CBT for ED's

[Cynthia]

Several people in my cbt group had a lot of success with using the TEA form thought counter exercise in changing the way they looked at food and eating. I can't comment on first hand experience but it changed the way I looked at things and reduced the accompanying anxiety to almost nil so I can certainly see how the process would work on ED's as well and anxiety and panic disorder which I did suffer from. It may be worth looking into. The book we started my group with called Been there, Done that? DO THIS! by Sam Obitz is real good and straight forward if you want learn more about cbt. I hope this is useful to someone:confused:

[Mark]

Cynthia,

People may not know what the TEA form entails. Can you describe it for them please? that will be helpful.

Mark

[Cynthia]

Sorry about that Mark. I get so used to talking in acronyms I forget that it was not that long ago that I didn't know what CBT or TEA forms were either:eek:

CBT=Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

TEA= Thought Error Analysis

TEA forms are a thought countering and modifying exercise done on a sheet of paper. You write down your anxiety causing thought first, then identify and write down the common thinking errors in the thought that cause most anxiety and stress and finally analyze and counter the original thought and replace it with a more objective and less disturbing thought. I know this sounds rather simplistic but over time they have a dramatically positive effect on your outlook and your life:)

[Cynthia]

I hope my explanations were what you wanted Mark?

[Mark]

You did great Cynthia. I was just hoping that you'd spell it out for folks, and that is exactly what you did.

[Cynthia]

Thanks Mark and Happy New Year :D

[finding my way]

Thanks Cynthia, I just read your thread and learned something! Hope you are having a good 2009:)

[Cynthia]

Finding my way, I am so happy to hear you learned something new from my post:)
I'm doing pretty well and hope your new year is off to a good start too:p

[Cynthia]

I'm curious, what does the reputation number mean? I noticed Mark is an admin and his is the same as mine but finding my way is four times as high of a number? Thanks.

[Mark]

Reputation is just a count of the number of times someone has liked something you've written, and wanted to make a public note of it. We use reputation to manage the "graduation" of people from initial restricted status to trusted status - all new accounts start with a reputation of 5, and any single vote (pushing that up to 6) will result in graduation. Beyond 6, it's all just a "vote of appreciation" or something like that.

[Cynthia]

Thanks Mark:)
At risk of being called dumb... How do I make a public note of something you or anyone else posts on here then?
Thanks again.

[Mark]

Not sure what you mean by "public note". If you mean it in the sense of the way I used it while describing reputation in my earlier post, then the way you'd do that would be to add to a poster's reputation. To do this look above any given individual post for the "scales of justice" icon - it's in the upper right corner of the post. If you click on this icon, a little window will open up and you can vote on the person's contribution - raising or lowering the person's reputation. I believe you can also append a little sentence describing your thoughts.

The other way to make a "public note" would be to quote someone's text. To do that - copy and paste what that person has to say into your own new post and surround that text by the quote tags ( and . If you highlight the text and then click on the "quote" icon (the icon that looks like a cartoon text bubble), these tags will be added automatically

[Cynthia]

That is exactly what I was asking Mark. Thank you:)
I'm going to try and add to yours right now:p
Thanks again.

[Cynthia]

Back to the original topic of this thread I wanted to share that one of my co-workers daughters had an eating disorder and I told her about CBT and the book we used in my group so she got it for her for Christmas and she told me today that she has already seen some signs of it helping her not succumb to her old habits. Too early to call it a cure or even a success but they pleased so far:)

[amberlyn]

I will definitely have to check out that book, Cynthia. I've been in recovery for a little over a year now and it's getting easier everyday, but every coping skill can help some! :) Thanks for the info!

[Cynthia]

Amberlyn,
So good to hear you have been in recovery for a year now:D I agree that the more coping techniques we have the more likely we are not to fall into relapse. The TEA forms work well if you do them regularly and it only takes me a few minutes a day to do them now. I think you will like adding them to your repertoire. Keep in touch:)

[amberlyn]

Definitely will! Thanks again :)