Talking therapies

[Laura]

do they count as medicine?

What types has anyone had and what did you find worked?

[Ally]

Hey.
I've was refered to councilling to try to help with my depression.

It did actually work, for a while anyway.
When I first went I honestly never expected to get much from it.

I was really surprised when it did start to work and I felt better about myself and life in general.

The only problem is that when you are refered to the center I was at, there are only a certain number of sessions allocated to clients, generally it is 12 hour long sessions, some need more, some less.

I went to all 12 and felt fine for a long time afterwards. Now I feel like I am back to square 1 with having more ADs and feeling like they are not making any differance.

It is probably something that you'd have to keep going to, atleast once per month after the initial allocated sessions.

Ally.

[dlg78]

I had 4 sessions of "Cognitive behavioural therapy" last year and they did help, the lady I spoke to helped me to see that I have to break the circle so to speak, of the way I tend to look at things.

[Laura]

i had CBT for a while but was never motivated enough to do the homework so didn't get any benefit.
I've had just talking too but found I would feel I needed to answer a questions so would pluck rubbish out of the air then come away thinking 'why on earth did I say that'.
My psych dr wants my gp to refer me for more CBT through IAPT. Will find out about that next week I hope.

[Zaf]

I've had some brillant counselling recently, its really helped a lot

[nickynoo]

I had 8 sessions of 1-1 CBT thanks to the NHS, this was helpful but as I find it hard to trust and open up to people (especially when they are sitting in front of me....I'm quite shy) I found that by the time I had actually got comfortable talking to the counseller I was on my 6-7th session so I don't feel that I benefited from this as well as I could have done over a longer period of time. I was also referred to a 'Overcoming Anxiety' group which went on for 4 weeks (this was useful as I felt I wasnt alone and took away some handy tips to help me in certain situations - but again as soon as it was over I felt myself falling back in that black hole).

My Dr has referred me to the Time to Talk people in my area, but have a 3 month waiting list which seems a lifetime away when you are feeling bad, so I inquired at the college I go to about their counselling service and I have managed to get an appointment to see someone next Tuesday which is good, hoping it might help as I don't want to end up failing my course because of the big D 

Has anyone tried hypnotherapy to help with their depression etc?

[Glen53]

CBT really helped me a few years back but it is true that you have to be well enough to concentrate on the work set.

Ive had a few counciling sessions this year and they seem to help a little too.

I think with all these things though it depends on the therapist. If you get on with them, then talking is very healthy for the most part. If not, then it wont help.

[Zaf]

Glen is right, you need to get on with a counsellor to get any benefit, I had one that made me so angry I made no progress whatsoever but the lady I went to this summer was wonderful even though the sessions were sometimes difficult and/or emotional and I could feel exhausted for a couple of days afterwards.

[Stu62]

I had a go at MBCT ( mindfulness based cognitive therapy) at the beginning of the year - more of a "not talking" therapy I suppose. Like every other therapy it's not perfect and suits some people more than others but it helped me.
Stu

[Holykimura]

I had CBT and Psychotherapy both of which I found very useful. The trouble is there are not many practising on the NHS to my knowledge ( I would imagine that it's because they can earn more privately) come to think of it the one I was using was vey good and she got new job somewhere else

[lbruk]

i found it immensely useful, i spent 3 months in the Priory Hospital doing CBT andf Psycotherapy, all very useful, although when i came out it was hard work to put everything you learn into practise, i tried all at once with all the different things you learn! didnt work out. The biggest thing i founf going to the Priory was meeting the other patients, i met some amazing people, a lot going through the same as me, and that, knowing i wasnt alone, was an enormous releif.

I now see a one-on-one counsellor, who is using EMDR, which i have no idea why it works, but it does, we have found some very interesting facets of my personality that i didnt know about! But the good news, this works for me, its extremely hard on your emotions and diffucult to work through the tough parts of your life, but it has made a much bigger difference than CBT did.

The just sitting there talking is very good as well, the important thing is to trust your therapist, and i do and that has helped me open up an awful lot.

[pippapoppa]

What is 'EMDR' please?

[lbruk]

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, its mainly used for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. basically you put into your head the worst memory you have, the one that causes you most distress, then using 2 different rapid eye movements, either watching a hand move left and right or tapping the top of my hands when my eyes are closed. I remember that memory, apparently it forces the brian to reprocess it, and it just becomes a memory, with no emotion attached to it.

Its really weird as the memory fades and becomes fuzzy, then i feel it like i am watching a silent movie. You then measure the stress levels between 1-10 and he works out what to ask next to get that stress level down to a 1. Normally oine memory takes about 45mins, but my some have taken a few sessions to work through, especially my anger ones, if you have specific events that are troubling you, then i find it has worked for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing

[cornish]

i can back up emdr,  its the only thing that has vaguely worked for me and i have a fair few problems and not all of them are mentioned on here

actually its definitely the only thing thats worked properly and i recommend it but depending on what's wrong it can be very distressing, physically and emotionally painful and you feel worse before you feel better. im not trying to scare you, just warn you.

[Lol]

Cornish are you still doing the emdr? or is that the appointment that had to stop??