Increased anxiety??

[dontcare]

I've been working with a cognitive behavioral therapist, she gives me assignments to work on, tells me to pay attention to my negative thoughts ... Lately I've noticed my anxiety steadily increasing. I thought maybe it was time to increase my ad's, I'm on a ridiculously low dose right now. But when I asked her for her opinion, she said no, it's because of the therapy, it'll get worse before it gets better. She never warned me about that ... I'm really frustrated right now ... the things I've found easy for a few years now are suddenly becoming hard again, I can feel myself slipping ...

[FairleighCalm]

Look into what a growth spurt means. You're going thru a pretty common thing. Learning to manage your anxiety for the first time...doing ANYTHING for the first time will indeed cause discomfort.

[moso]

Is it the therapy sessions that are making you anxious or the assignments?

[leomouse]

ru just focusing on the negative thoughts or are you slowly working on changing them? i dunno it might take some time to get better, but your therapist should find ways to counteract the negativity.

[zta]

If you have an intuition that the therapy is not quite right or you're having doubts, I wouldn't hesitate to cancel the next appointment and interview other therapist(s) to get a second opinion/search for someone better. Saying anxiety gets worse during the CBT process sounds suspicious.

[dontcare]

Originally Posted by zta

If you have an intuition that the therapy is not quite right or you're having doubts, I wouldn't hesitate to cancel the next appointment and interview other therapist(s) to get a second opinion/search for someone better. Saying anxiety gets worse during the CBT process sounds suspicious.

Do you think so? Because it's scaring me a bit. How much do you know about CBT?

[dontcare]

Originally Posted by leomouse

ru just focusing on the negative thoughts or are you slowly working on changing them? i dunno it might take some time to get better, but your therapist should find ways to counteract the negativity.

I'm working to change them but right now I'm focusing more on figuring out exactly what the thoughts are.

[zta]

Originally Posted by dontcare

Do you think so? Because it's scaring me a bit. How much do you know about CBT?

From what I understand it's supposed to get easier because the therapy is supposed to challenge your negative thoughts so you could see which ones lack a rational basis. I think it's important to trust your instinct. One time I saw a psychologist and had the feeling I was wasting my money. I kept going because I thought perhaps it was my subconscious resisting the process. Well the psychologist after that one was so much better and in hindsight the time I spent with the first one was a complete waste for me. You could always just cancel an appointment and replace it with an interview of another one/second opinion. You could always go back the following week. That way you have something to compare it to.

[zta]

Originally Posted by dontcare

Do you think so? Because it's scaring me a bit. How much do you know about CBT?

I've never had CBT. I think it's important to trust your instinct though. One time I saw a psychologist and had the feeling I was wasting my money. I kept going because I thought perhaps it was my subconscious resisting the process. Well the psychologist after that one was so much better and in hindsight the time I spent with the first one was a complete waste for me.