Therapy......Stigma. Fact!
What is everyone's deal with therapy anyway, even mentioning therapy seems to make lts of people feel uncomfortable! I've personally had a few experiences of therapy since my first serious anxious cycle when I was about 18. For me, I had got to the point where all the thoughts I had rushing round my mind, I literally couldn't keep to myself anymore. They weren't making any sense anymore and I was making myself feel so much worse. So I just googled anxiety and therapy, found someone local and off I went.
It was a bit strange, it's very hard to tell a stranger what the problem is, especially when you're not too sure yourself. Anyway, I only saw this women for around 3 sessions, and it just didn't feel right. Maybe it was her, maybe it was me. Then I proceeded to try some hypnotherapy. Again, I don't know if I'm one of those people who isn't susceptible to hypnotherapy or not, but I found it a little weird. Trying to visualise 'happy places' and warm sunny beaches etc. But for anyone that suffers with serious anxiety, you could put me in a bath full of chocolate with David Beckham on a balcony in Mexico and I still am not going to feel 'relaxed'. Know what I mean? Felt stupid to me!
Anyway, my period of anxiety seemed to just ease off then, I got a new job, new focus and it chilled out. This time round I went off again to someone different for some more 'talking' therapy. Hmmm, it was ok, it was a lot of me talking, explaining my life, past, etc. But I think I guess what I kind of wanted, is to walk in and for someone to confidently say, "You will get better, lets get this sorted and stop you worrying." I don't really want to discuss my childhood, my family, my relationships. I just want some tools on anxiety management.
So, I ended up going to the GP at a point where I was getting exhausted of being so freaked out by every thought and every feeling in my body. He was good, didn't exactly have a sympathetic voice, but he seemed like he had knowledge in what I as talking about. Reassuring. So he talked about the severity and length of what was going on, and I scored very high on the anxiety scale. Sad face, that made me feel even more anxious. Well everything made me feel anxious at that point! He suggested anti-depressants, which I kind of shrugged off. Now this isn't because I don't agree with medication or think it works, because I think it does work and I think it's amazing that they have that available. The thought that there was something if I really couldn't cope calmed me down immeasurably. But for me, I knew I'd been though this before, fought it off and it left me alone. So I thought it best to give it a good kick myself first. Next he suggested a self referral letter that you fill out and send off to your local council mental health unit for some NHS therapy. So this I did and amazingly within 2 weeks I had a phone call, an over the phone assessment and was put on the list for some CBT therapy.
CBT therapy is Cognative Behavioural Therapy. It's basically retraining your brain to stop thinking the negative thought patterns. Because for the majority of people, you didn't always feel anxious, you've trained your brain and body into feeling under threat. Hence the anxiety, the flood of adrenaline and the feeling of being on edge constantly.
The woman I spoke to was comforting, pleasant and sounded interested. I already cannot wait to have a chat with her. I'm actually going this Thursday to have my first session with her. Now I am feeling around 70% better from when it was at its worst a few months ago, but I think that potentially it has a threat to rear it's ugly head whenever it likes, so it can't do any halm to go and see what they have to say and it could be beneficial to me. I'll let you know how it goes.
Also I got recommended another therapist by one of my friends who explained that he used to suffer, and that he had seen this women in Epping, Essex, who had helped him overcome his anxiety issues. She went through something called the Thrive Programme with him in his sessions. If I had looked at the website without recommendation, I think I would've thought it was a pile of shit. But from a close experience recommendation, it's hard to ignore. I think it is like CBT, maybe using different methods, I'm not sure. Here's the link to the website: http://www.thriveprogramme.org/
I think I may give it a go. Can't do any harm can it. Keep you updated.
Therapy isn't for everyone. But I do think talking is. :-).
X
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