Posted by Racer on March 15, 2006, at 11:56:15
In reply to Re: What does it mean when a T does mostly CBT? » CareBear04, posted by fallsfall on March 15, 2006, at 11:24:04
Some people just don't do well with CBT -- I'm one of them, so I'll tell you a bit about why, so you can see if you think it fits you.
Part of the whole anorexic thing, for me, is "controlling" my feelings, and it includes feelings of hunger: if I can control my reaction to hunger, I can control my reactions to other feelings. That's obviously simplified, but that's a big part of it. It's holding everything tightly inside me. And CBT tends to trigger that for me. There's such emphasis on 'when you start to feel [x], redirect yourself to thinking [y].' That's not a bad way of going about it, but for someone who has to run down a checklist of symptoms to figure out she's feeling hunger, let alone something like anger or hurt or loneliness, well, not necessarily helpful.
For me, I think it's important that I learn to *feel* emotions, before I start working on stopping them. And, the more a therapist tells me it's all up to me, all I have to do is control my thinking and I will never feel bad -- the worse I feel, and the more I work on *not* feeling, and starve myself. According to my current therapist, who does specialize in eating disorders, that's actually a pretty common reaction to CBT in someone with anorexia. (Although CBT, while not her favorite orientation, does have more benefit for bulimia, proving again that we are all different. Your mileage will vary.)
Overall, though, I'd say I'm with others who've replied: if you haven't responded well to CBT in the past, you're probably better off looknig around for a psychodynamic T now.
Good luck, whatever you do, and best luck in finding a good fit in a therapist.
poster:Racer
thread:620541
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060312/msgs/620604.html