Day 50 - Part 2 - CBT

Second post for Day 50.

This is a specific response to one of the comments that was left on my blog last night regarding CBT. For anyone who doesn't already know CBT is not just the oily-defined acronym for Computer Based Training or the motorcyclist-familiar Compulsory Basic Training but it is also an abbreviation for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Interestingly it often comes as computer-CBT (cCBT) delivered online.

Rather than get my interpretation of it you can read all about it on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

I have tried a few different versions over the last 6 weeks but with little or no success.

So why isn't it working for me?

There are a few possible reasons, but probably the top reason on the list is that it isn't actually an approved or recommended treatment for trauma victims. The consultant psychiatrist has asked me to try it again but this time round as a treatment for targeting specific symptoms rather than for the underlying causes.

Second on the list is that it is a supported therapy, particularly for anxiety issues. Big chunks of it rely on me being able to do normal things without getting upset or panicky by doing them with support from others, and then build up gradually to being more independent and doing those things on my own again. Lack of support from others to do my normal activities limits the progress I can make.

Third possibility is that it is that the online versions are quite commonly based on trying to break a cycle of bad or irrational thinking which spirals through bad emotions, bad behaviour, bad reactions, back to bad thoughts and so on. Breaking the bad behaviour section assumes that you accept that there is another option to your behaviour. Breaking the bad thoughts section of the spiral relies on those thoughts being unbalanced or irrational in the first place. Instead the professionals, and the people who aren't friends with her, have almost exclusively reinforced my thinking and at each step have agreed that from the position I am in at each stage my thoughts and actions are the same as what they would do. When people who know her have challenged my decisions, or told me that what I am doing is wrong, they have been unable (or unwilling) to offer any alternatives. When I have told people in advance what I was going to do in each situation, and flat out asked them to propose alternatives to my planned path one of my friends even came back with "It's not up to us to find solutions to your problems".

I was going to stick to just talking about the process of CBT today but I have ended up getting excited and wound up again so I am going to stop now. There is another bit about having routines and planning your way through things step-by-step that I was going to cover. This has worked for me for smaller things like getting up and going to work but for me it hasn't been a strong enough technique to do anything more advanced than that.