Online-only CBT (ish) Courses for Bad Esteem, Intrustive Thoughts

September 18, 2015 9:02 AM

Hope me an online-only CBT class for Perfectionism, worthlessness, and other related 'Bad Thoughts'. (Or an alternative plan of treatment.)

Looked at Beating The Blues, MoodGym, Online Therapy (Marriage)

- paid is ok
- friend resists ones that are marketed for "Depression" or "Anxiety". They claim those aren't their exact issues. I have suggested it's really not fundamentally different. Back me up :)
- he is a health professional who is afraid of professional repercussions of accessing in-person mental health care.

This is for a friend. I feel fine, thanks for asking!
Okay, okay... I am up and down lately, but not about this stuff.

posted by gregglind to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

Best answer: The CBITs apps from Northwestern are pretty good.
posted by juniperesque at 9:16 AM on September 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I'm a therapist and I regularly recommend (and conduct) programs for dealing with depression and anxiety for people dealing with perfectionism (which is almost always connected to anxiety) and worthlessness (which is almost always connected with depression) and "bad thoughts" (which are almost always connected to anxiety and depression, even in people who are hallucinating due to psychosis).
posted by jaguar at 10:03 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Here's a free 8-week course in mindfulness-based stress reduction by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is amazing in his own right.

I have yet to find anything more helpful than mindfulness when it comes to intrusive thoughts: Grasp it, recognize it for what it is (just a thought! doesn't exist anywhere outside of my head!), let it go.
posted by divined by radio at 11:41 AM on September 18, 2015 [2 favorites]

I really like Rick Carson's approach to Taming Your Gremlin - it is a very gentle, mindfulness based approach that is good for perfectionists and other problems with Bad Thoughts and noisy inner critics. It is also compatible with a more general mindfulness practice. In addition to the book, which is a good starting place, I notice that they offer an on-line class for coaches and therapist which would give him a professional excuse for doing the work.
posted by metahawk at 1:06 PM on September 18, 2015