What to expect from CBT?

[Grockle]

Been referred but no idea what to expect or how it works. Can anyone help?

CBT is good. It sort of changes your thinking. A lot of what you are told in it seems like common sense and you wonder how it can possibly make a difference but then you suddenly realise later that it has. Like all therapies the quality of the practitioner can make a difference, of course. I think it has changed my life.

When suffering from a mental health condition I always think of it as my brain attacking me, trying to make me feed bad. These days I know how to fight back against that attack and am also aware that it is a temporary thing and not the definition of me. The therapy gives you a certain amount of objectivity in this way.

It involves a lot of work - thinking, homework, trying to identify and then change thought patterns and the more you put in the more you get out.