# Therapy is useless.



## w3stfa11 (Jan 23, 2005)

a


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## ColdFury (Nov 6, 2003)

I've been doing therapy for a while now and haven't noticed any practical improvement.


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## limited (Apr 3, 2006)

what kind of therapy?


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## Nibinaear (Sep 18, 2006)

Is it counselling or psychotheraphy? I think the latter is probably much better, I'm trying counselling with cognitive therapy at the moment but I will ask to be referred up to that if I don't think it's helping me.


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## ColdFury (Nov 6, 2003)

limited said:


> what kind of therapy?


CBT for the second time


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## Noca (Jun 24, 2005)

pyschotherapy is prolly useless for SA but CBT and exposure therapy are great for SA


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## Prodigal Son (Dec 11, 2005)

Exposure therapy didn't do much for me, except help cure the avoidance behavior part. Didn't decrease my anxiety any.


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## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

I do one on one counselling, too. I definately get more accomplished outside the therapy sessions. Though, it seems lately when I'm on the verge of feeling terribly bad there is an appointment just around the corner. Whenever, I tell my mom something she's just not a good listener. I just need someone to listen to how I'm feeling. I don't want them to say anything, just listen. 

Plus, my counsellor doesn't make any goals for me since she doesn't want to set me up for failure, only success.


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## Mngirl (Jul 13, 2006)

*Group therapy*

I am starting group therapy in about a week. If you want to know how its going or have questions, PM me and ill let you know.


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

I wish I could find group therapy for SA. 32,000 students go to my school, and yet there's still not enough demand for some sort of group therapy provided by the school. My old therapist didn't recommend anything to me either :sigh 

I really don't like psychotherapy, but if it was cheap and I liked the therapist, I would go. 

I liked CBT, but it was incredibly expensive because it was someone's private practice, and the guy specialized in CBT and had a Phd. Oh, and I didn't want to have a record of therapy on my insurance because I'm paranoid...so no discount from my insurance. I couldn't get off the @#%$ing computer though, or get good "sleep hygiene" so we endlessly focused on that before getting into any real exposure situations. I'm just stupid.


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## amyval81 (Aug 18, 2006)

Sonya - can I ask what you mean by good sleep hygiene just out of curiosity? You don't have to answer if you don't want to.


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## sonya99 (Sep 5, 2005)

I sounds weird I know hehe. It just means I had a little insomnia and that I wouln't try to sleep enough, or at appropriate times, like during the night.


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## -black- (Sep 20, 2006)

What are CBT and psychotherapy?


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## andy1984 (Aug 18, 2006)

I got 8 government funded therapy sessions (I've been to 7 of them). Heres my experience of therapy so far:

Session 1: Oh my god, its a real girl! And shes talking to me! :afr
_Got info to read about anxiety (its all natural, how it works, blah)_

Session 2: Oh my god, its a real girl! And shes talking to me! :um
_Got info to read about ways to reduce anxiety (relaxation exercises)_

Session 3: Oh, its her again. 
_She gave me some goals (go for walks, buy stuff from shops). Talked about negative thinking, worst case scenarios, positive thoughts_

Session 4: Oh, its her again. :con
_More goals (talk to a shop assistant about a product). Exposure therapy (went to a cafe with her)._

Session 5: Therapy. Yay. 
_More goals (ask strangers for directions, for the time, apply for some jobs)_

Session 6: Not again. 
_More goals (join cycling club, initiate conversation, walk around campus where my SA got really bad). Conversation tips._

Session 7: Oh my god I'm bored. You have no advice left to give me. :sigh
_Regergitated stuff about positive thoughts. Yay look how far you've come. Another goal (go to a careers advisor)._

And yeah, I have made quite a bit of progress. I think that my last session was pretty much a waste of time - she spent most of the session looking in the phone book for a career advice service. There isn't really anything left for her to say, its up to me to do what I want.

I think that group therapy would be ok, it would be great to meet other SAers.


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## tuna (Jun 25, 2006)

Therapy is NOT useless. Only the ones you guys have been to. Talk therapy does not work for SA because talking about why or how we have SA does not help us to overcome it. It feels nice to talk to someone about all your SA problems and things you've probably held in for so long but just talking about it doesn't cure it. It just feels temporarily nice to have someone that listens and to get things off your chest.

Psychologists that use CBT are not created equal. Most don't know sheit about social anxiety, CBT, and how to utilize CBT to help SA patients recover. They use the term CBT because it's a popular trend in psychology right now but usually the patient knows more than they do. A great doc with a great CBT program for social anxiety will have many different techniques and methods to help you and explain why they are so important to your recovery. They will give you alot of tools to help manage your physical symptoms. They'll make sure the cognitive part of the therapy is strong enough before they attempt graduated exposure. Once you do start the exposures you'll go very slowly until the anxiety is minimal to nil before moving onto another exposure. The doc will also prep you before and after the exposure to make sure your thoughts are on the right path. Doing exposures without changing your thoughts is pointless. They will never force you, prod you to talk or make you volunteer information. Important parts of the program should include, assertiveness skills, perfectionism, self-acceptance, and self-consciousness. You should notice positive improvement in a couple of sessions.

Therapists to avoid:
-the ones that just talk and talk and talk with no structured, active plan 
-forcing you to do exposures
-not prepping you before and after exposures (VERY IMPORTANT!)
-not listening to you or making light of your problem
-not feeling comfortable at all or feeling like you're not in good hands
-ones that do not know SA and all the interweaving feelings mixed in with it


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## SilentLoner (Jan 30, 2006)

-black- said:


> What are CBT and psychotherapy?


CBT: 
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is based on the idea that how we think (cognition), how we feel (emotion) and how we act (behavior) all interact together. Specifically, our thoughts determine our feelings and our behavior. Therefore, negative thoughts can cause us distress and result in problems.

One example could be someone who, after making a mistake, thinks "I'm useless and can't do anything right." This impacts negatively on their mood and makes them feel depressed; then they worsen the problem by reacting to avoid activities. As a result, they reduce their chance of successful experience, which reinforces their original thought of being "useless." In therapy, the latter example could be identified as a self-fulfilling prophecy or "problem cycle," and the efforts of the therapist and client would be to work together to change this. This is done by addressing the way the client thinks in response to similar situations and by helping them think more flexibly, along with reducing their avoidance of activities. If, as a result, they escape the negative thought pattern, they will already feel less depressed. They may, hopefully, also then become more active, succeed more often, and further reduce their depression.

more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_ ... The_basics

Psychotherapy basically covers the range of psychological techniques (psychoanalysis, humanistic thrapy, behavioral, etc).


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

w3stfa11 said:


> An update: I skipped last week and my parents weren't too happy about that. I told them how I felt about therapy and they said I should give it another try with a different person. I said fine. Tomorrow, I'm going to call and tell them that I'd like to change therapists. I hope I don't have to explain why and I really hope I don't have to speak with my now ex-therapist about any of this. I just plain don't like him.
> 
> tuna: I think you're right about the 'therapists to avoid', especially the last point. I don't think my ex-therapist understood SA, no matter how much I tried to explain it to him.


W3stfa11,

Ask about social phobia if they do not understand what SA is. From there, my doc has helped me through a lot. I tell her what is on my mind and my interaction with other people, and she tells me stuff that I am not able to see.

Keep trying, man! :yes


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## whiteclouds (Mar 18, 2004)

I recommend this book, "Fire Your Shrink" by Michele Weiner-Davis. It's very uplifting, and focuses on solutions.


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## Sweetpea (Nov 28, 2003)

For CBT to work you have to be able to identify what makes you anxious before you do something, these thoughts are refered to as 'automatic negative thoughts'. If you have a problem coming up with these CBT will be tricky. Just feeling sheit isnt good enough lol.


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