Therapy???

[JustBeMe]

I've read so much about CBT. Has anyone here ever used intensive therapy groups or have been hospitalized for their panic disorder?

[blant]

I am currently in a 12 week CBT program. I meet with my doctor once a week for 1 hour, which from my research seems to be the norm.

The first 2-3 sessions were hashing out the problems, the next couple were about problem solving. How to use positive enforcements.

I was close to an inpatient program a few weeks back. However I was able to maintain enough to avoid it.

CBT is not about the past, it is about the future and more importantly the present. It is a day by day type of thing.

My doctor keeps telling me about how I need to train my mind to think differently about my emotions, feelings, fears, etc. That its not so much that what is happening is wrong its how I am reacting to it.

I am seeing some improvement, little. The 12 weeks is just the start though, I was told. This treatment plan lasts for months.

from my understanding the goal is to train your mind to the point that you don't have to think about doing the positive or reacting differently, you just will react differently. You will think differently, which is, from my understanding the problem.

the little things that send us into an attack do not even register for people that are, not like us, lets say. I hate to use the word "normal" because, what is "normal".

any of that make sense?

My bottom line is I had to avoid an inpatient program at all costs, it has been one of my most feared things ever in my mind, even before all of this. I took myself back at the brink of self destruction. I choose to fight this, and while I may not be doing a great job at fighting it, I am trying.

hope this helps, I don't know

[JustBeMe]

This does make sense. I just feel as though that my doctor isn't actively implementing a CBT type of treatment. He suggested seeing him twice a week but for him to just sit there and listen. Maybe what I'm saying is he seems too passive for me. I want to kick this thing in the butt. The last time I had panic attacks was about 9 years ago after my father passed. And I didn't have any treatment, no medication, nothing.

Now its pulled the rug out from underneath me, without me being able to function the way I need to. I've had several stressors and lost my mom all in the past dew months.. Its as though I'm afraid of everything that, like you said, any "normal" person would find odd or ridiculous. My doctor did mention an intensive outpatient treatment 3 days a week for 2-3 hours a day. I'm trying to figure out what that would entail before I'd consider it. I don't want to go in there and panic myself right out of there.

This is all so new to me, don't know what right or wrong or best for me.

[blant]

all of my research has pointed at one key thing in the beginning of CBT therapy. If the doctor doesn't seem a good fit for you, then they are probably not going to be the person to take you to where you need to go.

My doctor does not only listen, it is a 60/40 split now, in the first of it the split was about 80/20 me being the larger of both conversations.

I feel as though this will continue into a 50/50 type thing. I talk, he gives me advice on the problems and possible solutions.

you have every right to "doctor shop" if you feel that this doctor is not the right fit for you. It may be because he is a man, or because its a female, or because he is too old, or too young, whatever, if it doesn't feel right, it probably won't work right.

From everything I have read, this is very much a 2 way street between you and your doctor, with problems coming from you and solutions coming from him. You giving your "messed up" way of thinking and them giving you a different way of thinking.

My panic attacks were brought on by a highly stressful working environment. I got a new boss I didn't agree with, I feel like she walked in and took my promotion as I had been there for 7 years, her only with the company for 4. I saw some fault in my actions though and scuffed that off. Then other problems started, basically it boils down to our core beliefs were vastly different. Already being unstable and already under a mental health doctor's care before all this, I just lost it, really. I came home one day and absolutely lost it. I had a complete mental break with reality. I lost 3 days of memories. No clue what I did or said during that time. I know I went to the clinic and that's how I got into the program I am in. A friend took me in and stayed with me throughout the entire process, even through my first session.

since then I have been denied my short term disability benefits from them. So I have an interview for a new job next week. Screw'em. I plan on sending my 0 week notice to the CEO and VP with a detailed explanation of how they screwed me. It won't do any good, its not positive, but it will give me closure on the miserable 8 year ordeal.

sorry, I got off track.

This is your thread, about you, I am sorry.

I believe finding the right match for you may be in order. You may not even need a more intensive program with the right doctor, you may, I don't know. I know it wasn't right for me, I knew in my heart that if I went in, I would really lose it and I may not come out for a very long time, that's what I think in my mind. Reality? no, but its what I fear/believe. So I put my trust in my doctor and went forth with his plan, the 12 week program. And after the 12 weeks, follow up care. I have 2 doctors, one for my meds and one for my CBT.

just some thoughts, things to think about.

be well

[aladetteinsane]

I had intensive CBT for health anxiety ten or so years ago and it worked for me. I used to catastrophise about every little ache and pain, going to worst case scenario every time. The CBT helped me start to question my thoughts, to the point where now, I can quite happily dismiss aches and pains for what they are. Well, I may dwell on them for a few days, ruminating, but the abject panic can be dismissed. I am about to be assessed for intensive CBT again, as even though I can stop the panic about health worries now, I can't seem to apply it to my obsessive thoughts about self-loathing and paranoia.