Johnny invited me over to the forum to share my experience and I hope it helps someone like it has me. I finished a cbt group this past summer and life's a beach now for me. The book we used in my group was called Been There, Done That? DO THIS! by Sam Obitz and has an exercise called a TEA form that is awesome and if you are disciplined you could do them on your own and you will start to feel better. Cbt is worth all the early struggles I had with it and it got me off of all my meds. There are a lot of therapists who say they practice cbt but really don't so be careful. If they are not teaching you exercises like the TEA form and having you work on them everyday it is probably just talk therapy and not cbt! The fact you do all the work yourself also builds your self-confidence which is a cool side benefit :mrgreen:

Hi beachgirl,

Glad to hear the CBT works well for you. Hadn't heard of the "TEA" stuff til now but a quick google gives a little info on it and it sounds like what is also termed 'challenging cognitive distortions' (tho TEA sounds much simpler!).
The 'cognitive' (or the "C") component of CBT is mostly about challenging the rationality behind the thinking. In CBT it's about realising and accepting where cognitive beliefs are more extreme than 'normal'.

The TEA is only useful if the cognition is extreme or distorted as sometimes it may be realistic eg when it rains some people hate to drive because of the increased risk of accidents - this is normal, but if it makes you avoid driving altogether, it is the behaviour that is extreme - not the thought. This is where behavioural interventions, such as graduated exposure or desensitisation, are more useful.

Example can be given such as public speaking: Nothing abnormal about being nervous when you first start out so doing the TEA doesn't help too much - but the more you do it, and getting from smaller to larger groups of people, the easier it becomes (in theory - but I still get butterflies before a large audience!).

Thanks Mr. Ian and nice to meet you As far as what I have learned is that TEA forms and exposure go hand in hand with the TEA form being used to activate you to do the exposures and lessen your fear to what is realistic and throw away all the irrational or overly emotional fears we fantasize will happen during the exposures. I know what you mean about the butterflies too

Hi Beachgirl Tea form? can you give us some examples thanks.. Im interested in the Tea as im Xtreme and i found normal CBT hasnt worked to well

hi itchy, TEA forms are a thought countering and retraining exercise where you list your upsetting Thoughts, then identify the Errors and the analyze and replace the upsetting thoughts with more accurate objective thoughts that are not as emotion based and upsetting. We used them before during and after our exposures as well as first thing every morning and when ever anxiety getsa the best of me now. I hope this is helpful

Thanks beachgirl, the story of success makes me feel so much better. Most people say u can never get well from these things, thats makes me feel depressed and hopeless.

You're welcome Ozark. I'm sure if I can do it you can too Take care and keep in touch.

how's it goin ozark?

Happy new year Ozark

Amazing that it has been nearly two years since I originally posted this thread. Time flies when you are having fun and since I started doing the TEA forms my anxiety is no longer keeping me down and I am having fun. I sure hope a bunch of you have tried cbt and are feeling the benefits too now.

beachgirl Wrote:my anxiety is no longer keeping me down and I am having fun.

This is wonderful news!

Thanks Nour
I hope you are doing well too :mrgreen:

Happy Holidays everyone

beachgirl Wrote:Happy Holidays everyone

Happy Holidays to you too beachgirl. shappy

And, while I'm here, would you mind explaining what CBT is and how it helps? Maybe if you could use a few examples from your personal dealings with CBT? Like, activities you did, etc?

I'm just curious because I'm going to start CBT next week and I really don't know much about it. So, it'd be nice to have some understanding before I go for my appointment.

Hi Ana,
Sure I'm happy to answer any questions you have also. CBT teaches you how to identify and counter the bad thinking errors we make that cause our anxiety. It is really pretty basic stuff that works great. For me the TEA form thought countering exercise was the thing that got me over the hump and on the road to recovery. I'm sorry I didn't see your note and get back to you sooner but I never received a reply notification? Since you have probably already started your treatment please let me know how it is going so far and if you have any more questions. Work hard on the TEA forms and you won't regret it angel11