Hi all
Just wanted to share - I have anxiety mainly to do with health, however! Whilst attending my cbt sessions (which have now finished) my therapist mentioned that I have OCD traits, which I then forgot about.
Anyway I was doing quite well with the cbt so she discharged me, that was a couple of months ago but I keep having blips and the cbt techniques she taught me dont seem to be working. So I set about doing some reading which led me to discover that health anxiety is part of OCD and that many of my other symptoms were in fact fitting in with OCD symptoms.
So I decided to buy a book about it which Ive now nearly finshed. Half way through I had my eureka moment - one of the cbt techniques she taught me about rationalising my negative thoughts has turned into a compulsion - ie when i have a negative thought I start to rationalise it in my head, over and over again, and just when i think its gone, it comes back again! It is actually worse than when i started the cbt!! This had led me to feel quite down as I thought I would never feel better.
The book has helped me to identify this problem and also my other obsesisional thoughts and compulsions - which I hadnt realised were causing me so much anxiety and it has given me the confidence to tackle it, there is hope after all!!
So I'll finish my book, and I have already started following some of the techniques within it, Ive also found that after completing the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS) within it that I have a low level of depression. Also my gp advised me to start taking my propanalol again (I dont want to take antidepressants just yet if I can help it), which I am doing but only a very low dose and this is helping me to remain calm enough to carry out the techniques. Also I found that I didnt tell my cbt therapist 'everything' as I was too embarrassed to admit some of my thoughts, so this self help guide may be more appropriate for me.
So just thought I'd share my eureka moment - I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, and that Im not 'abnormal' after all
Deb x
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