DaasYochid:

I’m sorry if I was unclear when I said “that’s exactly what I wrote about…” I was responding to an earlier post where you had asked if CBT can be used together with other forms of psychotherapy and I was trying to point out that my previous post, (which was actually intended to be a direct response to the OP and had nothing to do with all the discussions that followed…) talks about my personal experience where I have used CBT in conjunction with another form of therapy and found them both helpful (relieving the symptoms so you can deal with the cause… like tylenol…) You then asked me which one I would choose if I could only choose one, and again, I answered based on my personal experiences. I don’t know what it is that you and I are saying that are not the same… But I was not trying to side with any other poster’s perspectives, I was only sharing my own…

PBA:

“Nothing like a quick fix. Who wants to spend time and energy actually dealing with emotions, when you can just repress them!”

DaasYochid asked me a hypothetical question: IF you could only choose one, which would you choose? And I had to actually give that some thought before responding because bH, I DON’T have to choose between the two and DO address the root of the problem. And the reason why I would choose a “quick fix” in that hypothetical situation is because the emotional stress that I was dealing with was taking over my life and taking a toll on my day-to-day functioning.

I actually started talk therapy first, went for MANY weeks, and wasn’t managing between my weekly sessions… so I went for ONE session of CBT where I got a handle on my feelings and learned how to cope, and then the next few weeks of talk therapy were much more productive. I only went to see my CBT therapist a few more times after that, and only once in a while- not because his techniques weren’t helping me anymore, but because they had helped me so much that I decided to work on other issues that I was dealing with…

Of course this is just MY experience and different people may not find CBT to work as quickly for them or helpful at all! different strokes for different folks…

that’s actually a really great question… I think I would choose CBT. here’s why: while talk therapy/psychoanalysis is wonderfully clarifying, gives me the chance to express myself understand why I feel the way that I feel, etc… it can drag on and on and it’s a very slow, gradual healing process that can begin to feel draining (and expensive!). And though there are times during CBT that I wish I could talk more about my thoughts on my feelings, each time I walked out of my CBT therapist’s office, I felt like I had the tools to face the world, face myself, and felt less burdened by my anxieties! I felt strengthened after each session of CBT rather than exhausted from delving so deep inside my thoughts and feelings…

CBT is fast and provides relief! I still use the techniques my therapist taught me years ago… it really had a positive impact on my life! bH

CBT has done wonderful things for me. Every penny I spent was well worth it! It is not the only form of therapy that I have tried, and I have found CBT to be extremely effective in teaching me how to take control of specific thought and behavior patterns, and i only had to go a few times! Once u have a handle on whatever thoughts and feelings you are dealing with, and you still feel that you want to get to the root of the problem, regular talk therapy can help you more with that… talk therapy/psychoanalysis on its own was not as effective for me while I was still dealing with the anxieties… Once the emotions were manageable, i was able to start digging deeper to understand them…

I also know other people that have tried CBT and found it extremely helpful.

and btw, regardless of what form of therapy you choose, you have to make sure that u have a good patient-therapist relationship