading all that!

Nighttime Pacer

[skippy66]

Apparently there are a few decent books on the subject... :)

[calmiah]

Hi all
Does anyone think CBT would help me or are there any other therapies you've found useful.
I don't fancy trying antidepressants at the moment.

Thanks for reading all that!

Nighttime Pacer

Hiya, I posted a bit yesterday about this, its a bit like war & peace if your up for it!:D

Titled 'My little steps helping to live with Anxiety'

Cheers

[harasgenster]

Hi
There's tons of different therapies and if you have not found CBT helpful then you are well within your rights to tell your GP. CBT is helpful for a great many people, but we are all different, and that's why different therapies are available :)

I personally got well through schema therapy, but I believe this is quite hard to find on the NHS (I got it through the NHS, but I don't think there are many practitioners). Similar to schema is transactional analysis, but again I think TA is mostly private. There's also psychodynamics, which is a different kind of therapy again, but it's more about you talking - like in the counselling you've tried - and if that's not your thing then you might want to leave that as a last resort.

Your local area will have alternative to CBT on the NHS, but you'll need to ask your GP about them.

As a last thought, the relationship with the therapist (and how good they are at their job...) is very important, so it might end up that you get well through CBT but with a different therapist.

Good luck!