# Cognitive therapy sucks



## humidity (Nov 24, 2011)

Trying to change how one feels by changing ones thoughts almost never works for me. There are so many gurus out there and articles and therapists that try and do this, but none of if ever worked for me.


When I get anxious and the negative thoughts start coming, I could never change them because they are very convincing and strong. Could this be because I also have crippling OCD? I can never get rid of obsessions by changing thoughts or telling myself that the thoughts are OCD and not actually mine, the obessions just reminds itself over and over and fighting it with congitive methods is futile. What I do with SA and OCD is simply suffer until it stops, distractions can be a tiny bit helpful as I wait for the obessions to go away. If I'm lucky it takes minutes, if not, hours and days and weeks and months.


Has anyone been able to get rid of their anxiety by changing their thoughts in the moment? For me, the negative thoughts just remind themselves again over and over and anxiety continues.


Is there any better way to get rid of anxiety without using thought-changing?


(I also tried doing metal exposure to worst fears by writing them out in detail and reading them over and over for days. Hasn't worked either...only a little.)


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## Bellamars47 (Feb 6, 2019)

humidity said:


> Trying to change how one feels by changing ones thoughts almost never works for me. There are so many gurus out there and articles and therapists that try and do this, but none of if ever worked for me.
> 
> When I get anxious and the negative thoughts start coming, I could never change them because they are very convincing and strong. Could this be because I also have crippling OCD? I can never get rid of obsessions by changing thoughts or telling myself that the thoughts are OCD and not actually mine, the obessions just reminds itself over and over and fighting it with congitive methods is futile. What I do with SA and OCD is simply suffer until it stops, distractions can be a tiny bit helpful as I wait for the obessions to go away. If I'm lucky it takes minutes, if not, hours and days and weeks and months.
> 
> ...


Ive been going to therapy for the past 6 months and although it hasn't gotten rid of my SA or depression, it truly has helped a lot. My therapist sits down and shows me different techniques on how to deal with problems i present to her. Do you currently see a therapist? and if you do how do you guys go about with your problems?


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## Cool Ice Dude55 (Jan 7, 2014)

cbt does sound sucky


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## DogOnaChair (Feb 11, 2019)

If its just different techniques to learn on how to cope with your problems, then does CBT eventually become not as worthwhile? I guess you would have to go through all of your problems first to know what works, but recently it just feels empty for me to go when I repeat the same problems from the last session.


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## Whatswhat (Jan 28, 2018)

Unfortunately I have no answer. 9 months of therapy did not significantly decrease my SA.


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## SplendidBob (May 28, 2014)

humidity said:


> Could this be because I also have crippling OCD?


Yes. It's totally ineffective on OCD in my experience.



humidity said:


> I can never get rid of obsessions by changing thoughts or telling myself that the thoughts are OCD and not actually mine, the obessions just reminds itself over and over and fighting it with congitive methods is futile. What I do with SA and OCD is simply suffer until it stops, distractions can be a tiny bit helpful as I wait for the obessions to go away. If I'm lucky it takes minutes, if not, hours and days and weeks and months.


In my experience, this is the best you can hope for. In my own case, when my OCD flares, I just accept I am going to be suffering for a few days (it takes 3-4 for me usually until it burns itself out). Actively trying _anything_ to get rid of it just fuels it, indeed doing things like thought challenging is in fact performing compulsions (trying to solve and fix it = compulsion). Acceptance, distraction, not making it worse are the only things we really have, in my experience. Minimising how ****ed up it makes us is the only course of action.


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