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Thread: CBT - Am I missing the point?

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Posts
    424

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    Emma,

    I've tried the mindfulness approach, but I find some thoughts, or rather some feelings, are just so intense and unpleasant that I CAN'T accept them.

    I do find mindfulness helpful for insomnia. If I wake up in the night and start thinking, "Sh**, I'm never going to get to sleep", and notice my stomach going tense, I find I can often just drift back to sleep and observe the tension in my stomach. One thing: to do this, I have to keep breathing slowly and steadily; it's like a kind of shallow meditation.

    This doesn't work with my social phobia because with that my whole system is on red alert and breathing slowly is such an effort that I can't do it.

    F
    __________________
    Fear's a dangerous thing,
    It will turn your heart black, you can trust.
    It'll take your God-filled soul
    And fill it with devils and dust.
    - Bruce Springsteen

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    897

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    If i wake up fearful (not in panic) i will concentrate on the alphabet
    A= apple, Angela, albert
    B=bannana, bert, brenda
    C=cherry, carol, carl
    I.e one fruit or berry plus one male and one femail name
    Better than counting Sheep Ha ha (sorry)
    Get stuck on letter i though
    Somtimes get up for milky drink
    Just some simple thoughts to help sleep without to much concentration - sometimes even giggle at the stupidity of my game and then chide myself for trying to get out of finishing the alphabet.
    june

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Posts
    1,489

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    hi, obviously because i am part of this forum i also suffer from alot of unwanted thoughts and feelings - but its these that we especially have to bring mindfullness to - it doesnt work if you cant be mindful of the worst thoughts and feelings - you cant rid yourself of them anyway so you might as well as get aquainted with them, watch them, feel them and becasue you are being mindful of them they go anyway - its the frantic desire to be rid of them that keeps them going

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    749

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    I had CBT some years ago for about a year on and off. I do think part of the success or failure of this treatment depends on how good the therapist is. My psychologist took so much time off for holidays and sickness that I never knew from one week to the next if she would actually cancel or not, which certainly didn't help.

    I also found my therapist didn't understand agoraphobia and her responses to some of the things I said just made me feel worse. For example when she once took me out walking around a huge field when the temperature was 96f and there was no shade and I was worried I might pass out from the heat, her response was "well I hope you wouldn't expect me to be able to help you as I know nothing about CPR"

    On another occasion I expressed my fears at being in large department stores and not being able to see the exits. Her response was "when was the last time you heard of someone being trapped indefinately in a department store"

    To some this may seem like the regular responses you get from a therapist, but at the time I needed reassurance and support and didn't feel that I got any.

    Eventually I was discharged and have since been refused any further treatment on the grounds that I have "trust issues". Yeah well I'm sure most people would if they spent a year listening to some of the dumb things I was told

  5. #25

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    hi i have just finished my cbt and to be honest it did work for all of 8 weeks but now i have stoppd im going back to how i was befor

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Posts
    346

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    Eek... I've just skimmed through this thread and I mainly saw evidence of really bad therapists. I'm not sure what it tells us about CBT really since the worst examples look like therapists who should never have had the job.

    The thing to me is that the therapist (or anyone helping) has to accept the following, and probably the sufferer too:
    a. the emotion & fear are real
    b. only the cause of the fear is irrational (ie. false)
    c. initially the sufferer may need lots of help to do anything
    d. the help should reduce as they improve. (ie. doing for them is not a cure)

    This would seem to apply to any therapy. The sufferer does need to learn that their fear is irrational BUT should not be treated as silly or foolish.

    I think CBT can easily fail because you can be thrown a lot of information rather being taught that information and taught to apply it. It a bit like throwing some maps to someone who is lost. If they cannot read a map - or maybe cannot read at all - it won't help them. You have to teach them to use the information and techniques. Its not just a magic spell.

    Good Luck to everyone
    __________________
    Kevin, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK
    Probably GAD & Phobias. Anxiety and renewed Depression medicated (Venlafaxine). Trying to improve.

  7. #27

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    I have had one to one CBT for a while now. I have a wonderful therapist who specialises in the condition I have - Bipolar. I have weekly sessions and feel a little better and positive straight after the session, however the next day I feel as bad as I did before. I am not sure if CBT is for me, although I can see how it can work very well for others.

  8. #28

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    Hi,

    I've been having CBT for a while too. My therapist is lovely and someone I knew before.
    I feel like you do. I actually realised that she doesn't really get how i'm feeling and i felt back at square one again.

    I also felt positive staright after but down again the morning after. I think I just liked getting things off my chest.

    Maybe i'm missing something too?

    Sorry i couldn't be much help, i just wanted to say i understand how ya feel

    Kel

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    , , United Kingdom.
    Posts
    259

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    The first time I went for CBT the psychologist said that I was not ready for us to work together.

    2 years later when I was managing to go out with my safe person a different psychologist phoned me up to arrange some sessions. I remember I arranged the time and then panicked and phoned her back to say that I could not make the appointment. She was very understanding and calmed me down and I went to see her.

    The first two sessions was for her to gain information into how my life was being affected by anxiety and agoraphobia. She was younger than me and very quietly spoken. It helped that she was female as I am not good expressing my feelings with males.

    On the first appointment I just burst in to tears and told her that I thought she was going to do exposure therapy on me. She calmed me down and said that she would not make me do anything I did not want me to.

    I found CTB very helpful as it helped me with my driving phobia as well as my agoraphobia. I did not all at once say hey I am cured. It was a long journey to gain some part of Sheena back again. I remember when I first became ill thinking that I had lost the Sheena who had spent years building up some form of self confidence due to a long standing social phobia.

    I am not back to the old Sheena, and do not know if I ever will be, but at least I can get out of the house on my own now and drive albeit within a 5 mile radius of my house.

    Sheena

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    , , United Kingdom.
    Posts
    478

    Re: CBT - Am I missing the point?

    Thankyou all for your replies.

    I am glad it isn't just me then!!! I find often that during my sessions my psychologist does say things that make perfect sense, and he offers me a different perspective, or way of thinking. I do have problems with my memory though which I put down to being anxious during therapy and having depression. I easily forget, and am such a natural now with my automatic negative thoughts that sometimes I just cannot think positively and believe.

    I am still in therapy, and potentially being offered a support worker to help me with graded exposure. OMG. I am scared. Have I got the courage? I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, I am trying to accept that I will always have anxiety issues, I will always have avoidance behaviour and limited opportunities as a consequence. Perhaps I should just be grateful for what I can do, which is more than some others.

    Thanks for all your replies, and all the best to you all.

    Freaky

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