# did therapy help you?



## JoshC (Oct 18, 2009)

i went to 2 different people, i never felt like either of them really understood where i was coming from when i would describe how i felt, and they would give me little worksheets on how to relax and breathe and stuff. never felt like i found a therapist that understood and could actually help. any better experiences? lol


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## cyndy (Jul 28, 2009)

this has been my experience with the 2 therapists i've had. it's just a job to them i guess and they don't care as much as we expect them to. maybe we just need to find way better therapists.lol


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## brainfog (Mar 1, 2005)

I have had CBT on a one to one basis with a psychologist but that didn't do the trick. Then I had CBT group therapy which was suppose to go for 10 weeks but I walked out halfway through the first session because I got very panicky sitting in the same small room as 10 other people. I couldn't handle it when they asked questions and they would go around the room and everyone had to answer, it was terrifying, i was shaking and sweating and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.


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## 2Talkative (Nov 1, 2007)

brainfog said:


> I have had CBT on a one to one basis with a psychologist but that didn't do the trick. Then I had CBT group therapy which was suppose to go for 10 weeks but I walked out halfway through the first session because I got very panicky sitting in the same small room as 10 other people. I couldn't handle it when they asked questions and they would go around the room and everyone had to answer, it was terrifying, i was shaking and sweating and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.


This is why I don't see how group therapy works...... put us in a room with a **** load of strangers then make us answer questions in front of them all :no


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## Phibes (Mar 8, 2009)

brainfog said:


> I have had CBT on a one to one basis with a psychologist but that didn't do the trick. Then I had CBT group therapy which was suppose to go for 10 weeks but I walked out halfway through the first session because I got very panicky sitting in the same small room as 10 other people. I couldn't handle it when they asked questions and they would go around the room and everyone had to answer, it was terrifying, i was shaking and sweating and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.


What a death trap.


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

my therapists have been awesome


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## Alys (Oct 29, 2009)

i've only gone a couple times, but i feel like it's helped me.


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## spacebound_rocketship (Nov 21, 2009)

It made mine worse "/


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## rachelynn (Sep 12, 2008)

I've seen 5 different therapists over the past 2 years. None of them were that helpful to me. :no I quit now.


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## veron (Apr 29, 2009)

I went to only one session and my assumptions were right - therapy didn't help. I don't need someone to ask me questions and rephrase my answers; I need someone to provide me with a solution. And I don't think therapists can really do that.


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## Lisa (Jul 8, 2006)

It has been helpful in some respects and made me much worse in others. MUCH worse.


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## stars (Nov 20, 2009)

I've only tried it once and it didn't help. At all. I'm doing better myself. But for someone who doesn't have any support, it may help. I had my family and they are super supportive so i didn't need that. I needed some extra help which i didn't get. It's all about exposure anyway.


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## solitarian (Nov 14, 2009)

I was in therapy for eight months and I felt worse after those eight months than before I started. Maybe I didn't have enough willpower to make it work, or maybe my therapist wasn't any good. I don't know, but I really don't want to try therapy again.

Therapy made my anxiety worse because I had to face all of the situations that cause my anxiety. Up to that point, I managed to keep my anxiety under control by simply avoiding the situations that caused it. I know this is the wrong thing to do, but this strategy allowed me to keep my anxiety down to a modest level. My therapist made me do homework assignments that resurrected all these terrible feelings of fear and dread that I had suppressed for so long. I remember going to a social event with the assignment of initiating a five minute conversation with someone. I ended up not talking to anyone, leaving early, and feeling absolutely horrible about myself afterward.

I know that the only way to overcome this disorder is to face my fears and overcome them. It just seems impossible to me. CBT supposedly helps us think differently--more rationally--about situations so that we respond and behave in better ways. I already know how irrational my behavior is. I can tell myself all I want how irrational my social anxiety is, but that does not change the way I feel when entering those situations. These feelings come from my subconscience, and it takes a long time to change subconscious feelings.


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## kc1895 (Sep 4, 2009)

solitarian said:


> I was in therapy for eight months and I felt worse after those eight months than before I started. Maybe I didn't have enough willpower to make it work, or maybe my therapist wasn't any good. I don't know, but I really don't want to try therapy again.
> 
> Therapy made my anxiety worse because I had to face all of the situations that cause my anxiety. Up to that point, I managed to keep my anxiety under control by simply avoiding the situations that caused it. I know this is the wrong thing to do, but this strategy allowed me to keep my anxiety down to a modest level. My therapist made me do homework assignments that resurrected all these terrible feelings of fear and dread that I had suppressed for so long. I remember going to a social event with the assignment of initiating a five minute conversation with someone. I ended up not talking to anyone, leaving early, and feeling absolutely horrible about myself afterward.
> 
> I know that the only way to overcome this disorder is to face my fears and overcome them. It just seems impossible to me. CBT supposedly helps us think differently--more rationally--about situations so that we respond and behave in better ways. I already know how irrational my behavior is. I can tell myself all I want how irrational my social anxiety is, but that does not change the way I feel when entering those situations. These feelings come from my subconscience, and it takes a long time to change subconscious feelings.


Thats what I don't like about CBT as treatment for SA. I'm conscious of how irrational my thoughts are when entering a anxiety-provoking situation, but it still doesn't help the fact that I feel fearful or if I have some underlying issues that I haven't acknowledged.

Most of the time, I don't even have automatic thoughts when entering a social situation. I just feel afraid for no reason. Thats why I think psychodynamic therapy can be more helpful in bringing unconscious thoughts to the surface, and for the long term treatment of SA.


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

Not really. I helped myself...and my religion.


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## sky is falling (Oct 31, 2009)

Therapist didn't help me either, went for 2 months or so and I promise the guy had to just be beating his time in because he asked me the same questions for the first month. Then we started on the CBT and I realized he wasn't going to help me any and the money I was spending on him wasn't coming easy. I came away knowing that I do in fact have SA :um and how to breathe the correct way when I feel anxious..:roll

I wanted to take medication for the SA but he advised me that it could effect my career. I'm becoming a helicopter pilot for emergency response and he said that the company hiring me would look down on me taking medicine so I'm stuck dealing with it the best I can, which is avoid everything but class.


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## Reminiscence (Nov 1, 2009)

kc1895 said:


> Thats what I don't like about CBT as treatment for SA. I'm conscious of how irrational my thoughts are when entering a anxiety-provoking situation, but it still doesn't help the fact that I feel fearful or if I have some underlying issues that I haven't acknowledged.


Same here.

My current psychologist/counselor is an intern (since a certain amount of counseling is included in our tuition fees) and he just seems to be reiterating what I'm going through. He's a very generous/nice fellow, but I don't feel as though it's helping anything. I know _what_/why I think the way I do, just not how to alter it in the long run. The good thing is that I was able to acquire a referral for a psychiatrist (have to have a referral in order to see an on campus psychiatrist) in order to possibly try medicine and have a more solid form of therapy to help in the long run.



sky is falling said:


> Therapist didn't help me either, went for 2 months or so and I promise the guy had to just be beating his time in because he asked me the same questions for the first month. Then we started on the CBT and I realized he wasn't going to help me. I came away knowing that I do in fact have SA :um and how to breathe the correct way when I feel anxious..:roll


I feel the same way! I've been seeing my therapist since early September.

The breathing ordeal just feels like something to add to my anxiety because I have to focus on getting that down right with the worry of others noticing it :bash

It just sucks because I want the CBT to work and applying it daily, but...:no.


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## Iwannagohome (Sep 20, 2009)

JoshC said:


> i went to 2 different people, i never felt like either of them really understood where i was coming from when i would describe how i felt, and they would give me little worksheets on how to relax and breathe and stuff. never felt like i found a therapist that understood and could actually help. any better experiences? lol


I've also seen two...the first one had to look up in a book what social anxiety was...I figured that was a bad sign. ;p The other one is okay, but I don't really feel like I get a whole lot out of it. He seems to focus on a lot of things that are not high priority issues to me, rather than focusing on my social anxiety.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Once I found out I had SA, it helped - that was with my second doctor. My first doctor know I was anxious, but it was never completely pinpointed to SA at the time.


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