C. B. T ?

[Wolfy15]

As anyone done a course of C. B. T and did it help?

[Lone Dog]

I was introduced to it at one point, but I never took it seriously. It's a way to try to fool yourself into thinking you aren't ill. Tell yourself that people aren't watching you and judging you - but then it falls apart the first time you get comments from people in public or in the street. Perhaps those people should have CBT, or something similar, so that they wouldn't judge others. I think there's one psychiatrist who appears in the media who calls it a fraud.

I should probably add that this is just one opinion, there will no doubt be many who have found benefit.

[limey123]

Yes, and I found it helpful.

[Lone Dog]

Originally Posted by Fungus

They had people sing, bark like a dog, walk backwards or lie down on the street, all in public.

That sounds like the sort of thing stage hypnotists would get you to do. It may be that CBT has similaries to hypnosis and also positive thinking. Also, do it long enough and you have a kind of exposure therapy. But I'm not sure, though, you can't think your way out of depression, and I don't think you can think your way out of anxiety either.

It's all very well hearing doctors tell you about CBT, but they don't have the problems that we have and have never done CBT. So, it would be good to hear from patients who were helped by it, as they actually have the experience.

[Aelwyn]

I haven't tried it, I feel a bit sceptical about it too. I can imagine having two heads and going along and being told the SA is all in my head (heads).

Some people here have had good results from it, so maybe I'm missing something.

[Selkie]

I think CBT definitely is helpful.
It can help with getting rid of more clearly irrational beliefs and behaviours. It helped me to take more risks by thinking of them as experiments, and sometimes the outcome was better than I expected. But doing the experiments can be quite challenging (I just recently completely failed to speak up about something in a meeting and now wishing I had done it..)
I've complained about a bad therapist elsewhere. But I think that was her lack of knowledge about social anxiety and her own thinking biases! I have had two other CBT therapists who were very good.

[Percy]

Yes, i've used CBT for SA, it helped a great deal for me at least.

[Wolfy15]

Thanks to everyone for the replys, I've never done cbt, there's mixed opinions about it, I think it's a matter of trying what you can and hope it helps even if it's in a small way

[huntert]

Originally Posted by Wolfy15

As anyone done a course of C. B. T and did it help?

I had it around four years ago and it changed my life. I did one hour a week for ten ish weeks. My major issue then was blushing, although I'm not sure if it was ever noticeable, I think that I just thought it was.


It made socialising in groups a lot easier too, which i'm not starting to struggle with again. Once I move from where i'm currently living i'm hoping to access it again. I can't find any charity based services where i'm living at the moment.

[Rufus]

can anybody explain how it changed your thinking - examples

I can identify my negative thoughts but struggle to dismiss them.

[Mr. Nobody]

Originally Posted by Raks1981

The objective is to turn negative thoughts into balanced thoughts.

The Biased Expectations and Negative Self Evaluations pdfs have a page in which you can do this.

There are facts and there are opinions. You have to identify between the two when challenging your negative thoughts.

You may not be able to dismiss negative thoughts away immediately, the idea is to have a more balanced view of yourself, as having low self esteem we tend to only focus on the negative, as well as look for the negative in situations

I'd totally agree with this,..

I always think the reluctance towards CBT, animosity even, is that people are so identified with their thoughts that they feel that a challenge to those thoughts to that thinking pattern is a personal challenge, a personal slight, and so the self-preservation reaction comes in and dismisses the idea of CBT,

One way to get a simple idea of a balanced approach towards our thinking is to look at it from another person's point of view, as it were,
Ask yourself if you would judge someone else as harshly as you judge yourself, or, would you give that other person a break, would you give them the benefit of the doubt,

Imagine someone else is thinking the way you do, and ask yourself if you'd think they were thinking in a healthy balanced way?
Because we feel so close to our thinking process we take it as bible, we don't question it, we pass on it and elevate it as truth.
As so it carries on as before, never changing, and often getting worse as it effectively is endorsed by this reluctance to explore the idea that it is faulty or erroneous in the first place.

[Rufus]

the problem I am finding is that my neg thoughts are based in part in reality, if they were just notions or assumptions I could dismiss them. I not predicting the future just I know human behaviour , not all but some.

Raks - where are these PDFs you mention please

[Sisyphus]

A big for CBT.

It helped me a lot.

It was also utterly ghastly but then if it wasn't then I wouldn't be doing it right.

[Sisyphus]

There have been a few things said about CBT in this thread that CBT doesn't ask you to do.

[Percy]

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

There have been a few things said about CBT in this thread that CBT doesn't ask you to do.

I was thinking the same thing. I never had to do those things under CBT.

[Dougella]

^ I was definitely not asked to bark like a dog or lie down in the street.

[Percy]

^It's the sort of thing David Mckenna was promoting when he was on here. Shadow boxing in public. There's a specific name for it which escapes me at the moment.

[Percy]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news...hadows-3492080

[huntert]

Originally Posted by Rufus

can anybody explain how it changed your thinking - examples

I can identify my negative thoughts but struggle to dismiss them.

I can't remember it 100% but going through them with the therapist there was four or five stages with each thought. There was my original thought, then there was the facts/evidence then somehow it ended up with a replacement thought.

One example I think I used was to do with the job I had at the time, at the end of each shift when I got back to the yard I had to go into the office and speak to the managers.

My original thought was something like 'i might start blushing and everyone will look at me' and the replacement thought was along the line of ' i probably won't blush, even if i do it doesn't matter'.

[db838]

CBT helped turn my life around. Obviously it had its ups and downs along the way and I had to do it twice, once individually for may SA and then I went back and did group therapy with about a dozen others who had a variety of anxiety issues. It basically tought me to stop mind reading and thinking I'm inadequate and everyone is perfect and judging me, also that by exposing myself to situations while I don't get less scared, just a bit braver each time. The group therapy helped me bounce ideas and feelings off other people, as well as making a couple of friends along the way.

[limey123]

Glad it helped you! Thanks for your account.

Nice pool table, btw