Does anyone have any experience of CBT?

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I'm thinking of trying a different type of theapy to manage anxious and depressive thoughts and feelings. Have tried talk therapy and SSRIs and had mixed results. I appreciate talk therapy may help for some problems but not all. I'd like to try cognitive behavioural therapy as it looks like a more "active" type of therapy that provides tools for managing thoughts, as opposed to merely discussing past issues. Does anyone here have any experience of CBT with a therapist? Could you describe the treatment, how long you did it for, how well it worked, and whether it was something you found privately or on the NHS?

I had telephone cbt years ago but I couldn’t get on with it. I was given worksheets to do in between sessions but could not relate them to myself and my specific circumstances.
I think face to face would have been better.

I've recently had CBT and I didn't find it helpful at all

Sorry forgot to say I self referred on the nhs and there was a long wait time before it started.

I did two separate courses on the NHS, maybe 12 or 16 weeks each.
A complete waste of time for me as it turned out I suffered from complex PTSD and dissociation.
I'm not sure what CBT is good for but if you suffered a traumatic childhood it's the wrong therapy, you need psychotherapy or trauma therapy.

I didn’t find it helpful either

I've had it and found it surprisingly unhelpful! ☹️

I had it for anxiety and found it very helpful. Still use the tools it gave me 2 years on. Was nhs and on the phone

I did a self-referral (NHS). The first was last year, face-to-face. The therapist was quite friendly, but all she did was sit and listen, then repeat back what I'd said. She offered no ideas/solutions and kept taking time off when her kid was off school (so I missed those sessions every few weeks. Waste of time.

I don’t think I was well enough for CBT when I had it. I did what I was supposed to (basic self care) whilst having weekly sessions but it ended immediately when the sessions stopped. It seems to be the NHS’s therapy of choice but I have recently declined further sessions in favour of talking therapy as it doesn’t work for me.

I didn’t get anything out of it that I couldn’t get out of a self help book.

@GreyHairChic , @Darthwazette , @clareykb - could any of you share a bit of detail about the kinds of exercises or tools that the therapist offered you, even if you found them unhelpful (or helpful in @clareykb 's case)?

I do wonder whether the NHS therapy is worse than private CBT. I have done talking therapy with a few different therapists throughout my life, mostly private. I did once go on the NHS for talking therapy a few years ago and the therapist was, to be frank, the worst therapist I'd ever spoken to. I didn't get a sense that she was genuinely compassionate or helpful, and even interjected with her own diatribes about PC culture and gendering while I spoke to her about my anxieties.

So, I am curious to learn more about the kinds of advice that was offered before I make a decision about whether to try CBT.

I think a lot of it is luck of the draw and how you relate to the therapist. So my CBT thereapist was really good- helped me to reframe my anxious thoughts (largely about my children very long story but I lost my first 2 children through prematurity and my next 2 were still prem bt surived- I have a tendenacy to have a lot of health anxiety over them and be very over protective,. However this got to a point 2 years ago where it was affecting my day to day life and meaning they were missing out on things)

However, through the same service I had taliking thereapy when I was pregnant and they were not helpful at all. I also have had NHS berevement counselling which was great but someone else stheI know saw the same person and didn't rate her,

And other people have said about self help books- Thinkgs like The HelicopterView technique I had read about before but someone demonstrating and making me do it with them made it more helpful and made me do it properly if that made sense.

I had cbt back in 2019, about 12 face to face sessions from memory. I found it gave me an understanding and tools to use to manage my anxiety much better, especially intrusive thoughts. I used a lot of their strategies through covid. It also helped my relationship. It doesn’t work for everyone but it did help me

I had CBT and it was excellent. Also EMDR and I did a lot around ACT and radical acceptance and that was probably the most useful of all. So much depends on the therspist. You are seeing a psychotherapist not a counsellor, correct?

I credit CBT with changing my life. I'm autistic, and used to struggle with friendships, thinking people didn't like me, that they had let me down when they were just distracted, basically just taking stuff very very personally, cutting people out of my life for minor infractions etc.

CBT gave me a blessed sense of distance from my emotions. That's what it does- encourages you to stop, think and analyse your emotions so you're not overwhelmed by them (so super useful for the neurodiverse, who suffer from this a lot).

I'm simply not the person I was before CBT- I'm much more balanced and less emotional in all my social interactions (and consequently have a lot more friends and feel more comfortable in my own skin).

This was a 6 week course of CBT on the NHS, but really I remember the act of going through the workbooks more than the counsellor, so wonder if this is one kind of therapy that is effective just from books? 🤔

I was referred for cbt through the nhs when I was suffering with prenatal depression and anxiety. I completed one session and it was truly one of the worst experiences of my life. I laid bare all my thoughts, worries and guilt, only to be told that she could t help me, she said my anxieties were linked to my work and said I should consider giving up my job to beat my anxiety. She signposted me to a self help website and told me to develop a worry box to put my worries in. I seriously felt violated and duped.

I paid for it privately and found it very helpful for reframing thoughts. You do have to do the homework though. I had a couple of blocks of about 8 sessions and have had the odd one or two top up session since.

It’s not the same thing as long term talking therapy obvs.

I found someone good who works online if you want a rec

12 weeks face to face CBT. It didn’t really have an impact and I actually got anxious just having to go there.

Last year telephone CBT with a therapist who specialises in ACT & CBT. It consisted of 4 sessions of basically relaxation sessions and instructions to do X,Y & Z (I mean, if I could do those things I wouldn’t have been referred for therapy!) It then ended with ‘4 sessions, that’s about right for primary care so this is our last session’!

I saw something by a therapist recently that said CBT is offered on the nhs because it’s the cheapest option but it is often the wrong option for people who would be better having psychotherapy instead. No chance of that on the NHS so I just keep going round in a hopeless loop.

I think the problem is a lot of CBT therapists (actually therapists in general) aren’t v good. This one sounds like a total moron.

Hey there! I've tried CBT before and it really helped me manage my thoughts and feelings. I also use Youper, it's an app that uses AI to provide therapy and it's been a game changer for me!

As a therapist- if you're going to have CBT you will probably have far more success and a more positive experience if you have it through someone with a private practice of their own rather than NHS etc.
I say that because so often services are time limited to 6 sessions, but CBT was never intended to be only 6 sessions except for clients presenting with mild anxiety/depression. Moderate to severe needs more than 6 sessions to a) see a markable change there and then, and b) to see long term effectiveness. Often clients may need closer to 18 sessions or possibly 24 depending on their requirements.
Unfortunately so many places are rigid about the 6 session model and the client is ultimately failed by the experienced, left feeling that it didn't work- because how could it when their therapy's been ended before they've had a chance to begin?
CBT works well when it's done right, but you need the right therapist who will listen to you and tailor it to your individual requirements. I recommend speaking with a few (most offer 15-30 mins free consultation) to get a feel for who you gel with and how they work.
Your mental health matters, you have the right to choose who you share it with.

An alternative idea is to study CBT as a self help project. This is an excellent course;

https://www.udemy.com/course/cognitive-behavioural-therapy-online-course-cbt-practitioner-course/

I had tried assorted therapy and self help books over the years.
CBT was a game changer.
Instead of rehashing the past, I was given practical tools to use, when my internal voice started to be unhelpful.

These tools helped me to regain an inner calm and organise my thoughts into a more helpful internal monologue.
It even , for the first time, gave me healthy self esteem.

It's good but it's like exercise-you need to keep it up ir you loose it. You need to really work on it. It is all about recognising your thoughts and changing your actions/response. There's not a lot of 'analysis' of why you think that way. So if you need something out your system then it's not for you. Cbt is proactive and about challenging your established behaviours. So it's good for general depression/anxiety.

I found it really helpful but I get out the habit of recording my thoughts etc. if I could afford a therapist to help me it would. F great