CBT experiences?

I'm interested in hearing about people's experiences with CBT. I met with my p-doc on Wednesday and he recommended it for me. I'm a bit skeptical since many of my triggers (like my job) can't really be changed all that easily.

-Am I sitting in a chair listening to someone lecture me?
-Do I put on headphones and listen to biofeedback or some gentle soul reading Dr. Seuss?
-Or is this a simple discussion?

I'm concerned I'll immediately be confrontational. I don't have any experience with this sort of stuff.

My BP is sort of mild in nature and I realize I am lucky. I'm not manic but hypomanic and mildly depressive in quick cycles. I don't present as a classic case but have a lot of markers like paranoia, anger, racing thoughts, and a need to run to the hills and live off the land. I'm only impulsive with my mouth.

While meeting with him, he changed course a bit and threw in a Cluster B Personality Disorder diagnosis along with BP. He's not giving up on BP yet but maybe I just end up with a PD diagnosis. Who knows? As I've said many times before, I sort of roll with it. Finding an "answer" is less important to me than fixing what ills ya. I like my p-doc - he's kind, he's a hoot, and he's sharp. The first thing I thought was "oh great, now I have to post on TWO Psych Central boards instead of just one".

Any thoughts on CBT would be appreciated.

It's Friday......don't you forget it. Rock on.

CBT is about challenging your automatic cognitive thoughts it doesn't change them right away and you need to keep up the work for awhile. In my experience it works best in a closed group setting where you can call on each other( in a nice non aggressive way) and say things like aren't you using all or nothing thinking right now? It helps to get feedback from others having the same problem and helps you recognize the thought distortions easier.

CBT didn't gel with me. I didn't get much out of it. A lot of the core principles it works off of just seemed wrong to me. Nonetheless I think I did end up accidentally picking up some coping tools which is good.

As far as how it goes at the appointment it was mainly just conversation a couple of worksheets/handouts and a couple of relaxation techniques.

I use cbt every single day and have done for a decade. I believe everyone with a mental illness should do it first before being diagnosed and medicated

CBT and DBT both helped / help me ... When I remember to use them

I learned this years ago for my OCD, and it saved my life. I have not applied this to the BP yet, not quite sure? You think I should know, but I only know for my OCD.

Right! I forget all sorts of stuff since my mind races a lot, especially during hypomania (like now.....when I should be sleeping). I have trouble remembering to meditate. People who know about me will hassle me and say I'm making excuses.

I think it would help with both?

CBT changed my life greatly for the better. For 60yrs I carried terrible guilt and regret for the opportunities I missed, opportunities I had but failed at, money spent, relationships destroyed...you know the drill. I had a therapist that taught me how to dissolve all that like putting a sugar cube under running water.

Its all about cutting through the destructive nonsense flying around in your brain...finding out what you want to do...and doing it. All these terrible feelings I carried were crippling me...like I was stuck in quicksand. During one of our sessions she told me, when that blackbird lands on your shoulder...knock the bastard off. Nah...that's too simple, isn't it? Isn't recovering from something supposed to be a grandiose and complicated drawn-out affair?

No...it doesn't have to be to work. The simpler the better. I was amazed at how quickly I trained my brain to -zap- those negative thoughts out of my mind the mili-second they appeared. I was finally free!

Get all the therapy you can stand. You can't win the Lotto if you don't play. They may sit there droning on and on session after session...but one day lightning will strike when they say something that fits with your situation.

Wow, great post. Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. I have a lot of blackbirds in my life right now. I suppose I handle them well enough most of the time but sometimes I don't manage them appropriately. And it is always the "sometimes" that gets me in trouble or brings me down.

I saw on the national news last night that some sociopath is running around in Loveland. PLEASE stay safe. Cripes what next?

for me "feelings will not kill you"... forgot the rest, damn memory

Yeah, its weird to see little 'ol Loveland on the Nightly News...but NoCO has grown so so much I suppose odds are violent people will be coming in with the good ones. I used to work in a alternator/generator shop in the 70's diagonally across the street from where the last victim was found.

Through the decades I always shooed the blackbirds away semi-successfully, but after hospital and treatment I was hearing what they had to say and seeing the little beady-eyed bastards clearly for the first time...and I was paralyzed with shame over how I had lived my life. It was fun at first to fantasize about blasting them with a 12ga when they came to roost!