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Did CBT therapy help / work for you?

Posted , 7 users are following.

Guest
Guest

i am on my second course of cbt.

The first course i had was last year. it did help with techniques and advice and i liked the therapist and looked forward to the sessions. They ended in early october.

late November I had a type of panic attack of just a low mood hit me and all what set me off was picking up a cup of tea.

I tried what i had learnt but it was not working and i did not know where to turn, it was bad as i would look at something and it would make me sad and tearful, and just remember stuff and just tear up.

i went to see my gp who I asked but wasnt sure if i could go back and said give the mental health team a ring so I did.

This second course of therapy has been with a different therapist.

I am having my 5th session tomorrow out of . I do not think me and this therapist have clicked and I feel worse now than I did when I started cbt.

It has really put me off looking for different therapy options. I have looked at support groups but they are in the city and I do not really want to go in to the city at 8.30 for an hour

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • sue162
    sue162 Guest

    Posted

    Hi,

    I can totally relate to your post and the fact it helped before was good. Can you ask for a change of therapist at all? im having cbt at the moment and I agree we have to feel comfortable with them as it is so exhausting for us to go for these sessions. I agree with the 8.30 time you are having to deal with rush hour. Can you reschedule a time later on in the day whereby rush hour is over and you can mentally deal with getting there. I couldnt cope with the timing either so schedule for eleven am and give myself an hour to get there once traffic has died down. It takes so much courage to go to these appointments and the fact that you go you deserve a pat on the back for trying to help yourself x

    • Guest
      Guest sue162

      Posted

      I did start to think week 1, she is not listening to me, but thought well we will see what happens being open minded. week 2, was not good as I was feeling ill anyway. week 3 that is when I thought I probably shouldve tried to see a different therapists but it is only 3 weeks more then she phoned up and asked to go every 2 weeks.

      sorry appointment is late morning the next town along, the support group is in the city at 8.30

  • linda83225
    linda83225 Guest

    Posted

    Hi, I'm afraid it didn't work for me - I had assisted self help via weekly telephone calls for 7 sessions. I could see the logic of the techniques suggested to overcome anxiety but I am 72 and need to see some purpose to my life now. I'm ashamed to say my mantra is "what's the point" but that's a lot to do with my age and arthritis which is only going to get worse. I had face to face CBT some years ago but that too didn't help me. Both times I felt I had to please the therapist and didn't want them to feel they had failed to help so I really didn't reveal what I was feeling. I've been taking fluoxetine (20 mg/day) for 5 months now and I think it has numbed me to a certain extent but I still lack any motivation. I do sleep better and have become addicted to BBC Sounds which I listen to on my Kindle - lots of comedy, drama, information programmes and I usually go back to sleep within 15 mins when I wake in the middle of the night or early morning. It is hard to keep going but I have dog so I have to for her, otherwise I try to live in the moment and try not to think too deeply about anything. Luckily I dont have any family to worry about only the dog! Good luck to you.

    • Guest
      Guest linda83225

      Posted

      pleasing the therapist is exactly how i thought on the first course until I said something to the therapist, did not tell her straight out that " I feel like if i can not get better it will look bad on you."

      This one I am seeing now I feel a lot more pressure by her and sometimes bullied into things. Week 2, she brought up about seeing a job advisor, I said ill think about it "polite saying no" week 3 she kept pushing for it and I was already feeling low anyway, she kept pushing, I could not think and ended up agreeing to it and that has really thrown me. between week 3-4 I was feel a wee bit better and more positive, I was going to tell her I do not want to see the advisor because I am going away and do not want to see the advisor basically. However, she brought it up straight away and said that the advisor will phone me up. Then she moved on and I am polite so I wait until she finishes talking but the converstion kept going. Then she said "what do you want to do?" and "where do you think youll be in 5 years?"

      Both my answer is, I do not know.

      So, for the last 2 weeks i have been feeling low, worse now than what i did before cbt.

    • Sunnydays79
      Sunnydays79 linda83225

      Posted

      Linda I'm a big fan of listening to stuff to help with sleep/low mood/pain, and would highly recommend it Wolverine. I literally feel it saves my life on many occasions.

      You can buy audio versions of books online or borrow them online from a library, as well as podcasts.

      I find there is so little MH help (my area is specially bad unfortunately) that I have to find creative ways to help myself to cope.

      SunnyDee xx

  • ann55375
    ann55375 Guest

    Posted

    i can see where youre coming from. i had 20 sessions and understood what was being said but could not feel well enough to action it. gave up. since then depression is no better, no drugs tried have helped.

    • Guest
      Guest ann55375

      Posted

      first course i had 17 sessions, I could understand the work and did practice some and it did help but because i was putting pressure on myself to get better so it didnt look bad on my therapist as she was training still.

      This one i am seeing is a different therapist and i dread going to see her.

    • hypercat
      hypercat Guest

      Posted

      Hi I went to group CBT a few years ago and it didn't help me at all. I found out that the NHS loves it coz it is cheap and is measurable objectively in the same way physical health is. The trouble is it didn't help me or most people I have spoken too.

      At my last session I was 10 minutes late thanks to my employer not letting me go until the last minute. There was only one other person in the group there and the 2 therapists seem fascinated by her. I spent all the session apart from the last 10 minutes being totally ignored. That was only because I objected. They turned to me with a distinct lack of enthusiasm and I got the last 10 minutes. Wow that was gracious of them - not. x

  • jane24713
    jane24713 Guest

    Posted

    Take heart, I am 75, and have had loads of different therapies, you need to find the right Therapist, and this can take a while. CBT can work, you have to find the self discipline , to work on it. Also after basic CBT you can move on to more in depth work, which can really help. But if you are anything like me, there will be a side of you who just gets lazy. You have to fight this and keep on trying .Remember not all Therapist are that good, but tell the agency if you need to try a different one . You are worth it

    Good luck

    • Guest
      Guest jane24713

      Posted

      this second therapist i am seeing has really put me off therapy.

      I dread going to see this therapist.

      The first therapist i saw i kinda looked forward to seeing her.

    • ann55375
      ann55375 Guest

      Posted

      i am put off it too as i dont think i got a good person. it was a cpn and he used to sit and yawn during my visits as if he just wanted out. i think he had done a quick course in it and would be fine for someone not so complex as me. the homework was banal, see a puddle, jump over it and move onwards, like a dive year old. how do we get a good fit is difficult to know

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