Have you ever had Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?

We had to do it with my youngest as he was deathly afraid of large public gatherings ie. school and could not control his fear and emotions in those settings and simply shut down. We found a therapist that specialized in CBT which included role playing helped him gain confidence know he had options and ways of controlling his presence and even his of security in these high stress environments. He is now happy and even thriving in his peer groups. Best part is he is communicating his emotions and even now comments on how he sees other kids and their own difficulties in similar situations. 110% successful!!

I’m currently in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, for my severe anxiety. My therapist says I’ve made HUGE strides since my start last year… But to tell you the truth I don’t feel like I have… I still have a hard time leaving my house. But I’m not going to stop until I feel better.

No but I’m curious how it would help drug addicts.

Yes. And it works. Much better than rehashing Freudian penis-envy with a psychiatrist. Especially if you are smart. You can talk yourself into oblivion with sophistries spun on childhood memories but have no present-day plan of action without CBT.
I took plodding steps along a path of improvement until the brass ring was in my hand. I felt whole and happy for the first time in my life.

I have had this kind of therapy before and its very logical. Basically, it’s all about changing your language and your thoughts to make them correct. For example, I would start by saying, “I feel like a loser.” Now, I have to pick the statement apart to show myself how incorrect it is. Loser is not a feeling, its a thought, so it is not possible to “feel” like a loser. “I think I’m a loser” is the correct statement. Now, realistically – is it true? Have I done anything so horrible to think I’m a loser, like killed anyone – No…and then you start to build on your self esteem by pointing out your better qualities. My entire thought was inaccurate in the beginning and draining, but now that I’ve corrected the language, I can look at it more clearly and see that I am not a loser at all, but I am depressed. The Ohio State has a really good program for people who need it. I was being bullied at work by my manager and it was either let go of the steering wheel on the highway and risk hurting others or go to the ER (WARNING is you do go to an ER, expect to sit in a dirty looking, padded room with someone watching you to make sure you don’t hurt yourself) and see what they could do for me and the answer was a partial hospitalization program that teaches CBT (FYI – CBT in the adult world is bad, trust me. Always say NO to CBT and be careful abbreviating this! CBT = C0ck n Ball Torture wince).

I did, for anxiety, and it was slightly helpful. That is to say, every method I learned was helpful, but only for a short time. Each time a method reached the end of its very short shelf life, it would never work for me again, so I’d have to switch to something new. In the end, the anti-anxiety drugs helped me the most.

I agree @augustlan somewhat. CBT is like a diet, you have to permanently change your life to the CBT way of breaking things down or else it will only be temporary. I have to have Xanax or else, I am in constant state of fight, flight and/or freeze. I am eventually going to an endocrinologist to see why I have so much adrenaline constantly surging through my system.

I’ve done some of this on a smaller scale when I was dealing with some major depression issues. Aspects of it were very helpful. Reminding myself that the fear I was experiencing of X happening was completely disproportionate to the odds of it actually happening, and the fact that most of the time X happening almost certainly wouldn’t turn out as badly as I was fearing it would made me feel a hell-of-a-lot better.

I did it for a while for depression, but I let my practice lapse. It is effective if you are dedicated to making it work. Feeling Good is an excellent book. There is also a workbook version that I personally found helpful, but is not necessary.

I started to get panic attacks several years ago and talk therapy wasn’t working. I eventually found Lucinda Bassett’s Attacking Anxiety and Depression audio course and found it very helpful. She spells out the errors in thinking which cause anxiety and depression and how they lead to physical symptoms. I learned many important lessons through her heavily CBT-inspired course.

The most important short-term things to remember:
-The symptoms are not harmful. Don’t fear them. Ride them out.
-Slow down. Take deep breaths and speak slowly. This has a calming effect.

For the long run, she pointed out the main things that cause anxiety and depression in a person:
-Negative thoughts
-Unrealistic expectations
-Disaster or “what-if?” thinking

There are a variety of ways of dealing with these causes, but they all boil down to deconstructing incorrect/irrational thinking and replacing it with well-reasoned, realistic thinking. I wrote a daily journal, kept a log of negative thoughts and spent a lot of time reconsidering my expectations and beliefs. Of course, Bassett also includes a meditative breathing exercise in her course which I practiced three times a day (with some minor annoyance). However, all that practice came in handy because in nervous situations I was able to turn on the calm like a switch.

The effect was profound and has lasted me for years, but like others have mentioned, the effect can fade if you’re not mindful of it. I occasionally revisit CBT techniques and ideas from other sources, like David Burns’ “Feeling Good,” and this has helped me keep my anxiety and depression at bay. I have found that my symptoms of anxiety and depression return in small measure when I stop going to the gym and consume too much caffeine and sugar.

All in all, I have found CBT to be a powerful tool, but it requires a very strong commitment. I felt as if I was at the bottom of a deep hole before I started with it, but I decided I would fight it with everything I had before taking the leap to medication. Luckily for me, it stuck.