this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024

65 points (92.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26734 readers

3235 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Series [and also serious]: What's a CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) tool you found useful? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

24 Hour daily agenda (30 minute blocks)

This was from David Burns Feeling Good and I found it quite useful at various points. Basically:

1 Use a form or make your own spreadsheet with all 24 hours of the day covered but split up even further into 30 or 15 minute blocks. It also has a section to report what you scheduled vs what you ended up doing

2 Brainstorm all the things you need or would like to get done and give a time estimate for each based on how long its taken you ideally in the past

3 Schedule each item based on how much effort/complexity it requires (earlier = more complex/energy-intensive) and make sure the tasks are spaced so that there is enough time and a little buffer for breathing room (based on your durations)

Sorta looks like this, can't seem to find the original necessarily but you get the point

Very useful and practical tool

Please name the tool/exercise and limit to CBT for this thread (I want to cover and discover others in future topics focused on them). I really want to avoid boilerplate namedropping "this or that therapy but you'd have to pay to see a therapist, you wouldn't understand". That just not helpful, please elaborate Any pedantic replies not answering question won't be entertained

top 16 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've been doing cognitive behavioural therapy to try and sort out my depression and I found that having to stick to an exact time table actually made it worse, instead I've just got to try and get one thing done at some point every day and then each week I add another job on untill I'm able to get all of them done like a functioning person.

I'm also supposed to pair it with doing something that I enjoy that gets me out of the house but I keep forgetting to do that bit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

You can actually still do that this way, just adapted for like 1 task a day and maybe schedule it and you can increase or decrease it based on where you're at. I like that whole 3 things idea, but 1-2 is fine too. I'm guilty of trying to shoehorn myself into superman level performance when I'm laughably off that time

My theory is it sort of tricks you into mentally rehearsing yourself carrying out what seems to be the impossible when you're in a bad way and to get it out of your head and processed

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I did a Behavior Activation Therapy course and we used a tool similar to what you posted in the OP.

Only we listed a few activities along with how difficult we thought it would be. Each morning we would reflect on the activities we got done and write down how difficult they actually ended up (sometimes more or less). And make a new list.

The process helped me to challenge a lot of thoughts and emotions around activities.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Imma supplement my system with the difficulty haha. Sort of like a behavioral exposure therapy style flavor

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is my experience with CBT. It was fine in a way, to recognize my feeling, but it never dealt with them. Only when I found a therapist who worked in CBT and acceptance based therapy did I start to improve.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Can you please explicitly share a tool with a name that can be nailed down that helped you specifically, like my example above?

I want to give people concrete examples to latch on to besides the this entire therapy is super helpful. Every name-drop of any almost never generally leads to any tools to try now or sort of paywalls lifechanging techniques behind a therapist which many people can't afford or access.

Remarking seperately, I do retrospectively find CBT somewhat troubling in the way it assumed feeling bad emotions was always or mostly a result of poor or problem thinking when that sort of strips your feelings and emotions and by extension your lived experience of their validity and relevance when honoring them and learning what they arose to say can be bery helpful and cathartic to respect and experience

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Insomnia Coach App. It’s a completely free app on iOS and Android for tracking your sleep and developing the tools and habits for getting a full night’s rest. It’s a CBT-based app with a sleep diary, weekly training plan, and tools like guided meditation.

Weirdly it’s developed by the US Department of Veteran Affairs, which explains why it’s free and there’s no in-app purchases. Nothing about it is specific to veterans, and it’s one of the most commonly recommended apps for dealing with insomnia.

I can vouch that it helped reduce the frequency of sleepless nights for me, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone unfortunate enough to be dealing with insomnia.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I've seen VA support of CBT in several avenues. I wonder if it's just the visibility I happen to have to it or if they really do use it as their preferred treatment type.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Its definitely the most scalable which makes sense and demographically its probably the most vanilla so it can be tolerated by the most diverse range of people

They have several interesting apps

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have a reminder go off on all my devices that reminds me to think of three things for which I'm grateful. In fact, I still haven't addressed it for today, so let's do so here:

- Three day weekend

- The recent heat is absent for the entire weekend at a good 70-71°

- Partner took care of planning a trip so I didn't stress about it

And with that, I get to close that reminder. Doing this as daily has been a positive for my mental health.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Im gonna start doing this sometimes as a group exercise on CasualConversation or something. The interactivity might help solidify it more

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

analog lists to cross off for more productivity.

i wrote out "pushupsx20" and then "1, 2, 3"....up to the number of days in the month.

same with "paintx20min", "running 1hr", and so on.

so I wrote out a list like that of 20 or so activities that I wanted to regularly get done and i cross off the 1, 2, 3 so on each time I completed one instance.

crossing off an item on the list is extremely satisfying, and it was fine to do like five sets of push-ups over the day and cross off 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 to get ahead of the schedule.

i didn't have to do 20 different activities everyday, but It's very fun to write a big x through a number and the goals themselves were modest enough that by the end of the month, everything was crossed off and I had done hundreds of pushups and situps I otherwise wouldn't have and paintings and focused on several hobbies that I usually didn't give enough attention to.

I also could look back at the sheet with all of this activity and marvel at how much i accomplished that month, that's pretty good.

it was a very productive method.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Huh, I might try that sheet planner myself, thank you.

The one thing that helped me a lot was just my therapist explaining to me that my mom was an adult who made her own decisions about her own life, and It wasn't my responsibility to fix her problems because of her decisions that she kept making

She's a huge enabler of my adult brother to the detriment of her own life/wellbeing, and I was so fucked up over not being able to help her in any way. Just that explanation was enough to get me to breathe functionally again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, this was a hard-fought lesson for me as well. All we can do is turn away to focus on being eufunctional (I made this up) and leave them to their business. Family does not mean you should burn yourself to keep them warm, its totally unsustainable and even if it wasn't, fuck them.

You can love and appreciate someone from afar without them having any power to cause harm or inappropriate influence over you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Series

Please edit that (you can) or I'll keep thinking of puns instead of what I tried

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Done