Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is used to support and help people through all sorts of illnesses.
It can help you to adjust to some of the consequences of being unwell and help you to feel more in control of the illness.
It may help a person to identify, understand and modify behaviours and beliefs which can impact on their illness.
CBT can help people with:
Sometimes you know what you're supposed to do, but it can be really hard to do it. CBT can help you to get your head around this!
An example of this could be a person who has very high standards - a perfectionist. They may find it impossible to lower their standards and to pace and manage their day-to-day activities. They may push themselves to do everything they need to do for the week into one day. This makes them really exhausted and they spend the rest of the week recovering. This in turn makes them feel more helpless and reinforces to them that they have no control over their illness. The therapist will help them to look at their thoughts and behaviour and suggest ways of managing the problem in a more productive way. Between therapy sessions the person gets time to try out new ways of dealing with the problem.
There have been no clinical trials of CBT in children with M.E. but studies in adults have shown positive results in some people well enough to attend an out-patient clinic. It is believed that this can be a beneficial strategy for some children if the therapist is appropriately trained.
Information produced July 2003
Updated June 2004
