Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
The media, the medical profession and everyone who has every heard of CBT tout it as a panacea, the one thing that will sort your life out, uplift your very being into functional happiness, cure teh Bad AIDS, and, as those wise Atomic Kitten birds say, make you whole again.

I waited 8 months for an assessment and a further 9 months for my first appointment on the NHS for CBT, with my psychiatrist waxing lyrical about it during the whole 17 month wait. I turned up at the hospital trembling with hope and anticipation and the promise of a more lovely me.

Here's the upshot:
1) lessons in how to breathe (slowly);
2) rate your moods and assign them percentages.

Motherfucking cunts! A bigger pile of snake oil peddling I've never seen.

That's 15 weeks of my life that made no fucking difference to my life.

Usual disclaimer about how it might work for some people, but it didn't for me, so that is indeed my disappointment.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:20, 28 replies)

I was offered this some time ago
My gp never even bothered to send off the referral - one way of keeping down the waiting lists I suppose....

I ended up writing a novella about a woman who loses it entirely and then kills someone.

It became my Mr Hyde...certainly helped me but I can't yet bring myself to read some of the more raw passages because she's barking.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:24, closed)

...
"Hello, doctor. I've got some odd brain chemistry. I was wondering if you might be able to give me some chemicals to rectify matters."
"Ah. Well. It doesn't work quite like that. Tell you what, though: you could do some counting. That'll work wonders for an essentially biological problem."
"You don't even believe yourself, do you?"
"Er, no. Sorry."


I believe that that's how it goes, isn't it?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:25, closed)

CBT
Yep, that's about the size of it...

I can have it too, but according to my GP I have to pay for it privately.

Thank fuck I said no.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:27, closed)

Just don't even get me started on this
Fucking bullshit.

You think CBT is bad, imagine what the "under-18" version was like.
*fumes*
( Cawl, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:30, closed)

@ all of the above
Exactly. Plus my counsellor, although an intelligent clinical psychologist, was so far removed from my view on life that we spent most of our time debating/arguing issues that had feck all to do with those 'coping mechanisms'.

Me: I have a problem with intimacy.
Her: that's because women should be nurturing but you're too busy trying to do masculine things.
Me: *makes angry retard face and gets rather furious and tries to start a debate on gender stereotyping*
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:33, closed)

^^
Sounds more like Cock and Bull Tale.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:40, closed)

Luckily I managed to escape this one.
Just got given lots of prescription drugs.
( girlinthehole, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:40, closed)

Gender stereotyping
Good for you CHCB, I cannot think of a better way of beating the Black Dog into submission than going off and being Lara Croft/Indiana Jones every now and again - as I understand you do from time to time.

CBT is the new Prozac, not every lock can be turned by the same key. Unfortunately there's no provision for conditions that cannot be put in a box.

Makes me fucking mad too...
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:42, closed)

I go to counselling classes
rather than counselling, because I wanted to learn to be a counsellor. Interesting, but such a lot of it is a load of crap.

Am carrying on with it, but cannot see a counselling career ahead of me.

However, the old method of a chat over a beer still works sometimes, and I won't charge you for that!
( thealternativefact, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:46, closed)

@clendrix
I seem to do a lot of councilling over beer. Why my attractive female friends feel the urge to moan to me about their relationships and shit boyfriends is beyond me.
I sit simmering with frustration and the vain hope that they'll fall into my arms and I can carry them into the horizon as the sun sets in the hills.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:54, closed)

BK
This sounds familiar! Sucks, eh?

Of course, to add a note to my previous post, I am not suggesing for one minute that chats and beer are a cure-all - sorry if it sounded flippant! But sometimes, they really can help with the 'smaller' stuff.

Existential therapy - that's the one!
( thealternativefact, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:57, closed)

if you
suffer from depression, do you find those who don't to be unsympathetic? it's such a hard thing to understand if you don't have it, which i don't, and there seems to be quite a lot of "snap out of it" attitudes towards it.

never been depressed myself - upset over things, yes, but depressed, no - but a lot of b3tans seem to suffer from it.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 11:58, closed)

@clendrix
It's cos its's a relaxed environment on a one-to-one basis. I'm a big advocate of 'hop therapy'.

@rachelswipe

I'm prone to it and when I'm having a black day and I'm moaning to my mum on the phone, I know she doesn't understand the way I feel and she tells me as much, sympathetic as she is.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:01, closed)

I've suffered from the Black Dog too
but I seem to have got off lightly compared to many. The major incident was when my marriage went tits up. Six solid months of abject bleakness - not fun, despite my telling myself that everything was OK really.

Now, I'm fine. I have the odd day when it gnaws the back of my brain, but it's usually fleeting and gone in 24 hours or so.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:07, closed)

@DG
I tend to get the odd black day and then feel ok the next.
I had a similar experience to you, divorced by the age of 21. That took me a long time to get through, littered as it was with self-harm, drink and drug abuse.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:10, closed)

One of my previous flatmates
had proper 'I'm not getting out of bed' depression.

It's very hard to deal with - it's definitely not the same as sitting around, feeling a bit mopey. Depression can make people sleep for hours and hours, lose interest in washing and getting dressed, be indecisive and anxious etc. and what's worse, it can go on for ages.

Resisting the inevitable urge to suggest that a kick up the arse is what's needed is very difficult for those of us lucky enough not to have suffered it.
( thealternativefact, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:16, closed)

@ clendrix
yes, that's exactly what i meant. it's really hard not to think, jesus, if i can get out of bed and go to work and carry on on living my life to the full even when i lost my mother overnight, why can't you just pull yourself together when there's nothing actually wrong ?

and yet, having friends with depression, i can obviously see what it does to them and that it's a very serious medical condition. at least there are drugs that can help somewhat, imagine how it must have been 400 years ago?

although you might not have noticed, what with all the syphilis and plague and suchlike...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:23, closed)

I don't want to go too much
Into this, but I've had a fair amount of exciting mental health-related problems.

They've not gone away, or got particularly better, but I've got to the point where I feel in control enough to not let them control me.

I had a couple of years where I was a wreck, made things worse by drinking far too much and taking drugs.

Things calmed down again for my first two years at uni, then got really bad in the third year. I fell out of contact with my parents, stuffed up my degree and nearly ended up being sectioned.

But anyway, I got back on track, scraped a 2:2, graduated, got a job and found b3ta.

I've recently got back in contact with my parents, and moved back in with them on Tuesday.

So yeah, things seem to be looking up at the moment.
( Cawl, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:32, closed)

@Kaol
That's nice to hear fella.

*masculine hug*

I honestly din't know how I could have got through the shit I did without the love and support of my parents, so much respect to you for finding a way back.
( Boss Keloid Got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:36, closed)

Rachelswipe
At least you're trying to understand... That's pretty admirable considering a lot of people just simply say "Pull your finger out". Ain't like that.

I've endured fifteen years of Black Dog, ranging from "so bad I can't get out of bed" to "I feel rather negative today" and plenty in between. Not to mention the panic attacks which occasionally wake me up at night leaving me so confused I actually forget who I am.

To everyone else:

I'm very gratified that so many b3tans suffer from the same issues... Not that I wish any of it on you fine folk, but that you're channelling the negativity in your lives into doing something creative.

So to all of you dysfunctionals and depressives out there I say THANK YOU, for keeping me entertained with well written, imaginative and occasionally manic posting.

I'd hug you all.

(edit: a special hug to Kaol)
(edit: No tongues and keep those roaming hands above the waist)
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:44, closed)

Thanks BK
*man hugs back*

I'm glad I'm beack in contact with them, even if they are awkward sods sometimes.

EDIT: Thanks PJM! No tongues though, yeah?
( Cawl, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 12:57, closed)

CBT
Really stands for Cunty Bollocking Twat.

It may well work for some, and anything that can help tame the black dog is worth a shot.

I recently bought "Taming The Black Dog" by Patrick Ellverton. What I've read so far is solid, practical coping strategies.

Since the age of 11, I've fluctuated as PJM has described above. Sometimes I sleep around the clock. I can often hide for days on end without the list to get washed or dressed.

I found Prozac gave everything fuzzy edges, as well as numerous side-effects. Citalopram is doing it for me at the moment (it's another SSRI). It keeps the black dog in it's kennel and leaves me to be me, rather than "manic me".

*hugs everyone*

*hugs CHCB even harder*
( Tourette's ( . )( . ) has a monkey hair in her fried egg, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 13:24, closed)

Pah
you know what, you lot just need to pull your fingers out.

*runs away*

Only kidding, I commented on the fact that so many of the QOTW regulars suffered/suffer from various forms of depression a while ago. I find it quite comforting in a strange way, I've never know anyone else who has suffered apart from my mum (frankly I blame her for mine)(only kidding)(well sort of, I don't blame her, but I daresay the underlying cause has been passed on).

so, errrr, yeah. Keep up the good work folks, remember, you're only a quick post away from understanding and sympathy hugs and cake.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 13:44, closed)

I'm very lucky
because I haven't suffered the horror of depression. But I'm taking classes to try to help other people who do suffer it.

You lot rock for talking about it on here.

In fact, you lot rock.
( thealternativefact, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 13:58, closed)

1) lessons in how to breathe (slowly);
2) rate your moods and assign them percentages.

That doesn't sound like CBT to me... It sounds like the pissant government-funded knockoff, not dissimilar to Channel handbags from Thailand. A similar thing happens when you're unemployed - you get sent to Job Club. Let me tell you, government-funded "career counselling" bears no resemblance to the real thing that people with jobs get (and pay through the eyeballs for).

What CBT is supposed to do is get you somewhere near rationality, avoiding extremist thought, etc. Is it very realistic that "everyone hates me"? Not really... although the realistic alternative, that no one actually gives a fuck about you, probably doesn't help much.

The person who comes up with a therapy for people who really *are* ugly, useless and unloved should win a Nobel Prize.
(Emily Bruce-Dickinson http://jovialfellow.blogspot.com/, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 14:30, closed)

Me
I do my own version of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy on myself. Sometimes, it works, sometimes it doesn't.

@CHCB: Glad to hear you stuck up for your life views with your counsellor.

@Kaol: Glad you're getting back on track.

@PJM:
"... you're channelling the negativity in your lives into doing something creative. So to all of you dysfunctionals and depressives out there I say THANK YOU, for keeping me entertained with well written, imaginative and occasionally manic posting."

This!


But anyway, while I don't suffer clinical depression myself, I have my sympathies for those that do. Let's channel that negativity into something positive!

* hugs *
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Fri 27 Jun 2008, 22:47, closed)

CBT isn't a miracle cure but...
It's true that CBT doesn't work for everyone, and it's totally irresonsible to pretend that it does. But it can work, and it's one of the best treatments we have right now. I know a number of people who have had CBT, it hasn't been a miracle cure, but it has helped some of them incredibly. Like anything, the quality of the CBT can vary - you may have got a crap psychologist! It's terrible that you had to wait so long to get it, and I hope you find something that works for you.
(confuse-a-cat, Sat 28 Jun 2008, 9:22, closed)

^
Yeah, it's definitely not a one-size-fits-all thing. I've heard it can be good for depression; the jury's out on how useful it is for bipolar disorder though (Br J Psychiatry 2006 Apr). I'll stick with my lithium because I know it does work.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Sat 28 Jun 2008, 12:54, closed)