the assistance from medication

[liveitup898]

hi everyone,

for those of you on medication such as myself, for anxiety/panic attacks/ocd etc. you have to consider that the ultimate cure is within ourselves - without the medication.

yes the medication assists us in living a normal life but it does not cure us completely. 

we need to really incorporate therapy and our will to win.  so if you are on medication like i am, then we really need to push ourselves to get better and not just sit back and wait for the medication to somehow magically cure us.

even if there is a chemical imbalance in the brain, and medication helps 'balance' everything for us - you MUST utilize therapy and you MUST push yourself to get better through the will to win.

if you can't leave your house to attend therapy sessions then make sure you talk to friends or family....always have someone to talk to.  do this daily and let your feelings out......

write things down if needed - this is also a type of therapy that helps us release all the negative thoughts we let build up in our minds.  CBT forms help too (goodle them if needed) you can create your own.

[lcfrogs]

CBT forms help too (goodle them if needed) you can create your own.

I have CBT worksheets that my therapist gave me. If anyone is interested, it looks like this:

THOUGHT LOG (CBT FORM)

ACTIVATOR (event/trigger):

BELIEFS (Automatic Thoughts):

CONSEQUENCES (feelings, behaviors):

DISPUTING (Challenges to automatic thoughts- what might be a more realistic way to view situation):

CONSEQUENCES (if believe disputing thoughts):

I'll give an example of one that I did on my fear of doing the dishes-

Activator- Dirty dishes
Beliefs- Doing the dishes will make me more anxious
Consequences- I feel more anxious because I did NOT do the dishes; I hate myself for being "lazy"
Disputing- Doing the dishes is a mundane chore, but once it is done I won't have to keep worrying about it
Consequences- I feel accomplished for completing an anxiety-provoking but necessary task, and my mom is also happy with me because it takes some of the dirty dishes burden off of her. :)

[liveitup898]

that is great lcfrogs.

thank you very much

[Happy sailing]

Thank you SO much icfrogs!
However, can you clarify a couple of things for me? 
I sort of get it all.  I see how helpful it is with all the negative thoughts.
However, just to clarify...
Can you explain Disbuting and Consequences better, please?
You did great on the example, and I think it helped A LOT.
Just- disputing is pretty much opposite of "Automatic thoughts" ?
And Consequences, are towards the "positive thoughts"?
Thanks again! 

[lcfrogs]

Thank you SO much icfrogs!
However, can you clarify a couple of things for me? 
I sort of get it all.  I see how helpful it is with all the negative thoughts.
However, just to clarify...
Can you explain Disbuting and Consequences better, please?
You did great on the example, and I think it helped A LOT.
Just- disputing is pretty much opposite of "Automatic thoughts" ?
And Consequences, are towards the "positive thoughts"?
Thanks again! 

Automatic thoughts are generally your held irrational beliefs about a situation. So disputing is not necessarily the opposite of your automatic thought (though it can be), disputing is more a more rational thought. So if you refer to my example, my automatic thought (irrational belief) is that doing the dishes will make me more anxious, but it turns out that the consequence of not doing the dishes is MORE anxiety. By observing the consequence of my automatic thought, I realize that not doing the dishes probably makes me more anxious than actually doing the dishes. So a more rational, disputing thought is that realistically doing the dishes is not going to be a fun chore for me but it will probably make me less anxious once the task is completed because I'm not worrying about it anymore. The consequence of believing the disputing thought instead of the automatic thought is that I will have less anxiety, and my parents will be happy with me for doing the dishes (the latter is more of a reward, really the mental consequence is that I will have less anxiety). I hope that makes more sense. Basically, what will happen (consequence) if you believe the automatic thought, and what will happen (consequence) if you believe the disputing thought?

[Happy sailing]

Ok, thanks Icfrogs! 

So, for, say - insecurity due to an anxiety, and some resulting depressive emotions etc...
Wondering how to feel "good enough" to date...
 
Go for it Icfrogs!!   
Give me a lesson using the labels, please? 

I know you are taking psychology etc... Thanks!!! 

[lcfrogs]

Ok, thanks Icfrogs! 

So, for, say - insecurity due to an anxiety, and some resulting depressive emotions etc...
Wondering how to feel "good enough" to date...
 
Go for it Icfrogs!!   
Give me a lesson using the labels, please? 

I know you are taking psychology etc... Thanks!!! 

Sorry, I'm a little confused. Could you be a little more specific? I'm not really sure what to explain...

[Happy sailing]

Oh, sorry.. LOL! 

What I was trying to say was, how does one use CBT with regards to having insecurity and feeling not good enough to date.  Due to one having an anxiety issue (with resulting depressive emotions at times)??
I hope this is clearer!
Another one is being concerned about being/going crazy, or losing it?  In general, as well as saying, when trying to go somewhere like a job.


Two issues, I hope you can show me how CBT would work for.   

[lcfrogs]

Oh, sorry.. LOL! 

What I was trying to say was, how does one use CBT with regards to having insecurity and feeling not good enough to date.  Due to one having an anxiety issue (with resulting depressive emotions at times)??
I hope this is clearer!
Another one is being concerned about being/going crazy, or losing it?  In general, as well as saying, when trying to go somewhere like a job.


Two issues, I hope you can show me how CBT would work for.   

With anxiety and resulting depression symptoms, you need to ask yourself what specific automatic thoughts are you having that causes the depression? So find the Activator first, which would be what event triggered your anxiety? Then write down the Beliefs about this anxiety, such as "I'm not good enough" or "I'm a failure" (those are just examples, you need to think about what your automatic thoughts are). Then, what are the consequences of these automatic thoughts? Is the consequence depression? Does it cause a maladaptive behavior? Dispute the automatic thoughts by thinking about why you think you aren't good enough...it's hard for me to think of an example for this because I don't know the specific reason why you believe you aren't good enough. Finally, think of what the outcome would be if you believed the disputing, more realistic thought.

For fear of going crazy, again I don't know your specific beliefs but I'll try to make up an example:

Activator- Going to work
Belief- I will lose my mind if I leave the house and go to work
Consequence- I don't go to work -or- I quit my job
Disputing thought- Leaving the house may cause me a lot of initial anxiety, but I probably won't go crazy because I have never gone crazy after leaving the house before
Consequence- I am able to go to work -or- I am able to look for a job

That is just a rough example...you need to think of your own specific automatic thoughts and consequences of the irrational beliefs. I hope this helped.