Peoples experiences of CBT please!!!!

Hi,

I would genuinely appreciate anyone's thoughts on my situation. I am late twenties and have suffered from Depression, GAD and Panic Attacks to greater or lesser degrees for about 10 years. I recently decided to try and face the music and go for a (maybe last ditch) attempt at resolving this with a course of CBT. I had heard so many good things about it I was convinced to try it. Despit the expense of the sessions, I took the plunge and have now had 3 sessions.

I have now had 3 sessions of CBT and feel totally confused as to what it's all about? I genuinely feel little, if any, relief from my anxiety and don't feel this is working at all? I am pretty gutted considering I had such high hopes. The sessions seem to revolve around me repeating my feelings about where the anxiety comes from (to a therapist who seems to remember very little about me each time). I have not been given any practical help about coping with symptoms but I have a book to read as 'homework'.

I apparently only need 4 sessions!!!!!!!! one left???????

I can't work out if I have picked a poor therapist or if my expectations were too high? I don't, after all, expect overnight results but I did expect to feel some progression and positivity??? I just feel uttlerly confused.

I would love to hear anyone else's stories on CBT treatment, particulary thise who have found it beneficial and, if so, did the treatment take a very different format to what I have described?

Thanks folks.

I have not felt any real relief from

hello Steerpike,

I have no experience of CBT myself but from what I know, it depends completely on who the therapist is. There are loads of people who swear that CBT has cured them and others seem to get nothing out of it..I'm sure someone else will be able to help you more..

Sarah :D

Hiya

I am not sure whether I did CBT or psychotherapy but it did help. I was given weekly tasks to do - like going on a bus (something I hated). Each week I got a new task to do.

She was very helpful and seemed to remember me cos she always asked about things we talked about last week. She did make notes so that was good.

She never gave me any specific tips on how to deal with panic attacks or the symptoms however.

Perhaps you just got a "bad one" there. You never know.

Nicola

Hi, I think CBT is a little different in diferent arias. After waiting nearly 2 years i got an appointment for CBT, Its broken into 3 phases here, the first was the inteview (took a couple of hours) the second part i done it was 3 two hour sessions of phyco education, which was quite helpfull as i have read lots of books on anxiety etc this still learned me a lot i never knew. Next week I have a 2 hour one to one interview then follosed by 18 weeks at 2 hour sessions. so yes i think yours seems very short? what can you learn in 3 hours? I will have done 10 hours before my main cours even begins.

Hi Steer

Not sure if it depends on the CBT or not but it helped me so much, she pushed me to the limit and i was totally open and honest with her and she helped me so much.

Not sure it has lasted though as now feel the need to contact her again, i just hope she is prepared to take me on board again.

Sorry you dont feel you have benefitted, i guess it suits some and not others,but we are always here to help you and to my knowledge this site has been the best support i have ever found.

Love Sal xx


Dont mess up the best things in your life, just because at present you are unsure who you are.

Hi there,
I have had six sessions of CBT and I am honestly a totally different person now. It was really hard but i think it really worked. I still panic now but i am totally equipped to deal with it and am at a stage where i can keep a full blown panic attack at bay.

I think that how many sessions you have depends on how long you have been suffering for, what you suffer from etc. I started the sessions just two months after my panic attacks started so maybe it was easier for me to deal with certain things.

I think that a lot of it has to do with your therapist - not all of them are good. My sessions were really expensive - couldn't bear to go on the NHS waiting list - but it meant that i had them in a hospital with a psychotherapist who really knew what he was doing. Maybe if you try another therapist this will help you - the one you have been seeing doesn't sound great, especially as CBT is supposed to be a fairly practical approach including task-based homework and stuff.

I don't know how effective it is for dealing with depression, but as far as dealing with panic attacks goes, i think CBT is brilliant. my first session involved talking through my symptoms and what i felt in moments of panic and the therapist listing all the reasons why a person will never die from anxiety or panic alone (dying was one of my fears). Then he gave me a list of 'ten steps for dealing with panic', which i would read and follow every time i felt an attack coming on. my first homework was walking to the shops and back and going to the supermarket at least once. The practical tasks increased in difficulty, i had to keep an anxiety diary, and then the last sessions involved dealing with 'distorted' trains of thought (catastrophic thinking, 'should' thinking etc) and learning how to change negative thoughts into positive ones.

CBT - or any other therapy for that matter - is not a magic pill and there are times when it is really hard and very frustrating. but i really believe it works.
sorry for rambling on for so long!

henri x

ps have you read maxine's CBT thread? if not, check it out!

Hiya

I had CBT 2 years ago and have suffered from depression/Anxiety for 14 years or so. I found it had the greatest positive effect on me. I could actually relate my moods to the negative thoughts I was having. It is the hardest thing we can ever do to change the way we think, it has become a habit. I don't feel that my course went on long enough-3 months- and within the following six months I slipped back to my old ways. I've been trying to get back on a NHS refresher course for fifteen months and in the meantime I read plenty of self-help books like Feeling Good by David Burns(follows CBT ideas.)

Di

Hiya Steerpike,
I'm half way through a free course of CBT which i got from NO PANIC www.nopanic.org.uk you need to be a member first but it's only £10 for a years membership.
It's 14 weeks long an hour a week on the phone and i can honestly say it has been fantastic, before i started it i hadn't left my house in 2 years, they are really good i am giving a new task every week and it challenges your way of thinking.
Dont give up on CBT yet i do know it doesn't work for some people but i have found it life changing.

Good Luck

Maxine x

Hi Steerpike,
I have suffered depression and anxiety for about eight years and eventually took the plunge to get some help.I see a therapist privately and after an initial two year course of therapy,mostly based around CBT although we did develop our sessions once I had got the hang of CBT,I was much better able to cope.It does sound as though you have got a bad one.Keep trying it can work.
Tabitha x