Group Therapy

You may have figured out through reading this blog that I’m not a huge fan of the different types of therapy (eg. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). I think most of the exercises they make you do are stupid and I don’t think they have ever actually helped me. Not that they actually are stupid. Apparently they help a lot of people and if you’re one of them then that’s great for you, but I definitely am not. I’ve had many arguments with my therapist about it because she insists that they help most people and doesn’t want to believe that I am one of the few who do not benefit from it. Eventually she stopped trying to make me do them and now we just talk, which helps me so much more. In my last post I mentioned how some of the things she has said to me completely changed my perspective and helped to improve my life, and this is completely true. I benefit from her talking to me about any issues I’m having and giving me examples of what I could do instead of, for instance, freaking out.

All that being said, she convinced me to join a CBT group that she was starting for adults with ADHD. We had our first session the other night and the first question she asked each of us was what we wanted to get out of this group therapy. My response, “I don’t know.” And luckily she let me leave it at that or we would’ve been there for a while because I honestly have no idea what I expect to get from this group. I don’t have the highest opinion of CBT but my previous experience (which included attending group therapy twice) was for the depression, not ADHD. I’m not expecting much but I figure I might as well try it, can’t hurt right? The “exercises” probably won’t help me much but maybe something someone says will. That’s how it works with my therapist. There is one major problem though, the sessions are two hours long. Try getting a bunch of people with ADHD to sit still and pay attention for two hours when their meds are starting to wear off. I give her credit though, she brought “toys” that we can play around with during the session to help keep us engaged, and she encouraged doodling, which is what I did for the entire session. It helps a bit, but being seated for that long is still pretty brutal. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get through it somehow.