I wonder is CBT really that great?
I talked with someone who also had CBT about my problems and he always kept telling me I had "distortions" and need to do CBT and so on. I asked him what my distortions are and he couldn't or wouldn't tell me.
My issue with CBT is how does a therapist even want to know what a distortion is? For example if someone is physically sick and depressed and his entire situation (family,health,job) only gets worse all the time and he simply feels totally pessimistic simply because he sees how everything only gets worse and that there also is nothing to look forward to and also no hope for things simply getting people then where exactly is the distortion?
Imagine you buy a car and this car shows continually more and more signs of falling apart and you worry that this car will soon be totally broken then how is that a distortion? It's not. Then why should it be a distortion if a person whose situation only gets worse and there is no hope for it getting better is depressed and hopeless? For example when your health only gets worse over the time and you get more and more stuff which you cannot even treat then how could you not be depressed and worried?
If the therapist tells such a person that his situation isn't really as bad as he thinks it is then he can impossibly know this. He is not the one who's right in the middle of it. He could either simply estimate the situation of the person incorrectly and belittle it or he could simply think it's not that big of a deal simply because he is not affected.
Things which do not affect you always don't seem like such a big deal to you simply because it's not you who is affected.
I really don't know if CBT is that helpful for people who have real issues and with real I mean stuff which isn't just caused by false thoughts. If a therapist would try to make me believe that I'm only depressed because I think false thoughts and that my situation isn't that bad then I'd be really pissed and angry.
Do CBTists really believe that no matter what your circumstances are you can always be happy even if you just lost your family in a car crash and now you're in a wheelchair and totally depressed and just want to die?
Would a CBTist really think that such a person can find a way to trick herself into being happy again simply by appreciating the "good things" in life, like the birds or a nice cup of coffee or sitting in the garden and relaxing?
If that's really it then I already know that this isn't gonna cut it for me cause I think that such advice are ridiculous and don't offer any hope or comfort to truly hurting people.
Imagine you're totally depressed and working in a job you hate and every day you think I'm not going to be able to go on with this much longer and you tell this to your therapist and he just tells you that you're dramatizing and that these are just thoughts and that all you have to change is your outlook then this doesn't mean that he is right. It could as well happen that you simply get a nervous breakdown and that you were right with thinking that you cannot do this much longer. How in the world does a CBTist want to know what's a distortion of reality and what is simply the reality itself? I think this sounds really arrogant.
This is like me telling a doctor: Doc, when I try to stand on one leg it hurts too much I cannot do this much longer.
And the doctor simply says: No, you can do this. It doesn't hurt that bad. You only think you cannot do it much longer.
Or maybe I don't understand CBT well enough in this case could you provide any examples of what a CBTist would say or do?
What if find arrogant about this whole thing is that it always implies that the reason for being depressed is you and that if the therapist
himself was in your situation he'd handle this much better and find ways to trick himself into being happy. I don't think this is very realistic.
What if a situation is simply so bad that not being depressed would be abnormal? Does CBt even acknowledge this or do they act like you
can always be happy even if you've just lost all limbs in a plane crash?