View Full Version : CBT - useless !!!
Is it just me or is CBT like ringing the Samaritans
Ie they are a listening ear but nothing more?
For example the entire sessions consist of me explaining my anxieties, and the lady counsellar asking me so ``where do you want to go from here``
and ``how do i feel it affects me`` and ``what do i feel is an appropriate solution``!
If i knew all those answers i wouldnt be taking CBT IN THE FIRST PLACE!
I am three sessions into my CBT and none the better at all, it just seems the person is a listening ear nothing else
What about you guys, anyone else taking CBT?
I have now completed 5 sessions of CBT and while my sessions are different to what you have experienced so far, I would have to agree that it has been a complete waste of time - both the therapist and mine.
I was seeing a counsellor privately before Christmas and felt she had more compassion and real interest in me and my anxiety issues. I got a great deal more out of the sessions I had with her and her 'one-hour' sessions often over-ran without additional charge. My NHS CBT sessions barely last 45 minutes of actual therapy time and I really don't think I have gained anything.
To me, CBT is about thinking logically and rationally and acting on it. Those are appropriate questions and your therapist is trying to get you to answer in that manner. It's about getting you and your mindset to the place where you can rationally act and think when you become severely anxious or stressed.
Have you been given any homework or a workbook? Anything at all to help you outside the session? If not, I'd question why. I did an online course that was offered here (CBT4PANIC) in addition to my one on one therapy for some depression and "scanxeity" and while not all of it applied to me, there were many exercises and techniques that were great and I still use them to this day. It took a concerted effort at first but as with anything, you have to work to get results.
Also, you have to realize you didn't get to where you are now in a few weeks. Recovery is measured in baby steps, weeks, months and even years.
Positive thoughts
Beckie4567
23-02-16, 21:14
Cbt never helped me either
They should be giving you homework tasks, aren't they?
They should be giving you homework tasks, aren't they?
Exactly! And you have to do the homework and practice the techniques.
Positive thoughts
Exactly! And you have to do the homework and practice the techniques.
Positive thoughts
They did give me a chart to doccument any worries im having three times a day until the next visit the following week
It actually makes me worse, because if ive had a relatively calm day, and then i have to stop and look at a chart and think of any worries i may or may not have, that just triggers the worries off regardless!
I havent gained anything, almost a month into cbt apart from rheotorical questions and being asked how i feel and what i feel should be the solution, its like whats the point! :mad: :scared15: :doh:
I didn't find cbt any use either!
They did give me a chart to doccument any worries im having three times a day until the next visit the following week
It actually makes me worse, because if ive had a relatively calm day, and then i have to stop and look at a chart and think of any worries i may or may not have, that just triggers the worries off regardless!
I havent gained anything, almost a month into cbt apart from rheotorical questions and being asked how i feel and what i feel should be the solution, its like whats the point! :mad: :scared15: :doh:
Part of CBT is exposure, facing the fears you have so they eventually become less threatening to you. I understand how having to write them down causes you stress but that's actually part of the process. It's kind of like a diet. You may not see immediate progress and it can be frustrating but if you keep exercising and eat right, you eventually start to see results and those positive gains build on each other.
Granted, CBT isn't for everybody and I'm sorry you feel that way about it. Scores have benefited greatly by it and sometimes meds are needed in conjunction to gain the benefits. If you're in extreme distress, it makes it difficult to concentrate on anything let alone an exercise that takes concerted effort and concentration. It could also be the therapist. Being confident and comfortable with your therapist is a key factor as well.
So if it's not working, there are other methods that may be effective. I personally used CBT in conjunction with one on one therapy and meds and did great. I still use the CBT techniques in everyday stressful life situations.
Hope you find the right path to healing.
Positive thoughts
I agree that CBT has been a waste of time for me and expensive and maybe had some short term help but my anxiety seemed to be the same after a while. I came out of sessions annoyed hoping that some type of resolution could be found.
Maybe my anxiety problems are barriers to facing up to therapies but as the original post stated lots of rhetorical questions fired at you and bloody breathing techniques explained to you every time.
When I asked the therapist questions she became vague and just seemed to repeat statements that I had read in CBT self help books.
I found counselling with CPN the same unstructured, vague and left me frustrated , she eventually told to buy a CBT book or go online.
I think there are some well intentioned CBT therapists and over worked NHS counsellors who try to muddle through and make sense of a very complicated subject which is different for every patient and can take a long time to unravel.
In America you hear of people in 10-15 years of therapy but I have never really heard of that happening in UK.
Facing fears so they are less threatening to you seems like the tip of the iceberg to me , understanding why these fears affect your everyday life is the more important factor.
cymraig_chris
24-02-16, 15:56
CBT in my opinion should be about re-defining the bodily feelings you experience to away from the incorrect imaginings of catastrophe to a form that is no longer scary, a form that can be accepted as tolerable and to a form that cannot longer been seen as an impediment to your life. The removal of the fear/catastrophe notions (because these notions are ALWAYS b*llocks) will start to remove the sensitisation aspect, and without the sensitization the sensations are completely tolerable, acceptable, non-react able and thus transient and eventually removed. Why? Because we reduce out noticing of these physical feelings and then we act in a normal non-anxious way, forms the basis of a continuum of feeling well.
Examples: Physical Symptoms: Derealisation, Dizziness & Lethargy.
Initial thought: WHAT THE F***, I'M GOING INSANE.
Reality, The brain, similar to any muscle will be more sluggish if we have been using it hard. Outcome: HARMLESS.
Example normal scenario where DR can exist and provoke no anxiety reaction whatsoever: LONG HAUL FLIGHT.
A business person or holidaymaker flies from London UK to Sydney Australia, he/she experiences no sleep in 24 Hours after only sleeping 4 hours the night before travel. On arrival that person will be knackered, physically and mentally, they may even use parlance such as "I'm shot to bits!", that person will experience a bodily lethargy akin to after an anxiety episode, and mentally that person will upon stepping off the plane and claiming their baggage will feel, woozy, dizzy, lightheaded, and very spaced-out. This person does not react with fear because most people getting off the flight look like 1970s zombie movie characters as well, and the feelings are in context with the scenario. The intensity of this person's physical feelings will be akin to which your average anxiety sufferer is deathly afraid of. But this person (arriving at say 12:00 noon) will complete the rest of their day checking into to the hotel, grabbing a take-away and a few glasses of wine and eventually drift off into a deep sleep. The next day they feel groggy but refreshed. This person didn’t react, this person didn’t adopt a behaviour as if they were under attack, and thus this person did not renew this feeling for the following day, because the anxiety was not topped up in the evening. The symptoms and sensations are not what causes the recycling of anxiety, the recycling of anxiety is the concept of withdrawal and resistance to these utterly safe and inconsequential feelings. CBT if any good will give you to tools to see behind the bluff of catastrophe and see the reality of the safety of all these feelings. It will give you context, facts and example analogies to ease your fears to help you produce less adrenaline day by day until you feel better, clearer, stronger and happier.
Ultimately CBT is there to provide a structure to your recovery, a framework in which create a new healthy partnership with the feelings you currently avoid, a new healthy relationship to the people and places you currently avoid. A repackaging of the concept of anxiety to that of something which is not threatening, not impeding, in other words good CBT will give you the truth, that each and every single symptom you experience is safe, and without consequence and facing these symptoms down is 100% safe, and 100% without consequence.
I may be wrong, but that’s how I see things.
It doesn't sound like you're getting CBT. CBT isn't a listening ear. It's a process which is designed to change your way of thinking to reduce the level of distress thoughts and emotions cause you. The therapist should be explaining how you are being caused distress and the methods used to break the cycle and how you can employ them. This does involve some "homework". I've had some success with CBT, but I find that once I'm better, after a while, I lose track of how to use CBT properly, and end up needing further treatment.
It doesn't sound like you're getting CBT. CBT isn't a listening ear. It's a process which is designed to change your way of thinking to reduce the level of distress thoughts and emotions cause you. The therapist should be explaining how you are being caused distress and the methods used to break the cycle and how you can employ them. This does involve some "homework". I've had some success with CBT, but I find that once I'm better, after a while, I lose track of how to use CBT properly, and end up needing further treatment.
Today was session four
and yet again it was so frustrating
i described my anxieties
and he kept telling me so how do you think we control these anxieties etc
like asking me what the solution is
HELLO? if i knew i wouldnt be coming to see you would i :mad: :scared15:
Today was session four
and yet again it was so frustrating
i described my anxieties
and he kept telling me so how do you think we control these anxieties etc
like asking me what the solution is
HELLO? if i knew i wouldnt be coming to see you would i :mad: :scared15:
Do you say this to him and ask him that question? If so, what is his answer?
Positive thoughts
MyNameIsTerry
02-03-16, 04:53
It doesn't sound like you're getting CBT. CBT isn't a listening ear. It's a process which is designed to change your way of thinking to reduce the level of distress thoughts and emotions cause you. The therapist should be explaining how you are being caused distress and the methods used to break the cycle and how you can employ them. This does involve some "homework". I've had some success with CBT, but I find that once I'm better, after a while, I lose track of how to use CBT properly, and end up needing further treatment.
I agree. The only evidence of therapy I can see her is the monitoring sheet being filled in which allows the therapist to gather data on the client.
Either this is counselling, not therapy, or the therapist has a very laid back style that is somewhat at odds with a method like CBT.
The questions about where does someone want to go in therapy are fine, but they are really session 1. Asking someone how they think they should change their thinking before giving them the theory to show them is lazy and pointless.
elizabez - I would talk to them about your concerns and if they are still not for you, you could ask for a change in therapist.
CBT under IAPT seems largely abut exposure now rather than the greater framework of the CBT that overarches it but it doesn't sound like any of that is happening either. I suspect this is more a counselling approach since that's more about talking you into finding your own ways to deal with things through questioning whereas with therapy you can't do that until you are shown how to make changes.
Didn't do much for me, but I don't really have triggers as such for my anxiety, it just arises, think its a genetic issue with me as there is a history of MH problems in my family
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