This site get anyone else down?

L

Liberty

Banned
I've been through CBT therapy and I've steadily been making progress following the techniques that I've learned. I'm a long way from where I started and not sure really how far I have left to go but whenever I make a big leap forward and I feel a surge of positive feelings and encouragement I get to thinking about the other people on this site who are still struggling. Like people who have had it for 30 or 40 years. Everyone seems to know about CBT so what is it that is keeping everyone else from progressing out of this?

Is it just everyone that does leaves the site or what?
 
U

UnOccupied

Well-known member
I dont know an answer to your question, but i do want to try CBT for myself. How long have you been doing it for?
 
L

Liberty

Banned
UnOccupied said:
I dont know an answer to your question, but i do want to try CBT for myself. How long have you been doing it for?
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It's a one-time 12-16 session program that you go through. It's not like traditional talk therapy that lasts for years. Basically the therapist teaches you some basic things about how fear works and how it affects your mind and what you have to do to combat it and prevail. This consists basically of winning the power struggle over the anxiety. The anxiety will want you to avoid things and you have to show the anxiety that it is not in control and that you are in control. You'll do what you want to do in spite of the anxiety. You have to start small, for me very small, and work your way up. And along the way you also have to combat negative thoughts, or automatic thoughts and thinking patterns, and stay positive.

That's basically it. It's very hard to do though without someone guiding you through it which is why it's good to go through CBT. After the therapy you are on your own to continue. It's not that hard because the anxiety is always there to tell you what it doesn't want you to do so you just do the opposite. That doesn't mean that you won't be afraid or have bad experiences but you just have to stay positive and keep trying.
 
L

Liberty

Banned
MandyMouse said:
Regression is what is stopping me from "progressing out of this". I have tried CBT and experienced some improvements, but those improvements were always temporary.
I guess if you have had these thought patterns for most of your life, they have just become so ingrained that it is near impossible to permanently erase them and replace them with positive ones.
Although, I did not get diagnosed or recieve help with my SA until late in my life. I think if I had been given the tools like CBT earlier, they may have had more of a chance to work::(:
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Yeah maybe that's why. I've only had it for 2 years so I can still remember what it was like before. I think if you stuck with it you could do it. I've had many, many setbacks, terrible ones where I doubted if I'd ever made any progress at all. But I can point to specific things that I can do easier now that I could not do before. I know it's real. And I've come back stronger after every setback. So after a while it's comforting to know that no matter what kind of horrible, dreaded setback happens there's always next time. The anxiety will use any situation to attack you, even ones that are completely unwarranted.
 
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ripewithdecay

ripewithdecay

Well-known member
What kind of techniques did you learn?

For the CBT i did for about 2-3 months it was all repeating key words to myself, slowing down my speech, breathing techniques, meditation, exercise, focusing externally, recording myself on video and 'practicing' talking and stuff like that. I sucked at all of it and basically gave up.
 
L

Liberty

Banned
ripewithdecay said:
What kind of techniques did you learn?

For the CBT i did for about 2-3 months it was all repeating key words to myself, slowing down my speech, breathing techniques, meditation, exercise, focusing externally, recording myself on video and 'practicing' talking and stuff like that. I sucked at all of it and basically gave up.
Click to expand...

I didn't learn any stuff like that. I basically just learned how to combat negative thinking patterns and the gradual process whereby you fight the anxiety and retake your life inch by inch. This process is where you start with small things that cause you anxiety and do them, fight negative thoughts and eventually that lowers the anxiety for that particular action or situation. And after a while you have a general decrease in anxiety as well.

Right now I'm trying some of my own made up homeworks like trying to engage in my surroundings all the time. That's a really good one. It's really increasing my ability to hold conversations with people and stuff like that. Which is the thing I want the most right now is to increase my ability to interact with strangers naturally. It's working great so far. I mean I've had a number of setbacks but that just comes with the territory.
 
EasySkankin

EasySkankin

Well-known member
This site does get me down sometimes when, like you said, I see people who are struggling with anxiety a lot more than I am. But I've noticed that the more time that I spend on the site, the more this happens - so I'm trying to not be on here for too long :).

It's a good place to hang out though... and I have learned some things too, that can help me with my SA. Just don't stay on here too long, imo :p
 
S

sevenroses

Well-known member
I did make a lot of progress like you too and I still keep a thought journal. Maybe not a whole lot of people in this site know about CBT.
 
Walk

Walk

Well-known member
This site has provided me with mostly very depressing posts about people not even trying, but a few posts here and there have REALLY motivated me to go forward.

The site can also be good for venting, which I don't have any issues against (I do it too) as long as it's not overdone.
 
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