# whait is CBT exactly



## guitarguy (Aug 12, 2008)

I went to see my therapist yesterday and she reccommended a book called feeling good, something about CBT. Is this therapy something that I can do at home, if so where are some sources for more information? Do anybody have any suggestions for other therapy?

Off the topic, I just started clonazepam 1 mg twice a day, I found it helped relax me, wondering if a higher dose is possible, if so how high a dose? thanks for any help


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## jackarandarainbow (Sep 27, 2008)

I must disagree that 'negative thoughts' are 'all that causes' it. Fear arises from a much deeper level than that - where do your negative thoughts come from, then? I regard a positve brainwashing technique (which is what cbt actually is) as very useful in combating anxiety, but for many people it neglects their emotional difficulties which underly their anxiety, or the causes of the anxiety, it just simply brainwashes the mind with positive reinforcements. I think most people would greatly benefit by having emotional work available as well as the brainwashing.

I recall an example from years ago with a woman who had a terrible fear of cats and she had been going to cbt for short periods, an hour a week for 6 weeks or something, with a gap of a few months, and then, still deeply troubled, going back for more cbt, and this went on for years. One day a friend who had started therapy with a deep feeling therapist mentioned to her how good it was, how much better she felt in herself after a few sessions of deep emotional work. The woman decided to give it a try, although she still kept contact with her cbt therapist. After a few months of dft she became aware that her fear of cats was linked to abuse issues from her distant past which she had forgotten about, and once she had been able to re-experience the feelings arising in that abuse, her fear of cats became very weak and eventually disappeared.

I don't say dft will work for everyone and for some conditions it might also be inappropriate, who knows, but it is a very effective method if you are suited to it and also, cbt virtually ignores emotional work although our feelings, as mammals, are obviously very important to our wellbeing, so it might be wise if people consider the emotional aspect in addition to the rational brain techniques.

Jackaranda rainbow


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## Black_Widow (May 23, 2008)

jackarandarainbow said:


> I must disagree that 'negative thoughts' are 'all that causes' it. Fear arises from a much deeper level than that - where do your negative thoughts come from, then? I regard a positve brainwashing technique (which is what cbt actually is) as very useful in combating anxiety, but for many people it neglects their emotional difficulties which underly their anxiety, or the causes of the anxiety, it just simply brainwashes the mind with positive reinforcements.


I have to say that I strongly disagree (with all due respect ;-)) with the statement that CBT is purely a positive thought brain washing technique. As attended CBT therapy sessions last year, and was taught by my therapist - as a result of working through some CBT exercises - that the approach involves taking both negative and positive aspects of situations into account - in order to reach more balanced ways of thinking about them as opposed to focusing purely on negative points of view.

Agreeing at the same time however, that there's definitely more to the causes of social anxiety than negative thoughts alone. Deep rooted beliefs, as a result of life experiences, about yourself and others can also play a big part, and tackling these - in addition to negative thoughts - is also an aspect of CBT though not everybody who experiences anxiety problems necessarily needs to do this. Some people find that working with negative thoughts alone is enough for their needs, while others find that they need to do more work.

To Guitar Guy:

A couple of books I can recommend would be: "Mind over Mood" by Dennis Greenberger and Christine A Padesky and "Overcoming Social Anxiety" by Gillian Butler. I've personally found both books to be extremely useful sources of information on this type of therapy. And yes it's possible to work on CBT techniques from home, though would recommend continuing to keep in regular touch with your therapist at least to begin with as it can take time to become familiar with how to use the techniques described and can be very useful to have somebody else's point of view to rely on as well as your own whilst learning.

Good luck with everything!


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## yakubu (Nov 4, 2008)

guitarguy said:


> I went to see my therapist yesterday and she reccommended a book called feeling good, something about CBT. Is this therapy something that I can do at home, if so where are some sources for more information? Do anybody have any suggestions for other therapy?
> 
> Off the topic, I just started clonazepam 1 mg twice a day, I found it helped relax me, wondering if a higher dose is possible, if so how high a dose? thanks for any help


if 10 different people experienced the exact same event they could all react to it completely differently e.g a social phobic has a phobic reaction to a scoail event were as a normal person could find that exact same event as the most pleasurabel experience on earth.

the reason people react completely differently to the exact same event is becasue they percierve the event completely differently. there is no fixed meaning to reality only the meaning that you bring to it. reality for one person is completely different to reality for another person therefore reality is only your very own perception of reality.
the reason people have different perceptions of events and give different meanings to reality is becasue people have different maps of the world. your map of the world is a result of all of your unconcious beleifs and memories from past experiences. when you enter an event your mind filters the event through your map of the world and then you are left with the meaning of the evnt in your concious mind.

the meaning of the event includes images, thoughts and were you place your attention. a social phobic will have maybe images of people giving them disaproving looks, thoughts like ''i dont belong here'', and there attention will be focused on signs of rejection from other people. a non social phobic will have completely different thoughts etc... in the same situation.

you meaning to the event (the thoughts, images etc... in your head ) creates the state you are in e.g anxious , sad happy etccc.. 
your state creates your behvaiour - e.g if you feel anxious then you are not gonna behaving in an outgoing way, you are more likely to flee the room

behaviour becomes habit, habit becomes charactor and that becomes destiny.

cbt works by helping you to change your unconcious beleifs, thoughts and the meanings you give to reality in order to help you to be in a different state (e.g confident instead of anxious) so that you can behave differently.


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## yakubu (Nov 4, 2008)

jackarandarainbow said:


> I must disagree that 'negative thoughts' are 'all that causes' it. Fear arises from a much deeper level than that - where do your negative thoughts come from, then? I regard a positve brainwashing technique (which is what cbt actually is) as very useful in combating anxiety, but for many people it neglects their emotional difficulties which underly their anxiety, or the causes of the anxiety, it just simply brainwashes the mind with positive reinforcements. I think most people would greatly benefit by having emotional work available as well as the brainwashing.
> 
> I recall an example from years ago with a woman who had a terrible fear of cats and she had been going to cbt for short periods, an hour a week for 6 weeks or something, with a gap of a few months, and then, still deeply troubled, going back for more cbt, and this went on for years. One day a friend who had started therapy with a deep feeling therapist mentioned to her how good it was, how much better she felt in herself after a few sessions of deep emotional work. The woman decided to give it a try, although she still kept contact with her cbt therapist. After a few months of dft she became aware that her fear of cats was linked to abuse issues from her distant past which she had forgotten about, and once she had been able to re-experience the feelings arising in that abuse, her fear of cats became very weak and eventually disappeared.
> 
> ...


i strongly disagree with wot you are saying. fear is an emotion. emotions do not come from thin air. emotions are the EFFECT. if emotions are the effect then there must be a cause. what is the casue ? thoughts are the CAUSE.

thoughts create emotions therefore thoughts create sa cos sa is fear , an emotion.

there are other causes of emotion other than thoughts e.g drugs, food , music etc.... - all these things can change emotions but in most cases your emotions are run by your thoughts.

to answer you question ''were do negative thoughts come from then ?'' - negative thoughts come from unconcious beleifs. consider this :

when you are a baby if you crawled to the egde of a cliff you would not experience fear ? why ? because you have no past experience of that event. you do not know what this event means therefore u are not afraid of it and you will simply crawl off the edge unaware of the consequences.

now if the parent spots the baby at the edge of the cliff the parent will grab the baby and say '' o be careful , this is dangerous etcc...''. from that exoperience the babies mind now knows what this event means and it will create beleifs for it. in the future when that baby comes to the egde of a cliff its mind will automatically activated the old memorie and the baby will be left with the thoughts of '' this is dangerous etc...'' in its mind will will create the emotion of fear or caution.

if thoughts do not create emotion then what does ? is emotion just some ramdom occurance that u have no control over ? if so then that makes us humans extreemly limited individuals indeed


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## yakubu (Nov 4, 2008)

guitarguy said:


> I went to see my therapist yesterday and she reccommended a book called feeling good, something about CBT. Is this therapy something that I can do at home, if so where are some sources for more information? Do anybody have any suggestions for other therapy?
> 
> Off the topic, I just started clonazepam 1 mg twice a day, I found it helped relax me, wondering if a higher dose is possible, if so how high a dose? thanks for any help


try reading overcoming social anxiety and shyness by gillian butler


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