Posted by MattDDS on July 9, 2002, at 11:53:14
In reply to Re: Anyone interested in CBT? Let's talk! » MattDDS, posted by Dinah on July 9, 2002, at 9:26:57
Hey Dinah,
Cool post, and I can relate to a lot of it. Especially the part about CBT annoying you.
One specific problem that I encountered was when I was working on a thought about "you'll
never recover from depression". It was very hard for me to loosen my belief in this.
I remember thinking things like, "I can tell myself I'll get better, but I just can't
believe this crap!". It didn't seem realistic because I had been depressed for roughly
eight years to some extent. So why the hell even try to get better? I nearly dropped
out of dental school my second year.My solution was to do a cost-benefit analysis of holding on to this belief. When I did
this, I realized that one of the reasons preventing me from working harder was, among
others, fear of failure (to recover from severe anxiety and depression). It helped me
see (of course, over a period of weeks), that there was no real advantage in giving in to
this feeling. I decided that giving up had no advantages, and working hard on CBT self
help stuff also had no drawbacks whatsoever, and very possibly might help. To sum, it
cannot hurt, is free (self-help, anyway), there are no side effects (presumably) and you
can take as large of doses as you like! That is what excites me about CBT.My recovery was not as magical or fast as some CBT experts (Burns or Ellis) tend to
describe it. I think they may have done themselves somewhat of a disservice by leading
people to believe it is "fast and easy". For me, far from it! I had to work my ass off,
and still do! It took me months to recover! But it was all well worth it to get myself
into remission. Currently, my worst days entail "mild depression and anxiety", which are
usually transient, and serve as reminders that I am not 'cured', just remitted.You're absolutely right about the behavioral techniques. They can help to make you realize
that, despite how lousy your body feels, you *can* get out of bed in the morning, and do
at least some things. One of my greatest realizations is that if I'm going to feel like
shit (can you say that here?) I may as well be doing something productive while I'm feel-
ing like shit! The Tic-Toc methods and the Daily Activities Schedule (Burns) helped me
tremendously, as I told Mist in the another post.CBT is not for everyone. But seeing as how I got **no** response to any antidepressants
I was left with not a whole lot of options before I got to the real desperate stuff! I
was ready for ECT!! I always get extremely jealous of those who have miraculous
responses to the first antidepressant they try! If only it were that simple for me!As for the DBT, I don't know much about it, but it sounds like a variant of CBT. I think
it is geared toward individuals who have 'personality disorders'. Did I get this right?
I did most of my CBT alone, although I did spend some time at the Albert Ellis institute,
(I live in New York City) which helped somewhat.I hope this can help someone, but again I'm afraid I've talked your ear off!
Take care and good luck!
Matt
poster:MattDDS
thread:538
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20020702/msgs/558.html