Drug and Treatments

What is CAT (Cognitive Analytic Therapy)?

~ Vickyw

CAT Therapy

When my Community Mental Health nurse said she was giving me a course of CAT Therapy I asked myself the same question,what is CAT Therapy?

CAT stands for Cognitive Analytic Therapy; is a therapy technique that looks at the way a person thinks, feels, and acts, and the events and relationships that underlie these experiences (often from childhood or earlier in life).

After being on the Mental Health team for over a year, they finally decided to give me some much-needed therapy.

I had already had 12 sessions of CBT therapy and almost a year’s worth of Psycho Therapy with a private therapist which cost me hundreds of pounds.

I wasn’t even sure whether CAT therapy would work, considering none of the other treatments had, but I decided to give them a go. I was supposed to have 12 sessions, but I only had 11 before the CMHT decided to discharge me.

During my CAT Therapy sessions, I was asked to draw a mind map that included a happy place (which was a desert island) and a bad place (a sea of sharks) with arrows leading to highs, lows, and in-between moods.

I was also handed some internet printouts to read and go through during the 45-minute sessions.

Did I find these sessions beneficial?

I managed to finish the map of my whole life journey within a few sessions.

I still feel like I could still do with some more therapy but without a proper diagnosis, I’m not sure which therapy would be best for me.

I attend a Bipolar group monthly, where there are people who have better control of their illness than me and are very honest with giving me advice on staying healthy and safe.

I’m also still waiting for Outlook South West to work out whether they are going to help me or whether they are going to put me back on the mental health team for a proper diagnosis and more therapy.

Have you or someone you know ever had CAT Therapy?

What are your thoughts on CAT Therapy?

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Being prescribed antidepressants

~ Vickyw

antidepressants

 

I spent years trying to avoid taking antidepressants, in September 2013 things became so bad that I had no choice.

I went to the doctors after being suspended from my job and falling out with my friends. I was a total mess and wanted to end it all.

I can’t remember how I ended up at the doctor’s, but somehow I managed to walk for a whole hour to get to the surgery.

I was lucky enough to have a friendly female locum who prescribed me Sertraline and asked me to come back and see her in a few day’s time.

Sertraline is an antidepressant in a group of drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

The pill is used to treat, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

I didn’t want to go on tablets, and for years I have been struggling with highs and lows thinking they would just disappear and I can find my happy ending story.

I previously took St Johns worts when things got really bad, just after my 21st birthday.

St Johns Worts are a natural herbal remedy, used for mild to moderate depression.

I found them ok at the time, to the extent where I could stop crying, but they are certainly no cure.

When I first started taking antidepressants called sertraline, I had horrendous side effects including sickness and a bad stomach, but this settled down within a few days.

I was also offered CBT first at a lower level, and after a few sessions of talking, I was moved up a step to receiving higher intensity CBT, which is more in-depth sessions.

After completing my CBT sessions, I found that the sertraline and CBT sessions hadn’t even touched what was going on in my head, I even had a couple of counseling sessions with a private counsellor who deals with Bupa patients.

In March 2014 I hit rock bottom again when my Dad had a heart attack in January, I had fallen out with someone who I thought was my friend after receiving the news that my mum had a mass on her kidney and that she would have to have her kidney taken out.

This time the doctor prescribed more antidepressants this time Prozac another SSRI was used to treat depression.

He gave me a prescription in case I needed it but told me I need to stop taking pills and just get on with life.

By the beginning of February 2015, I was at the doctor’s again, and this time I was put on the mental health team as I was worse than ever.

The mental health team took months to access me and when they did they got my notes mixed up.

They put me on a relatively new medication called Venlafaxine yet another SSRI) Antidepressant and anxiety tablet.

I was on the mental health team for over a year, and I have just been released from the team after 11 CAT sessions and no proper diagnosis.

They said I have Adjustment disorder, which according to Wikipedia and other sources is a stress-related illness to life events and lasts no longer than six months – Anxiety and Personality disorder.

A personality disorder is also often mixed up with Bipolar 2, which they said they couldn’t rule out!

I’ve now been told that I have to try more Outlook South West lower level therapies because of NHS funding.

I’m tempted to get another opinion from a private therapist because I’m angry about the way I have been treated.

I have had this illness for years, even throughout my school days there was always something different, the boredom, the angst, the tearaway. It wasn’t for attention or fear of abandonment(which is what Borderline Personality patients are known for) because I often felt like a bubble being protected because I was trapped, with so many expectations almost celebrity-like.

It wasn’t even life-related, at times life appeared to be ok, but I still felt like there was something missing.

At times there were lots of people around me I wanted to scream let me out! I hated the spotlight yet I hated being hated!

Has anyone else had similar problems with antidepressants or getting a diagnosis?

Perhaps you have been misdiagnosed?

I’ve kept this inside for ages and now feel the time is right to let my voice be heard!

I refuse to become another statistic shutting up and hiding away from society.