Hi. Welcome to the group. I do believe that many people will be able to understand what you are going through. CBT is a very useful form of therapy but it takes a continual effort - maybe even for the rest of your life. I am 46 now and learned CBT techniques in my 20's and I have been using them ever since. The old patterns will sometimes arise and I need to go back to changing them with the new patterns. Some of the things I changed did 'stick' and I don't fall back into the hold habits but for others, it will be a lifelong process for me to catch the negative thoughts and change them to positive ones. For me CBT was not a quick fix at all.

I also was house bound for a while and I know how scary it is to leave your comfort zone. My world became so small that I only felt comfortable in certain rooms in my house. I had to slowly face the fear and journey into other rooms and out into the world. It is only in facing the fear that you teach yourself that other places are 'safe' to be. I know this is not easy - it sure wasn't easy for me - but it is a necessary step. The more you venture out the less anxious you will be.

Here is a website that helped me www.anxietycoach.com I hope you find it helpful too.

Take care

the only problem with the cbt in the uk is that they can only offer a 12 week course then u have to wait 3 months before u can get back in touch with them and it the 3 months gap and thats where the problems start, thank you for the web link i will be reading over it later today

I will add to this, journal writing daily, to give yourself small goals, and then when you reach the area where you are "stuck", using the journal will help you talk, walk, and breathe your way through the anxiety.

I agree, CBT training is wonderful, however, the work continues daily, and it's all yours to do. The most difficult part is giving yourself the opportunity to try, try again, try a different way, and to look at each of these experiences as positive ones.

If you change your thinking patterns, and keep track of what works when, you'll find it much easier to stop the usual traffic pattern keeping you in circles, and move on.

Best wishes!

Really? It's not an actual course here - at least not that I know of. Pretty much most therapists - if not all of them - do CBT work. It's just a matter of changing the way you think about things and all of the work is done by the person who needs to change their thinking...us. Once I recognized what I was doing with my thoughts I was able to change them on my own without the help of a therapist. It takes time for the new thinking to take hold though.

This is how it is used here. This is from the NAMI website at http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=About_Treatments_and_Supports&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=7952

"Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of treatment that focuses on examining the relationships between thoughts, feelings and behaviors. By exploring patterns of thinking that lead to self-destructive actions and the beliefs that direct these thoughts, people with mental illness can modify their patterns of thinking to improve coping. CBT is a type of psychotherapy that is different from traditional psychodynamic psychotherapy in that the therapist and the patient will actively work together to help the patient recover from their mental illness. People who seek CBT can expect their therapist to be problem-focused, and goal-directed in addressing the challenging symptoms of mental illnesses. Because CBT is an active intervention, one can also expect to do homework or practice outside of sessions.

A person who is depressed may have the belief, "I am worthless," and a person with panic disorder may have the belief, "I am in danger." While the person in distress likely believes these to be ultimate truths, with a therapists help, the individual is encouraged to challenge these irrational beliefs. Part of this process involves viewing such negative beliefs as hypotheses rather than facts and to test out such beliefs by running experiments. Furthermore, people who are participating in CBT are encouraged to monitor and write down the thoughts that pop into their minds (called "automatic thoughts"). This allows the patient and their therapist to search for patterns in their thinking that can cause them to have negative thoughts which can lead to negative feelings and self-destructive behaviors. "

i am going to start to write a journal think it might help in the long run one thing i would like to ask is how do i take meds and stay on them and stop thinking that they make me worse or is this something that a therapist would be able to help with.

A good therapist can help you with just about everything you are dealing with. I highly recommend therapists because I have had good luck with them. The only time I didn't have good luck was when I wasn't willing to do the work I needed to do. That's when I didn't see results.

Writing in a journal is an excellent place to start. There is a string of posts here from AdventureGuide. She is posting all the things that helped her. Here is the link to the 3rd week which was turning negative thoughts into positive thoughts http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Anxiety/forum/17909013-support-groupweek-threenegatives-positive

Meds are tricky. It's very possible that the meds you were on did make your anxiety worse. I went on Celexa and it increased my anxiety within 2 days of starting it. I stopped that one and went on Paxil which did eventually reduce my anxiety (once we found the right dose). I wouldn't give up on meds because there are so many out there that I would hope one would work for you.

Take care

A lot of times I would look at my life and feel the same way - just didn't seem like much of a life.

What helped me is recognizing that for most people, they have a comfort circle too - theirs may be a bit bigger but for most they pretty much do the same things over and over. They may try something new on rare occasion, but almost always they stick to their comfort zone. Somehow knowing that helped a bit.

I also started realizing if I am essentially housebound, I may as well make home as fun as I can. So I have the packages that allow me to have a lot of channels on the tv, the movie memberships, etc. I get to the library regularly and I like to try different recipes.

I've found Coursera which is an online university where you can take all sorts of classes for free. And I'm learning to knit and speak French with You Tube. I'm also trying to learn to play the violin with You Tube videos.

Getting outside - even if it's just outside the door - seems to help a lot.. Just those little challenges that help me feel stronger.

ty today has been a ok day i have made app to see the doctor about my meds and see if we can work on something that will work for me also i have seen my cbt person and they my be able to change a few thing to able to get me outside. i have also looked up a gym and spoke to someone there about joining when i get my meds sorted as it opens at half 6 in the moring it seem i might be able to spend a few hours with not so many people around and maybe give me some confeduce back

That is excellent! With all that support and the support you have here I have no doubt that you kick anxiety in the A%# :-)

I've had anxiety problems my whole life. Now at 29 I find out I actually have OCD. It was a big relief but at the same time kind of overwhelming because you start to realize how much of your life is controlled by it. What's bad is there was so many things I did that were OCD and I didn't even know it. Don't just look at anxiety and think that's it, because if it's really chronic (like mine) it can sometimes be something else. I've found anxiety treatment and CBT is helpful but not as helpful as OCD CBT. If you can't get into CBT right away look online, there are tons of books on Amazon that can be just as good! Hang in there :)