If you've been following my blog from its inception back in January, you may have read the post where I open up about what it's like to suffer from and live with anxiety. Towards the back end of 2016, my anxiety was at an all time high and was taking over control. In an effort to try and gain some control back, I decided to refer myself to have Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
This was something my GP had discussed with me previously on many occasions, but due to bad experiences of therapy I'd had before, it was something I was very unsure of. It was last brought up to me in January 2016 after I'd had those series of panic attacks that caused the medication I was taking at that time to double in dose.
I had my CBT through Talking Therapies Newcastle, which is a psychological wellbeing service that is part of the NHS. The referrals can be done in two ways, either by your GP or from yourself directly, with the latter generally being quicker. It was a fairly easy process, I called the service and explained that I wanted make a self referral. I was advised that I needed to have an assessment and that a wellbeing practitioner would call me back and go through this assessment with me. In the assessment you basically talk about your mood, if you have any idea why you could be feeling the way you are, any mental health issues that you may have etc. It lasted for about half an hour and towards the end the practitioner presented the different forms of therapy that they believe may be useful to you.
I was presented with and chose CBT. I was advised that a practitioner would be in touch, but there was generally a four week waiting period.
I had eight sessions in total, all of which were telephone based. Each session would last roughly half an hour and although I never met my therapist face to face, she was absolutely lovely. I suppose it is important to mention that there is work involved outside of the telephone sessions. For instance, I was sent 'homework' materials to read to help help give me a better understanding of specific aspects of anxiety and recognise the biological and psychological reactions. I would also have to fill in a questionnaire before each session to allow my therapist to understand my symptoms on a week to week basis, this would also allow her to understand how to tailor each session specifically for me.
I was given many different areas that I could work on in order to help manage and control my anxiety, which included: mindfulness, postponing worry and letting go. It's important that explain that not all of these will work for everyone and also they do not magically work overnight. It takes time to practice these. Personally, I decided to try and work on mindfulness because I felt like that was best for me. To be honest, it is harder than I initially expected, but I have noticed that with frequent practising I am getting better. It's something that I'll just have to constantly practice in order to feel the full benefit of it.
To be honest I cannot fault the service, I had an extremely easy experience from start to finish. The practitioners I came into contact with were patient and understanding. I'm definitely glad that I decided to do it initially and that I've finished my CBT - I do feel like it's something that has helped me. Whether or not it works long term and helps manage those heightened feelings of anxiety when I return to university, I do not know. But the great thing about the service is that I know it's there and can always refer myself again. It's also important to mention that I believe you'll get out of it what you put into it. If you listen to your therapist, read the materials they send you, engage fully in the sessions and put the work in outside of the sessions then you should start to see some improvements, no matter how small they may seem. And even the small improvements should be celebrated.
Even though my sessions have now ended and I've been discharged, I'm going to continue to work on everything I was taught in my sessions. I'm also using the app Headspace alongside this. Ultimately, I feel like my mental health has improved so much since the start of my sessions and that's the main thing.
I'll link the website below incase anybody is interested in the service or would simply like some more information.
http://www.talkinghelpsnewcastle.org
Love,
Brogan
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