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Anyone tried Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
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Posted 1/21/2008 4:39 PM (GMT -7)
Worked for me. I'm so much better now its unreal. Prior to that antidepressants helped.
Posted 1/24/2008 9:24 PM (GMT -7)
That's the therapy where the doc tries to convince you that everything you think and know to be true is stupid and that you should believe things that aren't true instead, because it'll make you feel better. Yes I have actually, and it greatly increased my feelings of anger and frustration!
Posted 1/25/2008 2:00 AM (GMT -7)
Hmm. No not my experience of CBT. It should allow you to identify patterns of negative thought and counteract them leaving you feeling more secure and happier overall.

Its not a cure all but as CFS and depression are quite closely linked in many ways some people find it quite helpful. I certainly did.
Posted 2/8/2008 9:46 AM (GMT -7)
I'm with you ruggedtoast. My pain shrink includes a certain amount of CBT with me, and you're right. It's more about identifying "stinkin' thinkin'" and turning it off than anything else. Sometimes you just have to find a therapist you click with for therapy to be beneficial. Will therapy magically get rid of your pain? Nope. But it does give you some more tools to work with when meds don't work, and has helped me see that my life isn't over because of my pain. My pain is not ME, and I refuse to allow the people in my life to see me that way. Pain is just a part of my life; it is not the whole of my life.
Posted 2/11/2008 6:05 PM (GMT -7)
For me, it was really really awful. Therapy can be very destructive, and you have to go into it with extreme caution. Many therapists, like many doctors, see things only one way, and if you don't conform to their world view they are downright contemptuous.
Posted 3/8/2008 5:53 AM (GMT -7)
Looks very like spam to me and reported as such, though to be honest I had a hard time getting through the mangled syntax and spelling.

By the way you forgot to remove the stuff about stopping smoking from your cut and paste. This is a CFS forum.
Posted 3/9/2008 1:08 PM (GMT -7)
Its like adv ,looks so
Posted 4/11/2008 11:33 PM (GMT -7)
Yup,

I have. It helped to me to accept fibro/cfids better. I got too busy going to grad school and the swimming pool to continue sessions.

donnaeil
Posted 4/20/2008 11:54 AM (GMT -7)

I had a few sessions of CBT and while it didn't really help the CFS itself, it did help the depression a little. It wasn't enough to stop drug therapy, though.

Posted 5/12/2008 11:15 AM (GMT -7)
Hi everyone

If cognitive therapy helps someone that´s great. The cognitive therapy can only be one tool of many in this debilitating illness, and the therapist has to be knowledgable about chronic illnesses. The therapy has to be aimed towards overcoming depression resulting from illness and not the other way around as some people have been reporting. Since I used to be a contact person for ill people I have come to known that the degree of this illness vary A LOT and I do mean a lot. For people who are severely ill, bedridden and so fourth the cognitive therapy is not the first choice, but if you are just "a little bit" ill, and with a great therapist, it could be of some help definately. Most often there is an infectious origin to the disease in the more serious cases.

Maria
Posted 5/25/2008 12:18 PM (GMT -7)
Agree with Bee and Maria, it truly depends where you are on the "illness" scale. Therapy is like undertaking exercise....in other words, do it with extreme caution. How in the world if one is really sick and basically trying to just get through the day can CBT be of any help anyway? Can CBT look after your kids? Do you groceries? Sit and hold your hand while you're in excruciating pain or fatigue? Of course I'm being smart but let's face it, CBT has been touted just like exercise and we know that it just does not work except make people sicker by putting the onus on them to get better (I've never met any more self-motivated folk than PWC's) and to try and "change the way you think about your illness" is downright criminal in my eyes.

Instead of CFS/FMS what if people suggested CBT for say....cancer patients or malaria patients..or just substitute any devastating disease in there. Yes, I do think that once one is past the "suffering" stage of CFS there might be some room for CBT or any other type of therapy which will help strengthen the patient so he/she can "move on" and accept their "new" ways of functioning if they've been sick too long. Now I've been too verbose and am out of room....thanks y'all for listening or should I say...reading!!
Posted 5/25/2008 3:04 PM (GMT -7)
I take it you're not in favour then!

Seriously though having therapy to learn how to manage your life and the challenges therein is a positive thing. Of course there are bad therapists, as there are bad doctors, bad teachers and bad priests but it shouldnt put you off the entire thing.
Posted 9/25/2008 2:06 PM (GMT -7)
Hi rugged,would love to have u as an email bud,so we can support each other all my love agnes 41 xx
Posted 10/11/2008 2:00 PM (GMT -7)
I had therapy and it helped me to know that I didn't have a clinical depression but a reactive one, caused by the illness. I was told that anyone would be depressed considering all the things I had to give up: my job, doing a lot of things with friends, social activities, and having to live on a small pension. I still get depressed at times and a bit weepy so have to try to do things I enjoy and get outside a bit, listen to happy music, etc. Most of the time, I accept my limitations and just do what I can.
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