# Does anybody else find CBT usless?



## cblack (Jul 15, 2010)

Some people may disagree, but i guess its on how you deal with things. But iv been through CBT three times will three different therapists, and nothing has helped.
They ask me to try and do certain things that are absolutly NOT going to help, and in the end dont help at all (although they insist that there are 'slight' improvments.)
Does anybody else feel like this? If so, what do you do to help instead?


----------



## GatorNic (Dec 15, 2010)

I have been finding CBT to be very useful... but I think I may just be lucky that my therapist has really grasped my personality and seems to know what will help me and what won't. So far.. every situation she's exposed me to has really opened my eyes to the fact that most situations are nowhere near as bad as I imagine them. I've begun to see major improvement already (2.5 months into CBT)


----------



## percyblueraincoat (Jun 2, 2009)

cblack said:


> Some people may disagree, but i guess its on how you deal with things. But iv been through CBT three times will three different therapists, and nothing has helped.
> They ask me to try and do certain things that are absolutly NOT going to help, and in the end dont help at all (although they insist that there are 'slight' improvments.)
> Does anybody else feel like this? If so, what do you do to help instead?


I am not CBT's biggest fan. But it certainly has a merit to it and has been shown to be an effective treatment.

But look at your language here: "they asked me to try and do certain things..."

THEY asked me to TRY and do certain things.

Did you want to do those things they asked you to do or not?

And did they ask you to try to do them or did they ask you to DO them?

You don't sound very motivated with this healing process and it may be time to look for alternatives that work better for you.


----------



## JimmyDeansRetartedCousin (Nov 28, 2009)

I found it definitely helped, I did about six months and constructively broke down and reconstructed most of my SA type thoughts.

It's a lot of paperwork and practice for sure, but like most things in life you get out what you put in.

Not discrediting what you've done but just giving my two cents.


----------



## wxolue (Nov 26, 2008)

One important facet of CBT is correcting negative thoughts.

"They ask me to try and do certain things that are absolutly NOT going to help"

Did you determine this before you even did them? Did you have any evidence they weren't going to help?

"and in the end dont help at all" Did they really not help AT ALL? Was there any progress made at all (not major progress, just some)?

In fact, this whole post is one big negative thought.

What I see here are two statements. Both of them seem to have a small chance of being correct, and a large chance of being incorrect. Regardless, the goal of CBT is to stop negative thoughts like these. Your goal should not be in finding truth necessarily, because you know that your subjective perceptions are negatively skewed. Your goal should be to enable yourself to observe a situation from a positive point of view.

The fact that you didn't catch yourself on any of these points tells me you don't understand CBT as well as you think you do, and/or you don't have control over your negative thoughts. At any rate, you really haven't disproved CBT at all. I would go so far as to say that the fact that CBT is producing poor results for you in tandem with your unfounded negative perception of CBT only proves the soundness of the theories behind CBT.

I will ceed that CBT is quite difficult. The exposures were too much for me the first round, but I am compelled to continue working on the cognitive therapy, and find another therapist/group therapy to work on exposure therapy in the future. CBT may not be working for you (like it does for the minority of people who try it). However, realize that this is not because therapists are lying to you, or that CBT is a bunch of bs.


----------



## Black_Widow (May 23, 2008)

I personally didn't find it useless. I'm another here who believes it has alot of merit to it. But also think using it can cause alot of frustration if you have the wrong kind of expectations about it. (which in my view is probably the same case when it comes to any kind of therapy). For some it can work pretty quickly. But for others not so quickly - and in general it's a mistake to assume it's going to work as a quick fix solution imo. 

When I first started working with it, when relying on one self help book and advice from one therapist I fell into this trap. I really hoped that I'd start to see significant lasting changes within a few weeks after first starting work on it. (in my case this has taken months to begin achieving). I did start to make some gains but they were only small one's. And for a long while the times I didn't do well with it still outweighed the better times by far. Rather than recognising this as being a normal part of the learning process - I took it as a sign of failure. And as a result stopped regular practice with it for a while - which unfortunately only slowed down the learning process even more. However, in the end - thanks to learning some more on CBT via other self help books and doing a CBT based condition management course - I was able to get some extra perspective as to why I'd not been making the progress I'd hoped to and learn from that. As a result I'm now doing quite a bit better with it than I was. In my case, I definitely think that's because using the combination of various self help book info - as well as mental health professional advice - was more helpful than I think I would have done if I'd just solely relied on my previous therapist's word. Although of course that's just my experience. Sorry to hear that so far you're feeling it's not worked out too well for you.

Unfortunately the only alternative I've tried to CBT is medication. Tried 3 different types and they didn't work out for me. Though medication does help many people. You might find it's worth looking into, or having a word with your GP/doing some research in regards to different therapies to get an idea as to whether or not a different one is more likely to work for you. Sorry I couldn't be any more specific than that!


----------



## canusaylonely (Nov 14, 2010)

I found CBT useful to a point. It only took me so far though.


----------



## GatorNic (Dec 15, 2010)

wxolue said:


> One important facet of CBT is correcting negative thoughts.
> 
> "They ask me to try and do certain things that are absolutly NOT going to help"
> 
> ...


This is what I was thinking as well. I was unable to convey my thoughts, but I'm glad you did such a great job of explaining it.  thanks!!


----------



## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

cblack said:


> Some people may disagree, but i guess its on how you deal with things. But iv been through CBT three times will three different therapists, and nothing has helped.
> They ask me to try and do certain things that are absolutly NOT going to help, and in the end dont help at all *(although they insist that there are 'slight' improvments.)*
> Does anybody else feel like this? If so, what do you do to help instead?


I don't think there is one single best therapy for all people. I think CBT is the best for some people and truly helps them but therapists overuse CBT because they find it easier than getting close to the clients and involved with their emotions.

Each person is different. Maybe your a person who needs someone to take what you say seriously and be listened to. I don't know, I'm just saying thats a possibility. If you thats what you need then listening to a shrink tell you your wrong about whether or not something is helping is just going to get you down.

Speaking for myself every time someone doesn't believe me it brings back the awful memories of no one believing me when I said my parents were abusing me. There is no way that any treatment that involves being disbelieved by the therapist could ever help me and I would stop going to see anyone like that. I don't know what is the best therapy for you. I think you just need to fight your way through this and find the one that works for you. Maybe its CBT, maybe its not.


----------



## DaniShimmi (Oct 19, 2010)

i have done cbt (18 sessions) and also CAT, i found both to be pretty usless, with CBT i started off working on SA then she decided that it was my self esteem that needed worked on, we also had a a series of gaps (three weeks) between sessions because my therepst had some time off and then ended up moving jobs. My new Pdoc wants me to try cbt again but I really dont want too. I just want some medication that works.


----------



## mjhea0 (Oct 1, 2009)

GatorNic said:


> I have been finding CBT to be very useful... but I think I may just be lucky that my therapist has really grasped my personality and seems to know what will help me and what won't. So far.. every situation she's exposed me to has really opened my eyes to the fact that most situations are nowhere near as bad as I imagine them. I've begun to see major improvement already (2.5 months into CBT)


I've been doing CBT on my own for about 2.5 months as well. It's been great. Nearly every single situation is not as bad as I expected them to be--it's all in my head. I think the day I realized that my anticipatory anxiety is always much worse than the actual event, things started to change for me.

That said, I don't think CBT is for everyone. If you've given it a good try and stuck with it and did all the exercises, etc., you may want to try something else.


----------



## senrab (Apr 23, 2006)

My therapist is heavily psychodynamic. However, if I am having trouble coping with a situation, I will ask her for advice on how to deal with it and that's where the CBT comes in a little bit. Oddly, this therapist is the one who has helped me the most, and the one who I've been with the longest. I really believe in the power of the unconscious (which is what psychodynamic therapy focuses on); it's what influences everything in our lives. Also events from your childhood—no matter how insignificant they may seem to you—are very powerful, as well. To sum it up, I see CBT as situational, "in the moment", whereas psychodynamic is a deeply complex exploration of you as a person.

For example, I have come to realize over the past few months (I have a thread in the "Triumphs" section) that growing up with an alcoholic parent and the fact that I'm adopted play a VERY big role in my discomfort around people. I always wanted to downplay it because I just wanted to focus on all the good that came out of it, and there was a lot. But I really need to take another hard look at this stuff. CBT may not explore this as much as psychodynamic would.


----------



## marielabete (Dec 14, 2010)

I think CBT will only work in how much you're willing to participate in the process. Your therapist doesn't know what's going inside your head, and s/he definitely hasn't lived a minute of your life, so a bulk of the work will be yours. The therapist is there to help you and guide you in the right direction. And she can't guide you, if you don't trust him or her at all. So just put as much as effort as you could or find something else that works better for you.


----------



## nervousman (Jun 9, 2010)

CBT helped very very little. It did nothing to help my one on one problems. Didn't help me relax with eye contact. etc.


----------



## bht96 (Dec 25, 2008)

One can only show you the door. You are going to have to be the one to walk through it.


----------



## Erasure (Dec 27, 2009)

CBT helps. It didn't cure me, but it made my life a hell of a lot easier. You might not see instant improvements, but if you stick with it, questioning negative thoughts will eventually become second nature.


----------



## I hate my dad (Dec 26, 2010)

I agree cbt needs to do more to help!


----------



## BuzzAldrin (Jun 20, 2010)

I found CBT quite useful actually. 
It didn't change me as much as I'd have liked. It just highlighted all of the avoidance behaviours that kept my anxiety going. I've stopped doing most of them and I am less anxious. The thought challenging thing really helped too. 
BUT my therapist had me go out and knock things off of the shelves in shops, that really didnt help at all. He also made me walk down the street with him while he sang out loud. :lol I don't remember what the point in doing that was.. but it was pretty funny. 

CBT just takes a while to make a noticeable difference.


----------



## james25 (Jan 1, 2010)

I've never had it, but I've applied what I understand to be the basic principle and found it useful. I.e., I catch myself thinking something negative, consciously stop it, and think about something else and feel better. Seems like it could be helpful to talk things over with a real person.


----------



## Mr. SandMan (Aug 24, 2007)

CBT helped me.


----------

