[seeker33]

So, after my negative experience with cbt and although I hate that concept for deeper issues, I've suggested my T that we try it tomorrow.

I would never use this "judgemental" technique for trauma or anything deeply personal and painful. But tomorrow I want to discuss my fear of everything that reminds me of new age. I get upset when I see someone wearing crystals or when I see inspirational quotes, or when I accidentally see a picture of Buddha in the magazine. It reminds me of my new age period when I felt demons at night and they scared me. Recently my fear of everything New Age has gotten worse and I thought just in this one case, CBT could maybe work.

[SlumberKitty]

I hope it works for you and that you have a good outcome. Kit.

I hope it works for you, seeker

It didn't work for me but to be fair my brain is a turd

[seeker33]

Thank you! It's complicated with me. I'm hypersensitive and too rational at the same time. So most things either trigger me emotionally or they seem too stupid and simplistic. My T has a difficult job!
I'll let you know how it goes.

And if anyone has any idea how to get rid of this fear and compulsive thoughts about religion, please let me know if there are some other techniques I could try. This stuff has really got ridiculous.

[MRT6211]

I’ve had good and bad experiences with CBT with different therapists, but overall very good experiences and it is what ultimately led me to get as far in my recovery as I have (as well as DBT, a specific subset of CBT). It really did change my life, but only once I was able to accept the skills, be willing and not willful, and understand what the skills are for/how to use CBT.
CBT/DBT are useful when you realize the skills are not there to fix your problems, they are there to help you get through your very difficult moments of distress, and not necessarily make you feel better, but keep you from doing anything unhealthy in that moment/engaging in your target behaviors/further decompensating. That doesn’t mean you avoid those issues, you just work on those in the therapy room (if your CBT T is good), and tackle things as they come up, rather than pulling up everything from childhood, you just deal with what’s relevant at the time, process it, and move on. It’s hard to actually utilize CBT skills, sometimes, especially because you don’t always want to when you’re not in a good place, but that’s why it’s essential to practice your skills when you’re feeling healthy, so that they’re there for you and are strong when you are not feeling so strong. CBT is very solutions-focused, which can be really annoying and make it feel like T is not empathetic because they focus on the solution rather than the problem, but a good T will find a balance and validate how you’re feeling, but then work with you on how you can get past that.
I wish you the absolute best of luck with it and really hope you have some success.

[zoiecat]

I hope it works for you. Good luck. Approach it with an open mind; it can't hurt. My T always says that I should never try to reframe with any thoughts that don't seem true to me. Ask you T to help you keep coming up with reframe thoughts until something hits you at least slightly true or believable. I wish you the best.

[seeker33]

Thank you, we'll see how it goes. We agreed she would be gentle with me. I think maybe this time it could work because it's me who is asking for cbt voluntarily. Before it was more like T decided to use it without my permission or without really explaining what it means and what it's supposed to do. So I felt totally judged and like I was at school on a test and trying to say what she wanted to hear....

This time I agree that these thoughts aren't helpful and I want to get rid of them. So that's the difference.