[musinglizzy]

I had a phone consult with a new/second T tonight. First session with her next week. She is CBT and DBT oriented. My T now I think is more psychodynamic. I need to learn about these methods...I would love thoughts on those who prefer CBT/DBT. I know little about them yet. I have improved some things in therapy, but my way of thinking, not so much.

I'm going to try this new one and maybe see both of them for awhile.

Thanks for any input!

[divine1966]

I don't know much about it myself but my BF did years of CBT and he believes he pretty much owes his life to CBT the way it helped him. He doesn't do or need it anymore but he still relies on things he learned.

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Personally, it is the skills I learned through the behavior modalities that have had the most lasting, day-to-day positive effect in my life. It's one thing to deal with history and emotions related to such, but to effect lasting attitudinal change was honestly the harder work. It required a complete "rewiring" of my habits of thought that were so negative and so submissive and so lacking in confidence and self-respect. That kind of change was, for me, the MUCH harder work in actuality and when it finally sank in (I have NO idea why it is considered "short-term" therapy -- makes NO sense to me) my life truly turned around.

[ChipperMonkey]

OMG I LOVE CBT!

Yeah, I do indeed run around telling people this....well, almost. My neurologist even recommends it for pain managment! He actually told me that I'm the first patient he's had who has been open to therapy type treatments for pain. Well, in a drug seeking world, I'm not surprised.....geezus, drug testing is a requirement for seeing him! Altho I am one of those people who has refused drugs for pain treatment. Anyway, back on topic...

CBT is pretty awesome, yes. CBT for dummies is pretty awesome, too. I highly recommend it! Its printed in the UK so its technically "Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Dummies". There is a workbook and a journal, too, I think. Great stuff.

CBT will teach you skills on how to change your "defective" thinking. For example, mind reading, catastrophizing, and so on.

CBT vs. psychotherapy.....CBT makes lasting changes in your life, whereas in my personal experience, psychotherapy usually ends up being a weekly vent/bytch session where things don't really change. This is what I see.....CBT teaches you the actual skills to change your thinking and you can apply one skill to a wide variety of situations. Psychotherapy deals with one situation at a time, so you may be able to fix that exact situation, but you don't necessarily learn the underlying principles which would let you make broad changes to your life. I honestly think that if you learn actual skills in therapy, your need for therapy ends a lot quicker.

DBT....well, DBT just made me worse. I hated it SO much. All those d@mn acronyms drove me nuts.....I honestly think its because they stood for nothing and didn't relate to the actual skill set that they represented. I don't want to have to go through life remembering random acronyms! Yes, DBT is a subset of CBT but I think that they're a bit different.....If you're very feeling based, then maybe DBT would be great for you....but for me, I need something more rational and that's why CBT works well for me.

My first CBT therapy was just like going to class. My therapist had a white board where she'd illustrate skills to me during every session. I liked that I was learning skills to change my life instead of simply being asked to talk about my anxiety and why I never left my apartment (aside from therapy, class and to buy food....I lived alone.)

I say give it a chance. You may find that it isn't for you, but it may turn out to be a life changer.

[NowhereUSA]

My T is a DBT T and I'm a fan of DBT myself.

There are a lot of things I like about DBT but I'll try to narrow down to just a few:

1. There's a very straightforward philosophy of "I may not have made the mess, but I have to clean it up." That's not to say that our histories aren't important. They are and at the same time (the dialectic, if you will) is that I live in the present. I like the forward thinking approach that both validates what I've experienced while helping me not be stuck in my past.

2. The skills. The skills! The skills So often in my life I would watch healthy people interact with their world in a way that I couldn't fathom. I've learned to tolerate distress much better and to cope in ways that are both effective and healthy. I didn't know how to do that when I walked in to my T's office. I was a mess who had been coping with my intense depression for almost 15 years in shame and silence. I didn't know how to cope or validate my own emotions. I felt like a freak. My DBT T was instrumental in helping me reframe my interpretation of what I was experiencing - I wasn't a freak. I was someone enduring a mental illness without proper support and so *of course* I was going to have unhealthy coping mechanisms. That didn't mean I needed to be ashamed.

3. DBT is so much about journey. I had some very unhealthy coping mechanisms. My T, a very skilled T, operated with priorities. Keep me safe by building scaffolding around me. It pained him to see what I did to myself and yet he didn't issue ultimatums. He checked in, made sure I wasn't in imminent danger, he sat my husband down and explained what my behaviors meant, and then he methodically helped me focus on skills. As time wore on, as I practiced the skills (and yes, it took time and they weren't easy to start off), I found I needed those unhealthy coping skills less and less. His non-judgmental attitude made me feel safe to talk about urges and lessened their intensity.

Over all I like that it's evidence based. I like that it's practical. I like that I've now got a tool box filled with tools that I didn't have before. It didn't cure my depression, medication did that. But what it's done is give me my best shot at building a life worth living.

*waves pompoms* haha. I <3 you Marsha Linehan!

[PinkFlamingo99]

In theory the hospital where I do therapy now is "CBT-based," and my therapist encorporates stuff from DBT because of my self-harm. But it's not as CBT-heavy as I thought. We talk a lot about what's happening in my life and she helps me figure things out and how to handle them. We talk about why I'm depressed, scared, etc. what people might say about my scars, stuff like that. So CBT-based isn't necessarily just emotion mapping and stuff. The one thing that is true is that these therapists don't seem to delve much into the past.

[musinglizzy]

VERY helpful opinions, thank you!!

My biggest issue, I think, is my negative thinking. My past is my past. I've talked about it, and have tried to move on.... but the negative thoughts are what consume me. Maybe CBT might be good for me. I had a good feeling about this phone consult.... so we'll see what happens.