Does anyone else find the CBT exercises hard to complete?

[Trickymoments]

I have my second cbt session tonight. At the end of the first one she gave an exercise to practice whenever I feel anxious.

I am meant to write down the situation, how I feel emotionally & physically and how I act as a result.

I know it sounds stupid but I'm finding this really hard to do. Often I will be at work or somewhere with the dc's when I have a bad thought that makes me anxious and so it's not possible to just stop and write it all down.

But also I can't bear to analyse my thoughts like this as it makes me even more upset and anxious especially as alot of it is health anxiety.

Now I'm worrying about tonight's session as I won't have done anything.

Has anyone else felt like this? I feel like I've failed the treatment before I've even started.

Yes, I had six sessions of CBT and I always felt bad because I hadn't done the "homework". I felt worse because I thought she must be thinking I couldn't be bothered but that so wasn't the case, it was just the same as you, busy and not always in a position to write it down.

Firstly CBT takes some time to get used to.
I would recommend practising your mood or thought diaries at least once a day to begin with. The more often you do them the easier and more natural it becomes and so I suggest maybe carrying a notepad or jotting stuff down on your phone to help.
It is normal to feel resistant to examining anxiety but eventually you learn to accept it like everything else and you learn ways to dial it down

You need to do your CBT home works as they teach you the skills you need to get mastery over your symptoms
Good luck

Yes! I hated cbt because I would feel the homework hanging over me which would make me feel worse. Do what you can. Don't feel guilty.

I had to do this but it made me anxious. So I didn't write much and told her at my next session how actually writing it down made me become more anxious and I didn't like it. She completely understood and we stopped that and did things a different way, I went through lots of sessions last year and it did help! Just got to find the right way for you, tell them they should be able to find something that's suits you.