Hi all,

I'm having a bit of a blip after a pretty bad panic on Wednesday night.

I'd say it's down to a number of things, one of which was me having a lot of homework from CBT but just not managing to settle to it. And I had an appointment today (though he ended up cancelling) and was concerned I hadn't done enough and haven't improved enough.

Because it's through the public system, I've ended up with a trainee psychologist who is lovely, but clearly still learning. I feel we haven't really achieved much together (had about 6 sessions so far) and he has just dumped a whole heap of handouts on me and wanting me to do too many things at once, which overwhelmed me I think.

He's asked me to do a worry journal (ie set aside worry time), do a thought journal and label any time I have an unhelpful thought, breathing exercises, grounding exercises, time management, problem solving, make a hierarchy of avoidance things to start graded exposure, and also wants me to do these exercises where you bring on the feelings of panic and have to ride it out (spinning in a chair, staring at lights, deliberate hyperventilating). It's all a bit much at once and feels a bit chaotic.

So, I need to start SOMEWHERE with all this.

What have people found the technique they've had the most benefit from?

---------- Post added at 15:13 ---------- Previous post was at 15:12 ----------

I will add that he is leaving at the end of this month and has not given me any indication if I will carry on with someone else or we will be finished in a couple of weeks.