CBT - it works!!

[Jen Victoria Macdonald]

I thought I'd write a post on here after months and months of severe anxiety which was turning in to depression. I first wrote on here around March/April time when I started getting a pain in my arm and went to 3 different doctors and saw 2 nurses who were family friends about it as I wasn't getting an answer (repitive strain/tendonitis etc) but it wouldn't go away. I was getting huge anxiety about it and because of this I got lots of new symptoms, back pain, chest pain, IBS, headaches, shooting pains in my head, anxiety rash.. these are to just name a few! I've had all these in the space of a few months. My doctor checked me over, I'm all okay and tells me it is anxiety, which I know it is. During the 3rd week of getting this anxiety I started to loose my appetite really bad. Even yogurt made me feel physically sick and it got me really upset as yet again, I thought this was another symptom of a serious illness! During one of my lowest moments my mum rushed me to the doctors to sort out counselling as I was uncontrollably crying. My doctor set me up with a private counsellor and I have seen him 4 times now and have my 5th appointment on Monday. Since starting CBT I have my bad days and good days as expected, but my anxiety has probably halved in the last few weeks! It really helps to change my way of thinking and when my thinking can't change, it helps to not block the thoughts out, but think about them until they aren't as strong as they once were. He gets me talking about the root cause of my anxiety and the real reasons why I am feeling the way I am feeling. Honestly, I couldn't promote this therapy any more than I have done. I never thought I would feel this good again and I haven't even touched any medication, as from the start of my sessions I told everybody involved that it wasn't a root I wanted to take. I feel myself telling my therapist stuff I didn't even know I felt at first and he had me in tears the last session I had, just because he really did get to the root and made me bring memories up I didn't think would even be connected! I'm on 21 and have only been dealing with anxiety for a few months so I cannot comprehend what people who had it for years are going through and I know you probably have been down this root already, but I'm just putting a positive post up and want to help people who I know feel the same way I have/did. If you haven't thought about it, go a long to your GP who can put you on the NHS list if private isn't an option. At the moment, I have no anxiety symptoms!! I'm not going to speak too soon, but there really is a light at the end of the tunnel and I hope more people can benefit from people that are there for you :D

[John Campbell]

great to hear. Can you describe any particular wrong thoughts that CBT changed?

[AceParadox]

Thanks for posting. Success stories are always helpful :]
Glad to see things working out for you.

[bc84]

[QUOTE="Jen Victoria Macdonald"]I thought I'd write a post on here after months and months of severe anxiety which was turning in to depression. I first wrote on here around March/April time when I started getting a pain in my arm and went to 3 different doctors and saw 2 nurses who were family friends about it as I wasn't getting an answer (repitive strain/tendonitis etc) but it wouldn't go away. I was getting huge anxiety about it and because of this I got lots of new symptoms, back pain, chest pain, IBS, headaches, shooting pains in my head, anxiety rash.. these are to just name a few! I've had all these in the space of a few months. My doctor checked me over, I'm all okay and tells me it is anxiety, which I know it is. During the 3rd week of getting this anxiety I started to loose my appetite really bad. Even yogurt made me feel physically sick and it got me really upset as yet again, I thought this was another symptom of a serious illness! During one of my lowest moments my mum rushed me to the doctors to sort out counselling as I was uncontrollably crying. My doctor set me up with a private counsellor and I have seen him 4 times now and have my 5th appointment on Monday. Since starting CBT I have my bad days and good days as expected, but my anxiety has probably halved in the last few weeks! It really helps to change my way of thinking and when my thinking can't change, it helps to not block the thoughts out, but think about them until they aren't as strong as they once were. He gets me talking about the root cause of my anxiety and the real reasons why I am feeling the way I am feeling. Honestly, I couldn't promote this therapy any more than I have done. I never thought I would feel this good again and I haven't even touched any medication, as from the start of my sessions I told everybody involved that it wasn't a root I wanted to take. I feel myself telling my therapist stuff I didn't even know I felt at first and he had me in tears the last session I had, just because he really did get to the root and made me bring memories up I didn't think would even be connected! I'm on 21 and have only been dealing with anxiety for a few months so I cannot comprehend what people who had it for years are going through and I know you probably have been down this root already, but I'm just putting a positive post up and want to help people who I know feel the same way I have/did. If you haven't thought about it, go a long to your GP who can put you on the NHS list if private isn't an option. At the moment, I have no anxiety symptoms!! I'm not going to speak too soon, but there really is a light at the end of the tunnel and I hope more people can benefit from people that are there for you :D[/QUOTE

Hi i have been doing cbt for a few months now and i feel like im having some really bad days where i cant communicate with anyone as im relating everything to me...its making me paranoid as i keep feeling like everyone is involved with it which heightens my anxiety to a disabling point did you experience this?

[Jen Victoria Macdonald]

I have had 3 family members pass away due to doctor's misdiagnosis at an early stage and that's what makes me panic that the doctor wouldn't find something wrong with me if i went to them. The therapist put everything in to account and made me think of things rationally i.e. not going to the drs if i have a headache for a few days or feel sick one day.. he tells me to calculate the symptoms and see if they are prolonged.. also the context they are in at that time! all my symptoms have been when I have had this anxiety feeling and never any other time, so that is a big thing to take in to account. Once I stop being anxious the symptoms subside. He also got me to take in to account everything about me.. my age, I am fit and healthy, I am sleeping well etc. If I get a symptom or anything physically changes then he tells me to take a picture of it the first time I see it may have a changed or think it has changed, and then a week later or so take another and so on.. What I have been doing in the past is aggrivating things (scabs, spots etc) and making them worse because I am picking them and making them sore. An example was the other day that I thought a mole had changed and I have been squeezing and touching it which made it sore and now it has scabbed over and looks different.. it looks different because I have made it different! I conviently had a drs appointment booked for a few days after I saw it, so I mentioned it and he said leave it to heal and if it still looks bad after that then to go back and he will take another look. I am trying not to freak out as hard as it is at the moment, but I know a few months a go I would have been going out of my mind thinking the worst!! The bad thoughts are trying to creep through about this but I am trying to keep strong and distracted!!

[Jen Victoria Macdonald]

bc84.. Erm no I can't say I have, but everyone reacts differently :) A few months a go a family friend laughed at me because he knew I was panicing over things and said I was silly to think the worse. I tried not to take it to heart because I knew he didn't know the reality of how I was feeling. Only a few people know the real deep feelings I have (my mum, stepdad, boyfriend and a few select friends, and also my boss as I sometimes need 5 minutes away from things at work). I have found that more people than I know have feelings like me and I have taken comfort in that. I find that sometimes the people that know about it get bored of it and try and change the subject just to put me at ease, but sometimes I just want to talk about it. I'd rather people know about how I'm really feeling than jump to conclusions and think I am being a hypocondriact. Sometimes, yes I am being, but how I am feeling really does make me depressed and sometimes don't see a future for me! When it gets to that stage I have a chat with anybody that will listen (mainly my mum or boyfriend) and I start to feel better. After the conversation I am feeling 100% better. Talking for me really does help :) I always feel so much better after a CBT appointment.