CBT for ADHD?

[dizzytuber]

I don’t get how CBT would help someone with or even without ADHD.  It sounds more like a type of hypnotherapy or psuedo-science.   Is there any empirical evidence to show CBT can really help a person out?  Thanks.

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[That Guy with ADHD]

Hi DT,

CBT really focuses on three key elements; thoughts, actions, and feelings. Our thoughts effect our actions which affect our feeling which affect out thoughts. Sometimes we get into a negative cycle and we need to get out of it. Of the three elements thoughts are the most effective point for a person to make a change in the cycle.  The CBT class I took focused giving us practical skills to recognize and stop negative thoughts which bring us into a downward cycle and change them into positive thoughts that will break that cycle.  Along with my ADHD I suffer from depression, anxiety, and an incredably low self esteme.  CBT really helped me to work on recognizing the negative thoughts.  Once you see them you can work on defeating them.  It’s not always easy and in my case will require a CBT refresher in the near future (old habits are hard to break).  As for the empirical evidence I don’t know of any personally.  It has been around for a while and there is a lot of good material available free on the internet.

Regards

Richard

a.k.a. That Guy with ADD

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[dizzytuber]

Howdy.  Well I’ve experienced using EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and it’s helped me cope with PTSD, abuse, and low self-esteem (as you).  Afterward about a year, I was nearly a different person than I used to be.  Normally EMDR was used for veterans in the US, focusing on Vietnam vets.   The material I’ve read about CBT, and speaking with a practitioner of CBT, the red flags were flinging around like grasshoppers avoiding the lawnmower.

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[That Guy with ADHD]

I’ve never heard of EMDR but it sounds interesting.  I’ll have to look it up.  Are there any resources you would recommend?

I love the analogy! Gross 😉

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[dizzytuber]

Well you could use Google to look up any website I would direct you to it.  I was first made aware of it in 1998, by a friend who’s a Vietnam vet, and went through this therapy for his PTSD.   At that time, I wasn’t in the “market” so to speak, to be treated or realized I was suffering from PTSD.

In 2000, the company I worked for, had a program called EAP (Employee Assistance Program) where you’re allowed 3 free visits, for each issue, with a counselor.  After that, you and your insurance paid for the rest of the visits.

After 2 sessions to fully explain what’s going on, my feelings, and so forth, I had originally gone in for anger management and he told me I was exhibiting signs of PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression.  He recommended some drugs, but I sternly said no.  It was then he brought up EMDR, gave me some literature about it, and a website to visit.

During my third week, I gave it a shot.  Rather than describe what the websites will tell you about EMDR, I’ll go down memory lane and tell a short story about my experience with it.

First he had me hold a plastic fob in each hand, that had a wire from each one to a box he held.  He told me to close my eyes, and begin talking about an issue I spoke about before in our earlier sessions.  Then he asked, how it made me feel, and then he asked how I would like to feel.  Then he said to concentrate on a ball of any color I choose, slowly sinking below the water, as he turned on the fobs, and the pulsed alternately.  In other words, the left fob would buzz, then the right one, then the left one, and so on.  The ball was supposed to represent my current feelings, the water was representative of that feeling being absorbed like a water drop into an ocean, and finding equilibrium.

So then I stopped it for a sec, and said this seemed more like hypnotherapy.  I simply didn’t see this working for me, until I got home, and realized if I saw this as a tool, to bring all my focus to start to understand why I was angry, then maybe I could diffuse it.

Then I saw all of the problems as a plant, each has its roots, and realizing where those roots start, you can start to trim them off slowly, one by one, so you understand WHY something or someone is making you angry.  It also helps you quiet your mind just long enough to look before you leap.

It took a year before I saw any real effect.  Surprisingly, my insurance paid for most of the bill, and I was spending 10 bucks a week to get help.  Not bad here in the USA.  After that year, I was dealing with a cancer scare, that turned out to be benign, but it still had me on long term disability from work, for almost 3 months.

I hope this helps, grasshopper.  🙂

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[That Guy with ADHD]

Thanks for the insight.  It is good to get a first hand account of a therapy.  It certainly sounds like an interesting method.  I’ll be sure to look it up.

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[beezneez]

Hi Dizzytuber. CBT is definitely very evidence-based and is definitely not pseudo-science. It is actually very mainstream and is an approach used very commonly by mental health professionals. There are mountains of research studies to prove its efficacy, including many literature reviews. The basic premise is that changing your thoughts (i.e distorted thinking)  and/or your behaviours can have a positive impact on your emotions as the 3 are connected. As for its efficacy specifically for ADHD, I have not looked into that yet.  However, I’m anticipating that if any studies have been done, they will show that it can be helpful for ADHD. If anyone has done the research, I’d love to know 🙂

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[dizzytuber]

Hello beezneez.  everything you wanna know about CBT, from an actual scientific community.   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3673298/

When you get to the criticisms of traditional CBT, then you’ll see where my doubts come from.    Also, you’ll notice the renewed interest, which leads to this article.  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/adhd-behavioral-therapy-more-effective-drugs-long-term/

The clinician who spoke of CBT, when I inquired about it, just didn’t make it sound realistically viable to help me specifically.  After reading those articles, I chose to sit this choice aside, but then again, I’m not interested in taking drugs either.  It’s a pickle.  Yep.

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