cognitive behaviour therapy?

[nomorepanic]

The waiting time in my area is at least 6 months.

Some here wait years for it!

[honeybee]

i had to wait prob about 14-18 months... and when i did finally go my therapisat wasn't all that good anyway... bl**dy NHS

[jo61]

I think it depends on where you live. It can take years or weeks.

[Alabasterlyn]

Anyone? Does it always take a long time to get into cbt in the UK? Thanks.

I am in the UK and was referred for CBT a few years ago. It was around June/July when I was referred and in the September I had an assessment by a psychologist and social worker and the CBT started in the October. I was told I could have a whole year of weekly therapy on the NHS, which I thought was pretty good considering how bad the NHS can be when it comes to mental health resources.

[jacq]

hi alabasterlyn, you are lucky in my area i have been told there is no help by my doctor but before i moved i had a course of cbt, i waited nearly 12 months for a place to become available and was then given a SIX week course!! i hadnt even made it past the front gate before the course ended and then you dont even get a follow up.

Jacqui x

[Alabasterlyn]

hi alabasterlyn, you are lucky in my area i have been told there is no help by my doctor but before i moved i had a course of cbt, i waited nearly 12 months for a place to become available and was then given a SIX week course!! i hadnt even made it past the front gate before the course ended and then you dont even get a follow up.

Jacqui x

It does seem to be a case of pot luck with CBT in this country. To be honest I didn't really find that my course of CBT did me an awful lot of good. However I do actually think CBT is a very good therapy, I just didn't feel my therapist was that good. For probably a third of the year I was having therapy my psychologist would be either off sick or on holiday

I was hoping that CBT would mean my therapist would actually go out with me right from the start, but it was after about 8mths of therapy that she started to do this. We actually only went out once, which was walking around a farmers field close to where I live in temperatures of 96f. I went out of my house full of panic and came home feeling exactly the same and even I know that the whole point of exposure therapy is to stay out until the symptoms subside. This experience really made me question my therapists approach and when the next week she suggested meeting me in the middle of a 140 store shopping mall on my own, well of course I said no way.

The following week I received a letter saying my therapy was being withdrawn due to the fact that I seemed to have 'trust issues' with my therapist. This was about 3/4yrs ago and I haven't sought any more treatment since then.

[den42]

well where do i start, i have had CBT, several times like you my therapist would be unable to see me,but instead of letting me know this i usually found out when i got there, now considering i have to ask people to take me to these places,plus i would be dropped off was really embaressing as i would then have to ring them and ask them to turn round to pick me up, i am agoraphobic to see a therapist you have to go to them, which when youre terrified to go out of the house is really hard to do,i only trust certain people to either take me or drive with me(i need to know that the person im taking with me can drive)the therapists round where i live do not do home visits, they say "if you really want to get better then you will come to us not visa versa" so you set off to see them,you usually see people who have never had panick or anxiety in their life and then they start talking clap trap for example:when you go out only go as far as you can when you feel any anxiety turn back keep doing this for as long as is comfortable then move onto the next step, so you do what they say, then what happens one day youre walking the route that youve been doing for 3 months when BAM there it is sheer panic,everything youve learned goes through the window as youve never really been taught how to cope in a panic situation, really all youve been doing is learning how to avoid the anxiety, nobody actually takes you out anymore and shows you how to really cope in anxious situations, nobody shows you that youre not going to collapse from anxiety by asking you to stay in that situation untill it subsides, i had one therapist who took me on a bus with her to the centre where she was seeing me, the next week she rang me up and asked if i would go on the bus and meet her at the centre, when i said no she then replied" that if i wasnt going to help myself then she was wasting her time" to which i replied "if you think that me coming on a bus with you for the first time in years is going to cure me youre sadly mistaken, especially when on that occasion i had'nt stepped out of the house for 6 months, i havent really had a therapist that i could really trust, they see you for roughly 8 weeks and then its a case of well theres the paperwork theres nothing else we can do so get on with it theres never no follow up and you cant phone them if you feel like youre having a bad day or something as far as there concerned theyve done their part, youre left out in the cold, next patient please

[cece]

Thank you all so much for the replies, but I am sorry to hear that cbt is so hard to get into in GB. That must be a nightmare and I feel for you guys as I don't think I would have been able to be as patient as you guys all have had to be

[Karen]

Yes CeCe - sometimes people wait for years or more often give up and pay privately.

It's not enough therapists - or good well trained ones.

Karen

[cece]

That's really sad to hear Karen. If it is any consolation it is difficult finding well trained cognitive therapists here also