Anxiety OCD and everything in between

Hey @kelseaballerini ,

I'm sorry to hear how hard things are for you at the moment. It sounds like the pregnancy has added to your emotional rollercoaster.

I have BPD, and I had mentalisation based therapy for 18 months. I hear you when you mentioned the challenges that come with BPD.

Have you been able to focus on any DBT skills to help you get through it?

What supports do you have in place?

Please know you are not alone on this journey. I'd be more than happy to sit with you through this.

Hi, I’m new here too. Good on you for reaching out. At the moment I feel so lonely I think it causes me anxiety. Like a lack of connection.

celebrate little wins like if you shower or brush your teeth.

Welcome to the forums @Joy84 .

Great to have you join us.

Thank you for this!

I’ve never heard of mentalisation therapy before but it sounds like it could be great. How has the experience been for you if you don’t mind me asking?

some of the DBT skills have been useful and I am able to put some in place (STOP, checking the facts, ect) but others I’m finding more triggering for my anxiety than anything unfortunately. Especially opposite action and radical acceptance.

I am very lucky to have my parents be a great support and I am working regularly with a new psychologist and psychiatrist.

thank you so much being so kind. I really appreciate it 🙂 i can be very isolating when not a lot of people in my life understand.

Hi Joy!
I’m sorry to hear you’re having a hard time at the moment.

Loneliness and anxiety often go hand in hand for me too.

Am always open for a chat. Were in this together.

@kelseaballerini ,

MBT was a life saver. It was a really slllllooooooowwwww therapy, which means you can't just see results the next day or week or month.

Whilst DBT teaches skills, MBT doesn't teach skills. You practise mentalising in group therapy. Each group has about 8 people max is facilitated by at least 2 clinicians. That goes for about 1.5-2hrs each week. Then there's the individual component which is 1 hour each week. All up, HUGE committment to have nearly 3 hours of therapy each week for just over 18months. But, absolutely worth it.

During therapy, there was a point I thought, "What am I doing here? I'm just wasting time!" because I couldn't see anything shift. However, after the conclusion for the entire MBT treatment, things got really bad and from then, things haven't stopped getting better. I think things got worse first because I could no longer rely on 3 hours of therapy to keep me going.

The discharge was hard, but it wasn't long before I saw such an immense change. Sounds weird, but I would say that my brain changed. My thinking was absolutely different after the therapy so that things couldn't be better now.

To this day, I just say 'WOW' to MBT. I can't even explain what a huge difference it has made on my life.

One question, do you have a group component as part of DBT?

Group therapy was the hardest for me during MBT, but this was where things shifted. It highly doubt I would have the results I have without group.

Hi! I know it’s been a while but I just wanted to pop in and say thank you for this super thoughtful reply and all the wonderful information.

I had a rough few weeks after posting this and had to take time away from everything but wanted to properly thank you for all the support!

xoxo