Positive and negative experiences of CBT?

[PushkinTheCat]

Just had an assessment for CBT which I now have very mixed feelings about and not sure whether it’s about me, the therapist, CBT or what! They have suggested CBT for anxiety but I think it should be more for trauma. Would be really interested to hear if anyone else has had CBT and whether your experience was positive or negative overall.

Following, I'm in the same boat

The impression I have had now, from two people who practise CBT, is that if it doesn’t work, then it’s your fault because you haven’t engaged with it properly. Which seems like a bit of a one size fits all approach, and the little I have tried, I haven’t found very helpful. So am curious to hear about how others have found it.

I thought CBT was utter shite to be frank. It's a quick fix for a specific issue. I have a friend who is a CBT practitioner who says that it is not particularly useful for someone with chronic or long term anxiety, but for someone with a specific issue such as fear of flying or anxiety about driving along etc.

I had suffered from anxiety and panic attacks for 15 years, read every book I could get my hands on, tried all sorts of techniques in the books including exposure. In my course of CBT I felt like it was so basic I could have taught it myself, I could practically finish her sentences. It was very basic fight-or-flight and exposure therapy stuff.

In the end I paid for 5 years of private gestalt therapy to get to the source of my issues. 6 sessions of 35 minutes with basic techniques that I already knew wasn't going to touch it.

And I had very much engaged with all of it, and tried persevering with all of the exercises. But it's such a surface approach.

If you have such longstanding anxiety that has become a part of you I don't think CBT gets anywhere near to helping.

I had CBT, online, over phone and in person.

I thought it was really good but you defiantly have to put a lot of effort in and want to get better otherwise it doesn't work, I know that sounds negative to you but when you start it feels really dumb and obvious and people switch off really quick, but if you stay engaged and keen it really does start to work but sometimes it takes a fair few weeks.

I think CBT would cover certain trauma to, it's just about changing the way you think about stuff but cant comment to much as I have no idea what you're going through.

There's no cure for mental health these are all coping mechanisms so anything is worth a try if it increases your quality of life even marginally, if it doesn't work you can try something else and no harm done :)

Good luck, really hope you find something that makes you feel better, if you have any questions please feel free to ask. Battled severe anxiety for years and now lots better and help other people with mental health through st johns ambulance :)

Before I had my correct diagnosis I had 8 sessions of cbt. It didn't help at all because I wasn't receiving help for the right mental illness. It did not make me feel any different or change my way of thinking as its meant to. 8 sessions is not enough to help. I think the mental health funding is way too low. People who need a psychiatrist can't get one because they are not deemed ill enough when in reality if there was enough funding they would be allocated one. People take a massive overdose and get sent home from hospital the next day and if they are extremely lucky the crisis team will support them for a short time.

Thank you, everyone who has replied - this is really helpful as it confirms for me that CBT is perhaps not the magic bullet or the most appropriate therapy for everything. I have a number of long-standing MH issues including depression and anxiety, but have been trying to get support for birth trauma/what I think is post-natal PTSD ever since I became pregnant. I’m now 31 weeks and have still yet to receive any help, but have potentially been offered anxiety-based CBT - which I don’t think is going to cut it, personally, in the time available.

If you've experienced trauma, CBT is not going to make it better. And it's bloody patronising to suggest that someone with PTSD just needs to change the way they think about stuff.

CBT was introduced on a wide scale in the NHS because it's the quickest way to offer 'treatment' and claim a successful outcome. The research on long term outcomes is actually pretty poor.

Are you able to access private treatment Pushkin? EMDR is highly regarded for trauma, but very difficult to get on the NHS (in some areas not available at all).

CBT does have a place, but more for quite narrow and less complex problems. Coping with job loss, struggling to manage workload, limited relationship problems are all places where it could be helpful. It's a problem solving method, but for any with complex issues you need therapeutic time to unravel those issues before even starting to rebuild.

@MrsMaiselsMuff don't say I am patronising, as I said I have no idea the specifics so don't even go there I was just trying to help. I am not a trained professional and was sharing my OPINION.

Thank you to everyone and I haven’t found anything any of you have said to be patronising. It is all really helpful because I’m keen to hear a range of perspectives from people who have actually tried these things.

I would not be averse to trying trauma-focused CBT, which I am aware exists, I just don’t think CBT for anxiety will work based on the explanation I was given today about how it was aimed at making my thinking less rigid. I may be deluding myself but I don’t think rigid thinking is actually the cause of the problem here.

I also felt the CBT therapist I saw didn’t understand, nor was interested in understanding (which to my mind is relevant) why I had had such a strong reaction to a bad birth experience, which I’m not going to go into here but, to my mind, is relevant both to the problem and also to determining appropriate treatment.

I’m sure some of it was the therapist, I just left feeling confused, patronised and wrong-footed.

I was told this team could offer EMDR but it was never mentioned today and I was sufficiently upset that I forgot to ask.