sage ....

[jodi054]

my cbt session went really well ..... ive been given some homework to do about what are the thoughts and feelings when someone is near me doing the dead !!


ive had a long hard think about what she was saying and am i right in saying its all about being affraid of losing control ... or part of it ...??


she also said that if we can chage the negative thoughts and feelings that the responce will chane ...


and i have to learn to cope ! with the deed and once i learn to cope with it i can over time get over !! it ??

[sage]

if being afraid of losing control is your experience, then by all means tell her that.


For me, I finally figured out that my thought was "if they vomit, then I will too, and then I will die". And when I say thought, I mean that quite loosely. Not even a thought...more of an instantaneous association inmy brain.


One of the problems with cbt people who are big on the "c" (cognitive) is that they think that if you think differently that it will change your fear response. And while that is an important part of it, and works very well with milder phobias, it can be pretty useless information to an extreme phobia. I have said this to a psych theorist: "you're telling this information to my neocortex (the "thinking"/logic part of the brain), but now figure out a way to tell it to my amygdala (the fear centre)."


You see, they are quite separate and distinct in the brain. And yes, the neocortex can send a message to the amygdala, but the problem is that the amygdala works faster sending the info the other way. So by the time the "logic" message gets to the amygdala, it has already fired off another "oh my God I'm in terrible danger and I'm going to die" message to the neocortex. I really think this is the problem with emetophobia and other very severe phobias.


Anyway, see what she thinks about that.


For me, I worked away with the 'b' part of cbt - "behavior" - gradual exposure - until I was able to slow down that fear response enough to insert a cognition. The cognition was "I'm not in any danger". Also things like "nothing is happening to me; I'm fine. I'm perfectly safe; I'm afraid, but I'm ok; This is just a body response; It doesn't matter. This is not a big deal." ..........these worked quite well for me over time.


Good luck!

[jodi054]

thank you that makes alot of sence .. i will cetainly put that too her when im next there .... [img]smileys/smilies_01.gif[/img]

[kel12347]

I second Sage's opinion. I think that the exposure therapy is having a greater impact on me than the cognitive work (not to say that the affirmation and acceptance techniques aren't good, because they're excellent for me). I can make vomit jokes now, and I actually think they're funny - albeit a bit gross. I can read about vomit without being afraid, and I'm working on listening to sounds without being afraid. I was very unsure that this would work when I first started exposure therapy, and I'm so happy that it is working.....there IS a way out of this hell!!

[jodi054]

we are going to work on the b part of cbt in afew weeks