Posted by pseudoname on May 30, 2006, at 19:06:58
In reply to Re: ACT links update » pseudoname, posted by honeybee on May 30, 2006, at 17:11:14
Hi, hb! -- or, bh :-)
> Are you hooked up with an ACT therapist?
About 18 months ago, I saw one who got a PhD in Hayes' UN-Reno program, but we didn't hit it off, and I only went 3 times. I was not impressed. As of last year, there were only a handful of Ts in my state who'd been exposed to ACT, but there may be more now.
> My brother (a therapist) recommended Steven Hayes's book
Interesting! Has your brother been to Hayes's seminars? If so, what did he think of him? I wonder what it's like to have a therapist in the family.
> I'm curious to hear what your experience has been with it.
Complex. Very complex. I even started a blog to try and help myself figure out what I think of ACT (and Hayes), but I'm not yet ready to blog there about ACT. I have a lot of problems with Hayes & company, AND I have a lot of respect for what he's come up with.
ACT's effects in my life are clouded by me also finally finding an effective antidepressant a few months ago for the first time in 20 years, but I think I can say this about ACT's benefit for me:
• I'm a *lot* less freaked out by my thoughts and feelings than ever before.
• I no longer tear myself to pieces with self-criticism AFTER I've done or said something. The criticism still pops into my head, but I have a lot of space between me and it.
• I'm even getting so I can mindfully accept my depressive feelings, although that's not easy.
• I'm getting better at finding motivation by considering ACT-like "Values"But my ultimate standard for judging any drug or therapy's effectiveness on me is how much of my "BIZARRELY IMPOSSIBLE" tasks I can do. Everything else (depression, obsessions, happiness, "meaning", etc) I'm willing to set aside or deal with on my own. From therapy, I just want to be able to brush my teeth when it's time to do so, or go to the store, or read a book, or pick up a piece of paper, etc: things that I have to or want to do and know I can do but that I find bizarrely impossible actually to perform.
ACT's approach seems to promise a lot in that regard, but so far it hasn't paid off — in that regard — for me.
Still working on it, though. I have not given up. Even if ACT can help with that problem, I am going to be a very tough case.
> But it's a befuddling and compelling paradox to more or less accept the pain, the heartache, and the dysfunction, and just see what happens, good or bad.
Nothing else has worked for me.
Have you gone to the ACT Yahoo forum, honeybee? I don't care to post there because a few strident converts reply to everything, and I find that sort of rigidity tiring.
How long have you been doing the exercises in the book?
I'm glad you posted. Thanks!
poster:pseudoname
thread:492810
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20051228/msgs/650591.html