CBT

[xkatyx]

Hi everyone,

this morning i was sent a letter for a refferal for CBT, has anyone ever had this and does it work?

thank you

Hey,

Not had CBT, but would love to try it for anxiety disorder! Never heard anything negative about it, just all positive stuff!

Are you getting it to treat anxiety?? Hope it works as well for you as it seem to for all the others

Good luck x x x

my treatment involves cognitive behavioural therapy but they have never sat me down and explained how, so i am recieving it but i cant tell you exactly what it entails! however what we mostly seem to concentrate on is thinking about things a different way and recognising when i'm going down an unhealthy thought pattern. so when i get my obsessive thoughts, or i think that someone in the street who looked at me funny hates me and thinks i'm a terrible person (sounds so stupid when you type it out loud!) i stop, remember this is an unhealthy thought pattern and distract myself or tell myself the logical explanation instead of getting hysterical. it all sounds really obvious but its practising it, i still forget all the time and get into a state but it really helps. i know a few other people who've tried it too and like yommymommy says i've heard nothing but good things so well done and the best of luck! it should really help and its nothing scary!
ps heres a link www.nhs.uk/conditions/cognitive-behavioural-therapy/Pages/Introduction.aspx

wow I'd bite their arm off if they are offering CBT on the NHS.

I paid for CBT sessions privately as they were not offered to me on the NHS and they cost £85 per hour (and that was with the student, not the qualified therapist!)

It is helpful, you should go for it. You've nothing to lose.

They will probably do some work around your thinking patterns and identifying unhealthy thoughts just as ellymouse has described, e.g.
"I am always so rubbish at everything" becomes "I am quite good at some things and am enjoying the challenge of getting better at others"

Hope it goes well x

Thank you, i'm really looking forward to starting this and really hope that it work's :-)

tommymommy yes mostly for anxiety, i'm a terrible worrier and tend to get myself in a state, panic attacks's etc. I also suffer from deppression but am on AD'S for that and it is very much under controll. I hope to be able to come off them if i can finally get the anixety sorted.

I have just started CBT for anxiety; had 2 sessions so far, mainly about how anxious thought processes happen etc. It has been helpful and am confident I will conquer this bastard after 11 years!! I am going to be doing exposure therapy, where pretty much I do the things that cause my anxiety and panic regularly, til it subsides to a manageable level. Good luck with it all!!

oh that sounds scarey, but i really hope it works 11 years is a horrible amounnt of time. good luck to you too.

have just started a CBT group on the NHS, not sure about it yet

I filled out my form and sent it off the other week. Am waiting to hear when my first appointment will be.

Not sure how helpful it will be, because I have Asperger's. They attached the NHS questionnaire that seems to go with any NHS service now. I had to fill out one every time I used a support service to help me find a job.

"Do you ever feel unsociable?" Yes, all the time, I have Asperger's, what do you expect?

let us know how you get on topsi, cbt isnt an immediate therapy as far as i can tell, it does take time.
how often are your sessions? i'm supposed to see someone once a week at least while i'm pregnant but its more like once a month. the nhs mental health service is so underfunded

I had CBT about 7(ish?) years ago as part of coming to terms with my diagnosis (bipolar), it was NHS - I went once a week for almost 9 months but my exasperated therapist washed her hands of me (I just couldn't accept that I had what they said I had ), although later I have drawn upon it quite heavily. Learned a lot about recognising the early warning signs of relapse and what to do to help slow or at least manage it better.

Think it can vary pretty wildly in terms of who is delivering it and how well they tailor it to your needs - have some misgivings about the burden it places on patients with depression and anxiety, particularly if they have good cause to be depressed, that they might overlook necessary life changes in favour of changing the way they feel about the problems in their lives.

I haven't had it myself but I trained as a counsellor for a while (until I realised that it wasn't my ideal mode of function) and CBT is meant to be very good for things like anxiety disorder. It is designed to change thought processes and responses to situations, there is a level of input required from the patient i.e. identifying "wrong" processes and working with the therapist to find new ways of doing things that produce different patterns and results, preferably positive ones.

It is also used in addiction rehabilitation and can be a very good behaviour adaptor.

I don't personally believe it is much use in terms of long-term and/or clinical depression because that is more biochemical, less about mental processes and therefore might make thingsmore difficult for the patient; nor do I necessarily believe it is useful in cases of longterm "trauma", where a more talking therapy can often be more beneficial.

HTH anyway and good luck with it - believing that you will get good things from it is a good thing to do!

Just to say, mine is on the NHS, on a one to one basis with a great bloke. I had to go right back through my life, which I found painful, on my first session, but it has started off a process within me that I am determined to see through. It is nothing like the crappy course my health visitor gave me a while back, which was more of a 'read this and get on with it'. This is much more supportive and CBT is very helpful for anxiety.

mine is a course of 20 weeks for 90 mins with a group of 4 other women which is nice. I have had depression for 14-20 years and have had a couple of other therapies on the NHS. I have usually had to wait at least 6 mnths on a waiting list. This time it was a couple of weeks and an interview and then a choice of therapy that I could start pretty smartish.
Maybe it was the fact that they had refered me to the mental health team this time, just in time for me starting to feel better of course!
Mine seems to be related to a sort of work book with various diagrams and maps etc.
Not sure about it yet as am used to the more talk about your feeling kind of therapy
Good luck every body

Eeek, sorry to be negative but my local NHS CBT course was pretty rubbish. However, one to one CBT with a counsellor was fantastic. I think a lot of it was my fault, I treated as a academic lesson kind of thing, almost hoping for good grades!

If you can try and be a bit selfish and make it all about you, you may find it very helpful. It certainly won't do any harm.

CBT is great for depression and anxiety problems and is recommended by NICE as there is lots of evidence that it is effective but as someone said it is also really important how it is delivered, that it is patient-centred, and that you get on well with your therapist. And it does not suit everyone. But I have seen it work wonders with patients (I am a psychologist specialising in CBT and have also had PND myself so seen both sides .

If you go for a therapy and are not happy with any aspect of it, it is really important that you say something as sometimes this can be resolved. You need to like working on specific problems/ goals, and be willing to do some tasks in-between your sessions as this really helps with making the therapy effective. Some CBT focuses more on the here-and-now and some will look back at early experiences and their impact too. The main focus of CBT is identifying how your difficulties are maintained/ kept going and then helping you to find more helpful ways of thinking/ acting in order to break the negative cycle and move on in your life.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists or the BABCP (British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists) both have information about CBT for patients.

Good luck!