As part of my therapy, it has been suggested that I write more about my experiences and so I thought I would use one example of a CBT method in this latest post.

So what's CBT?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic approach that addresses dysfunctional emotions, maladaptive behaviors and cognitive processes and contents through a number of goal-oriented, explicit systematic procedures. The name refers to behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and to therapy based upon a combination of basic behavioral and cognitive principles and research.

- Wikipedia

I have to admit up-front that I was initially sceptical about how CBT would help me in my fight back to "normality" (whatever the hell "normality" actually is).

I'm now 5 weeks into my therapy, and by putting some strategic methods into practice, I am finding that I am now able to manage some of those instances whereby I feel anxious (like on a packed train), angry (like when I'm dealing with idiots) or worried to the extreme.


So if you were asked to imagine mentally placing some (or all) of your problems somewhere out of harms way, where would that be?

I'm told that a good example and a popular method is to imagine placing your troubles into a black bag and throwing it out with the rubbish. Now there's a bit more to it than that, but essentially you have to initially perform the actual act of writing down your problem onto a piece of paper, going out to the bin, putting it in the bin and physically "take the trash out".

I didn't think this particular method was that original, nor very interesting.

So what's MY method, I don't hear you cry...

I imagine placing mine into a glass bottle, throwing it into the ocean, gradually watching it as the tide washes it out to sea. That's the old romantic in me, I guess...