I will write in a little detail about my experiences so far with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I am about halfway through the course.
I got in touch with my GP in March because of the increasing light outside and warmth and told the GP I had suspected Summer Seasonal Affective Disorder, and had thought I had for years. The GP thought it may be Generalised Anxiety Disorder [but they're only a GP, they don't know] so they referred me for an assessment and CBT.
I had an initial phone assessment in which the assessor said that I was a "complex case" and that they would refer me for step 3 CBT for those with moderate to severe depression. Step 4 is for those with psychotic depression and step 5 is when you're sectioned.
We began the process of filtering my issues to a subset of potential disorders. We found, during the initial week, that the issues I experience are overwhelmingly concerned with sound rather than light or social situations. I was asked to complete exercises related to Social Anxiety Disorder, GAD and OCD. I was surprised to find I only have mild social anxiety and I have very high levels of OCD in certain subscales.
Currently there is strong evidence for the fact that I may have misophonia. We are also looking into whether I have OCD. I find the latter particularly surprising but I wasn't aware that OCD has different 'versions'. I am not a particularly clean person, but I do and can hoard, and am a consistent self-doubter and checker, often debilitatingly so.
I will update this thread in due course. It has been a very interesting experience so far.
My advice to those undergoing mental health guidance, or thinking of doing so:
- Be honest with yourself about the extent of your issues, don't be in denial. You may have got used to the intensity of your issues and may initially present them as less severe than they are because they are so familiar to you.
- Don't sugar-coat responses in exercises or in talking sessions.
- The week before your initial assessment, write down triggers every time you discover one so you can present your situation accurately.
- Engage as much as possible with your therapist, the more info you give them, the more they can help.
- Spend some time - as in days if necessary - thinking about exercises. The more time you take and the more detailed the information you can give, the better.
- Do your exercises and do them well. The NHS's free CBT is a boon with rather stringent access requirements and a long waiting list. If you get on a course, utilise it to its full extent.
- Be prepared to be surprised. We can easily misdiagnose ourselves with an issue, only to find out that the real issue is something else, or only tenuously related to what we initially thought.
just been trying to muscle through but... that ain't much better.
Sorry, as someone who has moderate social anxiety myself I found that quite amusing.
