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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Pandabear on January 26, 2004, at 19:58:43
Today, My therapist started me on a CBT exercise where I was to look at a phrase or sentence that was negative and turn it into a positive statement...It was almost like doing school work and I really stink at school...so it was really frustrating for me. Yet she kept letting me know that I was doing a great job...(I didnt agree)I dont really understand CBT at all. A lot of the phrases applied to me though because I think negative all the time unfortunately...but Im really confused about this type of therapy..can anyone explain CBT to me?? On an exercise like the one I did, is it supposed to open up more areas to talk about? I found myself reading a sentence and then going on about how it applied to my life. I know you cant do therapy wrong..but I didnt want to be talking about something that I didnt need to be going in to..does that make sense? I dont know..im just confused about it I guess.....any help would be great!
Posted by Dinah on January 26, 2004, at 20:20:52
In reply to Cognative Behavioral Therapy, posted by Pandabear on January 26, 2004, at 19:58:43
My brain isn't functioning well tonight, so maybe Matt or someone could phrase this better. But a big part of the cognitive part of CBT is catching yourself in dysfunctional thinking and replace it with more... functional? thinking. So if you tend to horribilize things or consistently only see the bad side to things, your therapist might be wanting you to train your brain to think of things differently.
I generally got annoyed at this part, because it didn't feel any different from lying to myself. And I felt better about my revised thoughts if they were more believable, which meant less positive than my therapist would like. But that's me...
Posted by gardenergirl on January 26, 2004, at 21:42:12
In reply to Re: Cognative Behavioral Therapy » Pandabear, posted by Dinah on January 26, 2004, at 20:20:52
Actually, Dinah's explanation is pretty good. It sounds like your T was doing cognitive restructuring. If your brain "hears" these negative thoughts all of the time, it would be depressed. But if you train your brain to think more positively, then the depression can decrease.
I would try to take some time to talk with your T about your concerns and questions about CBT. Part of CBT involves an orientation to the approach, usually in the first session. If you still have questions, as many people do, then it makes sense to have them answered before moving on to the work.
I agree, it does feel like school with the homework, the handouts, etc. There are many, many people who have benefitted from CBT. There are also others who do better with a different approach. Try giving it some time and talking to your T about your concerns. If it still doesn't seem right to you, ask for a referral to a different type of T.
Good luck,
gg
Posted by alexandra_k on January 30, 2004, at 3:25:42
In reply to Re: Cognative Behavioral Therapy, posted by gardenergirl on January 26, 2004, at 21:42:12
Sigh. Yes, the only kind of therapy I can get funded for is CBT although I have also done DBT (dialectical cognitive-behaviour therapy) which I have found to be a much improved varient.
The (simplified) thought is that there is an activating event (A) which happens (such as losing your job or somebody doing something); and you have some sort of emotional response, or maladaptive behaviour (C). The thought is that C doesn't follow of any necessity from A - what goes in the middle is all your 'thought distortions'. So you are supposed to work out all your maladaptive thoughts, and challenge them so you will never do C again.
Sorry if I sound slightly cynical. My issue is that theorists (when pressed) say that it is not that B CAUSES C (because of the problems with mental causation) - but they do seem to slip into this way of thinking a fair bit. My issue is that those thoughts aren't running through my mind before I have an automatic emotional response or act impulsively - though of course they sound pretty correct to me now that you mention them.
You are supposed to INFER B from A and C, and then you are supposed to use that very inference to explain why C happened. That is just circular.
Apparantly many borderlines find CBT to be 'invalidating'. I figure that considering most of us are highly sensitive people who have been abused our nervous systems are set to 'very reactive' and thus our extreme emotional responses are justified and to be expected given the way we are wired up in conjunction with our reinforcement history of abuse. That is not to say that we cannot learn to change this through relaxation training etc. But I do have issues with people requiring us to JUSTIFY our emotional responses with appeal to which 'faulty cognitions' we endorse when they don't occur to you particularly till the T mentions them.
My 2 cents worth...
Maybe have a chat with your T and ask her to tell you what the point of the exercise is, it sounds like you are trying really hard to work and be cooperative - good on ya :)
Posted by Dinah on January 30, 2004, at 7:09:00
In reply to Re: Cognative Behavioral Therapy, posted by alexandra_k on January 30, 2004, at 3:25:42
I always have that problem too. Plus once an intense emotional response starts and all those chemicals are flooding my system, it takes a while for them to clear out, and until they do, I can barely think much less reason.
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