Opinions please

For me personally, in-person CBT therapy didn't help me. Which is a shame.

I struggled to successfully use the coping mechanisms that they teached me. They taught me every single grounding excercise and breathing technique in the book, they tried to teach me to have a completely different outlook on reality, but after my CBT finished with them I found that when I was in an anxiety provoking situation that nothing they taught me actually helped me in that moment and I still felt very scared and anxious. I did the things they taught me, but the anxiety inside me was so strong that it overcame everything that my therapist taught me.

I also found that my therapist had a very 'scripted' way of speaking to me, and it felt like she was just reading the same thing from a sheet of paper, kind of felt that she used a 'one size fits all' kind of approach for all her patients, it didn't feel personally tailored to me.

On the plus side, it was very comforting to talk to someone and share my struggles, but once I walked out of her office and I was alone again in the world, all my fears and anxieties were still there and still as severe as always. Still trembling, still sick to my stomach with fear, heart pounding, dizzy and so scared I just wanted to hide. I'd just sit in one spot for hours at a time unable to move as I was just so scared and anxious.

I'm now on three different anti-anxiety medications, long term (5 years so far), and to be honest they are the only thing that have helped me take the edge off of my chronic mental health issues.

Of course, it's different for everyone, I'm sure CBT has helped lots of people and it could help you.. For every 1 person like me who didn't get any help from therapy/CBT, I'm sure there will be 10 people who it really helps and is really beneficial to, so I'm sure there's no harm in trying it, especially before going down the medication route.

Good luck!

I actually just got home from my current therapy treatment appointment not long ago, but I'm currently in a different type of therapy, I'm in a 30-session Trauma therapy treatment. I find it way more helpful than the CBT therapy I was previously in. In my current trauma therapy treatment my new therapist treats me in a very unique way, she helps to explain in-depth psychologically how events in my past have shaped my thought processes, how I get triggered by certain things and just how certain events from my past have made me behave/feel the ways I do now on a daily basis as an adult. She's currently helping me process past trauma to try to stop it from manifesting into random bursts of anger or sadness which I experience from time to time.

I'm on session 5 of 30 so far and I'm really enjoying it so far, it's very interesting and emotional, sometimes emotions have run high during the appointment(s), but I find it's really rewarding. Along with the 3 medications I take, it seems to be helping, but I do still struggle with my nerves, my self esteem and keeping calm around others.

Another slight negative though for me personally when it comes to in-person therapy, if it goes well I can start to feel very comfortable and safe with my therapist, and when the sessions finally come to an end, it can feel like you've lost an important part of your life. It can feel like you've lost one of the only people who truly understands you and keeps you grounded. I just have to try to not get too attached to a therapist who I get along well with.

If you do decide to look into going to therapy I hope it goes well for you Jane, there's many different types of therapy and for me some have worked and some don't, also as I say it's very important you get a therapist who you feel listens to you, cares and doesn't just see you as 'just another patient on their list'.