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I have undergone CBT with 5 therapists and so I am quite experienced with it. Every time I have been left completely and utterly disappointed. One of the unfor

I have undergone CBT with 5 therapists and so I am quite experienced with it. Every time I have been left completely and utterly disappointed. One of the unfortunate problems I faced with psychotherapy was the convenient shift of outcome being dependent on the quality of care given by the therapist to the mental fortitude of the patient following through on their exercises. In every case it was my fault that I wasn't progressing, and I found this to be extremely frustrating. It would go something like "Did your CBT methods help you not have a panic attack?", "No they didn't work and I threw up and collapsed in a Starbucks bathroom". "Oh well just practice more and identify those bad thoughts better and earlier and do some more breathing exercises and it will work out fine!" My very last encounter with psychotherapy is when I went to a doctor and explained that CBT doesn't work for me and that I was looking for someone else who practiced other methods, and yet again they claimed that I needed more practice and that I probably had not mastered CBT. Although we don't practice lobotomies anymore, if you have severe issues mental health treatment is still in the stone age.

SteveCoast 8y ago
Try EMDR? I met an EMDR person once who I think roughly accurately describes CBT as how to deal with issues, and EMDR solves them so you don't have to deal with them in the first place. Worth a try.
- ParanoidShroom 8y ago
  I tried this, ended up with no results and down a few hundred euros. It might work, depending on the person and the person teaching/applying it. Not for me though.
shakna 8y ago
It's sad the CBT is pushed to the forefront by regulation and funding, but there are certain conditions where we know it may not help, and beyond that may be harmful. I know for GAD, SPD and similar illnesses where anxiety is a core component, that a combination of methods, where at least one is DBT, is one of the recommendations. However, there are fewer practitioners for it.
raverbashing 8y ago
CBT in a nutshell: "our theory works on paper, it's your problem if it doesn't work for you"
- tim333 8y ago
  It more it works experimentally in many cases eg: >CBT showed higher response rates than the comparison conditions in 7 of these reviews and only one review reported that CBT had lower response rates than comparison treatments. In general, the evidence-base of CBT is very strong. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584580/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584580/ And I guess a lot of doctors are not that up on the other therapies.
Aaargh20318 8y ago
I've undergone CBT too and it always felt like quackery to me. The point of CBT seems to be to get people to accept their shitty circumstances instead of actually fixing things. Psychology is the new religion. Instead of saying "accept your shitty life, you'll be rewarded after death" they are saying "you think you have a shitty life, but you just need to look at it differently". CBT felt like an exercise in self-deception to me. The 'bad thoughts' are a result of the shitty circumstances in life, so shouldn't we be working on those instead of trying to convince myself that shit doesn't stink ? I strongly believe that 99% of people who visit a psychiatrist could be cured by just handing them 20 million dollars. That would return a persons freedom and remove a huge amount of stress-factors.
- gonnadoit05 8y ago
  lol, I’ve been on Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Depakote, Lamictal, and Topomax. I’ve obviously been through the system. You sir summarized CBT perfectly. This entire industry needs to shelved and rebuilt from scratch. I feel better knowing someone else experienced the same frustrations with the Mental Health Industry as I have.
- ryanwaggoner 8y ago
  Given how miserable lottery winners are, or how many wealthy people are in therapy, it doesn’t seem like cash solves people’s mental health problems. If anything, it can exacerbate them.
- jdietrich 8y ago
  You may enjoy the work of R.D. Laing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._D._Laing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._D._Laing
- jm__87 8y ago
  CBT felt like an exercise in self-deception to me. And what makes you think your current perception of the world is completely perfect and unbiased? Perhaps the problem is that you are convinced that you have the most accurate picture of the world and aren't questioning it.
Jonovono 8y ago
What (if anything) have you found works for you?

SteveCoast 8y ago

Try EMDR? I met an EMDR person once who I think roughly accurately describes CBT as how to deal with issues, and EMDR solves them so you don't have to deal with them in the first place. Worth a try.

ParanoidShroom 8y ago
I tried this, ended up with no results and down a few hundred euros. It might work, depending on the person and the person teaching/applying it. Not for me though.

shakna 8y ago

It's sad the CBT is pushed to the forefront by regulation and funding, but there are certain conditions where we know it may not help, and beyond that may be harmful. I know for GAD, SPD and similar illnesses where anxiety is a core component, that a combination of methods, where at least one is DBT, is one of the recommendations. However, there are fewer practitioners for it.

raverbashing 8y ago

CBT in a nutshell: "our theory works on paper, it's your problem if it doesn't work for you"

tim333 8y ago
It more it works experimentally in many cases eg: >CBT showed higher response rates than the comparison conditions in 7 of these reviews and only one review reported that CBT had lower response rates than comparison treatments. In general, the evidence-base of CBT is very strong. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584580/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3584580/ And I guess a lot of doctors are not that up on the other therapies.

Aaargh20318 8y ago

I've undergone CBT too and it always felt like quackery to me. The point of CBT seems to be to get people to accept their shitty circumstances instead of actually fixing things. Psychology is the new religion. Instead of saying "accept your shitty life, you'll be rewarded after death" they are saying "you think you have a shitty life, but you just need to look at it differently". CBT felt like an exercise in self-deception to me. The 'bad thoughts' are a result of the shitty circumstances in life, so shouldn't we be working on those instead of trying to convince myself that shit doesn't stink ? I strongly believe that 99% of people who visit a psychiatrist could be cured by just handing them 20 million dollars. That would return a persons freedom and remove a huge amount of stress-factors.

gonnadoit05 8y ago
lol, I’ve been on Paxil, Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Depakote, Lamictal, and Topomax. I’ve obviously been through the system. You sir summarized CBT perfectly. This entire industry needs to shelved and rebuilt from scratch. I feel better knowing someone else experienced the same frustrations with the Mental Health Industry as I have.
ryanwaggoner 8y ago
Given how miserable lottery winners are, or how many wealthy people are in therapy, it doesn’t seem like cash solves people’s mental health problems. If anything, it can exacerbate them.
jdietrich 8y ago
You may enjoy the work of R.D. Laing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._D._Laing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._D._Laing
jm__87 8y ago
CBT felt like an exercise in self-deception to me. And what makes you think your current perception of the world is completely perfect and unbiased? Perhaps the problem is that you are convinced that you have the most accurate picture of the world and aren't questioning it.

Jonovono 8y ago

What (if anything) have you found works for you?