# Exposure Therapy



## tallgal (May 15, 2003)

Wow, I didn't even know this forum was back (open your eyes Lucy!







)Anyway, this is a follow up for my thread on the Anxiety Forum, but I thought I would update here as it seems more applicable.Well after a few months of hell I feel like I have come out the other side. It all started when I went on holiday back in May/June with my mum, for some reason my IBS was a real issue on that particular holiday and my mum suggested I look at CBT as a treatment for the IBS. So on my return from Greece I went straight to my GP to talk about CBT, I was referred and off I went for my first appointment. We talked about how the IBS was affecting me and we discussed the idea of exposure therapy. Rather than put me in a group it was decided that I would do one-to-one CBT with my therapist and I would start my homework straight away.Details of how it all went is on the anxiety board, but to cut a long story short, dealing with the IBS issue brought to a head many underlying issues that I didn't even know were there. I started off having a couple of panic attacks, this slowly built up until I was in a state of total panic for about 2 weeks, I wasn't eating or sleeping and had a permanant feeling of sickness, plus the IBS went a bit crazy, I was keeping nothing inside me, but bizarrely felt no hunger at all.Well, after what I call D Day, a day when I could not stop crying, I actually felt that I was totally loosing control, a feeling I had never had before, so I called my CBT and insisted that we met the next day. I have gone through all of this with no meds, I would say that exposure therapy is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, it is easy to sit in the session and say 'yeah I can do that' but to actually try and walk into a bar/shop/restaurant when your legs are giving way because your heart is pounding so hard, is not an easy task! I am getting there, I am about 95% of my old self. The IBS is barely an issue, and all because the exposure therapy has helped me to develop a 'who gives a sh*t' attitude. It sounds so simple, but it is a concept you have to get to yourself. After my first session (my best friend had come along) she said 'Lucy your problem is that you don't have the who gives a sh*t attitude, and because of that you have these problems, I have a strong attitude like that and consequencially I never have any of these issues'. I am a very confident person in most aspects of life, but on a social level I obviously have anxiety issues, I am dealing with these, I have made positive life changes, I moved house last weekend to get away from my psycho neighbour, I have enrolled on an evening course 'an introduction to complimentary therapy' and generally I am sorting myself out. It has been tough, but I have all but done it now. I would recommend exposure therapy, it makes you face up to your issues and deal with them by facing them, by desensitising yourself to them, by almost mocking your anxiety. It is by far the worst, but the best thing I have ever done, and I am strong for it.Should anyone have any questions about this either PM me or put them up here, I have no objections to talking more deeply about it, it certainly has been an interesting few months!


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## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

Tallgal, I think its great this is helping you.







Yes, it can take effort and time, but it usally pays off in the long run, especially when you have a good therapist.This is great and glad you have come back to share and help others, very commendable also.







Continued success to you and you should post it to the suucess thread for CBT and HT. I will bump it up for you.Thanks


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## Guest (Nov 15, 2003)

welcome, tallgal!poetaster


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## Guest (Nov 15, 2003)

Good to see you back here, Tallgal.Facing our fears can be very rewarding. Glad you're doing so well.Evie


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