Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

When I was first introduced to CBT, I was like, ‘What even is CBT?’ - Cognitive behavioural therapy! This type of therapy focuses on the development of personal coping strategies and working on emotional and behavioural problems. 

The next question I asked was, ‘How is CBT going to help me?’ My therapist explained that CBT focuses on trying to control the stress, deal with grief, and face many other common life challenges.

I will admit, this got me interested in learning more about what CBT can offer me. As my problem was with my eating and that’s where learning a new coping strategy came in. I have relied upon my bulimia for many years, and instead of using healthy coping strategies, I decided to take the unhealthy route.

The reason I took this route was because I was in a very dark place growing up. Every teenager deals with some kind of negative comments whilst in high school, but for me? It was pretty much all the time. Every day when I went to school, there was name-calling, people tripping me up because they thought it was ‘funny’. 

That went on for a good 2-3 years, but, I just kept silent because I was brainwashed into thinking I’m not worthy of anything. I’m not worthy of respect or self-love like others were. I was the laughing stock of the school and I just let people walk all over me. 

That’s when I turned to Bulimia, that was the only thing that I felt was there for me when no one else was. Obviously I had the Irish twins at the time and that’s why I’ve stood by them till today. But, mentally? Bulimia had full control of me. 

Finding a new coping strategy was going to be hard as I’ve used bulimia as mine for many years, so to just give it up and replace it was a big deal for me. I’m still struggling today to replace that coping strategy but I’m still willing to give it a go.

I’ve recently started with a new CBT couch and she’s from a charity known as ‘Mind’. 
A CBT coach helps you to understand the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours. They help you to focus on the here and now to reset your mindset back to positive thinking instead of negative. 

They are a very helpful mental health charity that provides information for teenagers and young adults about different types of mental illnesses. 

I would highly recommend trying out CBT to find the right one that suits your needs, everyone is different and it might not work for some people, but it is currently working for me so I’m going to continue my treatment until I feel I have made progress. 

Recently I’ve crossed paths with the mental health charity known as ‘Mind’. They help to empower people to understand their condition/illness. We offer a range of national and local services including workplace training to develop mentally healthy offices, applied suicide intervention skills, Mental Health First Aid and bespoke training sessions.

If you would like to read more about Mind then visit; https://www.mind.org.uk/

• Mel