Posted by Emme on January 29, 2002, at 11:46:21
In reply to CBT and other experiences, let's talk, posted by sid on January 29, 2002, at 11:10:33
Hi there. I'm back after a few days of not reading posts. I agree with the idea of a multi-pronged approach to managing mood disorders. My therapist uses the word "manage" as it is a chronic illness for me. Her job, together with my psychopharmacologist's job, is to help me keep symptoms in remission as best as possible and to help me find the way to recover as rich a life as possible. She quakes in fear at the very thought of me being without medication because she sees the profound change - when I'm off or between meds - it's not pretty.
So...the components of the multi-pronged approach? When the chips are really down, minimize stress and responsibility as much as possible. Don't feel bad about not making it to things I just can't get to. If I can't manage to wash dishes, uses paper plates for a short while, splurge and pay for laundry drop-off service once in a while if I can't handle doing laundry, etc.
Then, when I perk up a bit...get back to exercising as soon as possible ( which I willingly do), do yoga, play my violin, get out of the house as much as possible, initiate contact with friends as best I can, etc. Yeah, all this is totally obvious. But for a while I wasn't really doing the most helpful things for myself at the right times, feeling stress over not keeping up at times when I just couldn't. I don't find all of this easy. But the encouragement helps.
And in active therapy, she uses her own style of CBT (she's certainly familiar with Burns' book, and with Beck's work). She doesn't get into breaking it down into which of the 10 categories a though falls into. But she'll say "that's a cognitive distortion", explain why, and we work on it from there. Many of my fears and worries have some elements of cognitive distortion, and can be tackled with *concrete examples* of how things can be different from the way I perceive them. We've found that I'm helped a lot by being given specific examples of how things have worked for other people to offset the negative examples I've seen and internalized. And we've gradually evolved a set of what we humorously call "mantras" for me to keep in mind.
So...taking my medicine is crucial, and I'm not aruing against an organic source of brain illness by any stretch. I feel the most dramatic help from the medication when we find something that works. Right now I don't think about whether I'll ever go off meds. That's to think about sometime in the future and if the answer is ultimately no, then so be it. The multi-pronged approach gives me some other tools to help things along the way.
Emme
> Anyone up to talk about this?
>
> Jane d mentioned that my redirect protests might have made people shy away from continuing the CBT thread, so let's talk here, if anyone is up to it.
>
> I have talked some about my experience with CBT, that it helped me get rid of major depression, along with acupunture. And I use it everyday now without realizing it most of the time at this point.
>
> I am convinced it can be a good complement to meds for many people, although, like meds, it does not work for everybody. Acupuncture works in about the same proportions as meds, but it works for some people for whom meds do nothing. So my contention is that people dealing with depression ought to consider many approaches to heal their illness since if one approach does not help, another might. Also, many approaches might help, and together they might help faster. I did not take meds for my major depresion (I now take them for dysthymia and anxiety), but if I had to do it all again, I would take meds too in order to get all the benefits faster. I took a very long way home, I finally got there, but I got discouraged many times along the way. Also, I started yoga recently and I find that it helps a lot with the anxiety.
>
> That's my story, in a nutshell. So please, if you feel like sharing your stories, do. About CBT and about other things that may help.
>
> The forum is open.
>
> - Sid
poster:Emme
thread:17445
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020125/msgs/17451.html