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NHS Therapy struggles

Stevie

I’ve spent years masking, forcing eye contact, small talk, pretending I’m fine. Now CBT asks me to notice thoughts, change behaviour, practise responses. Even though they try to adapt it, it still feels like “act normal”, which for me = mask again. I'm struggling to understanding what they want me to do.

The scripts are hard to remember, my memory’s worse, and concentration’s gone. Instead of helping, therapy just makes me panic. They’re now talking about referring me to step 3.

Has anyone else been through this?

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  • Stevie said:
    Now CBT asks me to notice thoughts
    Stevie said:
    Even though they try to adapt it,

    Do you know if the CBT has been adapted to suit autists rather than just for your situation? This is an important adaptation and if it isn't working then you need to explain to them what the issues are otherwise it will be a waste of time or worse - will negativly impact your mental health.

    Try to articulate your struggles to the therapist - take the mask off and explain to them how if feels when you try to do it - they cannot help if you pretend and "muddle on through". It isn't easy but it is probably the only way for them to help you.

    I am assuming you are autistic (since you are writing your post on an autistic forum) but could you also be ADHD? This can impact the ability to remember and focus on these tasks and may require a further change to CBT for best effect.

    Good luck as this unmasking and telling someone their therapy isn't working can be difficult for us.

  • in reply to Iain

    I’m not sure I could wait for an ADHD diagnosis, but I do have executive functioning problems that make therapy tasks difficult. That’s probably part of why I panic and can’t keep up.

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