opinions on Cogntive Behavioural Therapy?

[Ellz]

I start CBT next week for my self harm and was wondering what peoples experiances and opinions of it are? x

[Hidden]

I had CBT for the same thing, self-harm, and it didnt really work for me. don't get me wrong, it's a great form of therapy, but it just depends on what kind of therapy you prefer. x

[Hidden]

I agree with the previous answer, different people find different kinds of therapy helpful, and also it depends on what stage they are at in working through their problems. I eventually turned to psychoanalytic therapy and also trained in that, but my first experience of therapy was CBT and without it I would not have got on the road to health in the first place. It gave me the structure and the 'nudge' which enabled me to bring about a fundamental change (entering adult education) which completely transformed my life. The best way for you to think whether it may be right for you is to learn what it's about and to see whether that approach FEELS right to you - if it does then go with it, if it doesn't then read about other approaches until you find the one that you are drawn to most. Most therapies CAN work sometimes with people who start off not believing in them, but a negative attitude from the beginning can also bring about the self-fulfilling prophecy whereby I thought it wouldn't work and it didn't! See what YOU think when you've read about the different approaches.

[Getting-By]

Hi

I have done CBT and found it helped a little for me but I know a lot of people who have had great success with it. I hope it works well for you let us know how your first appointment goes.

[B1ddy]

Hi,

How did it go?

I had my second session today, I am finding it really hard and draining but am determined to make it work.

Hope it works for you, good luck

[aug2012]

I truly wish you all the best with trying to get over self-harm as it's something I had to get over myself. CBT seems very hit and miss as it depends on how good the person is who is 'therapising' you. I tried 10 sessions of CBT some years ago and I found it to be an extremely patronising process - but that was because of the psychologist doing it, who was frankly a useless person. It actually left me feeling much worse as it was such an effort for me to attend and such a waste of time, plus she forced a lot out of me that I never wanted to reveal and it made me feel kind of violated as it didn't have any positive results.

The techniques she used just made me feel very patronised, plus she kept telling me things about how my thoughts worked that simply weren't true and when I kept insisting that I wasn't obsessed with negativity she insisted that I was deluded; so there was no reasoning with the woman at all.

She required me to think in a certain way - like that everything is grey, rather than black and white; which was VERY important to her. And I had to keep a diary of all my thoughts, which was very tedious and I had to comment on all of them and if any were negative I had to write how it could be positive, blah, blah, blah.

The trouble with her technique is that she was convinced that simply by forcing your brain to see the sunny side of everything it transforms you into a happy balanced person - but this is frankly deluded BS. I've never read any proof that CBT actually WORKS in the long term, or for people with more than very minor issues.

GIve it a try though - everything is worth trying!

Good luck