First session of DBT next Tuesday!

I am so nervous, as the title I have my first session of DBT next Tuesday. I will only be going to the groups to start of with though as they haven't managed to find a slot for the one to one therapy for me yet but they are hoping to soon. Although I still have my psychiatrist and psychiatric nurse for one to one things for the moment.
I'm really scared though, I will be starting half way through the group so I will be the newbie and not know anyone where as everyone else will know one another! And also I'm so useless at committing to things, this is their main concern for me. My psychiatric nurse is the one that has pushed really hard for me to get the spot so I am worried that I will end up failing but not attending and letting her down! I have never really stuck to anything from other therapies, school, uni, jobs etc... I often to struggle to get out my front door some days. Anyone got any advice for me on how I can push myself to go each week?

Actually that is a good idea, certainly the chart with all the class dates. That way I have no excuse to 'forget' and I will just have to be tough on myself and make myself go, I'll write on the chart in bold letters the reason why I must go as a reminder of how this could be potentially life changing for the better. Thanks once again Littlearcher , helping me and giving me good advice as always Honestly, I should start paying you for the amount of support, advice and help you give me :p haha

Good for you!

Happily done, sending lots and lots of hugs your way

And that's great that you will be starting DBT skills group soon, I really hope it goes well for you...good luck!!!

I promise to let you know how it goes for me on Tuesday, I will probably tell you all about it on Tuesday evening.

DollsAndPins wrote:I promise to let you know how it goes for me on Tuesday, I will probably tell you all about it on Tuesday evening.

Please do.

I do my intake on Wednesday for DBT and though I am excited about it I am every bit as nervous about going. I don't know what to expect. So I sincerely hope you come here Tuesday and tell us how it all went.

reflection wrote:

DollsAndPins wrote:I promise to let you know how it goes for me on Tuesday, I will probably tell you all about it on Tuesday evening.

Please do.

I do my intake on Wednesday for DBT and though I am excited about it I am every bit as nervous about going. I don't know what to expect. So I sincerely hope you come here Tuesday and tell us how it all went.

Oh good luck to you for Wednesday, I hope everything goes well, let me know how you get on as well. Like I said I promise that I will give an update on here on Tuesday evening(UK time) of how I get on. I feel exactly the same as you, very excited but so nervous as well, It's kind of reminding me of being the new kid at school all over again...and there was me thinking my school days were well behind me hehe.

We can compare notes as we go along.

littlearcher wrote:reflection: my assessment for intake was last wednesday! but i don't know when i start yet...

What did they do... Do they just ask a bunch of questions... Was it just one person... Was there a lot of paperwork... They said I could either bring in my records or sign a release. Did you do this... I don't know why but doing that makes me nervous too. I think it's because I feel judged...idk...maybe just vulnerable.

All 3 of us can compare notes

My assessment for intake was bizarre. It wasn't any of the therapists from the dbt group that did it. First of I was referred by god knows who (I think it was my psychiatric nurse but I'm unsure, I just got told by her) And then my psychiatric nurse had to get written confirmation from my psychiatrist that I had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and what symptoms I suffer with most over all and what I was suffering most with at the moment. Then with my psychiatric nurse I sat down for a good 2 hours going through loads of questionnaires (with far too many questions and very personal ones) of what I am like, asking how I had been the past 2 weeks, 4 weeks and 2 months. I also had to write down an example of something that had happened in my life or something I had experienced in the past year for each criteria of borderline personality disorder. Well, I asked my psychiatric nurse and she wrote it all down for me as I found it difficult putting everything into words.

Then as far as I am aware she reviewed all of the paper work, called up one of the therapists that run the DBT group and told then that she thinks out of the few people to select from to replace the other person that had left, I would be the most appropriate. She sent the paper work to them and then I got a call yesterday from my P-nurse telling me to start going to the group next Tuesday. It was all pretty sudden. But like I said I am joining part way through this group so I have missed a fair bit but apparently they do re-caps and reviews and my p-nurse specializes in personality disorders and has been trained in DBT as well so she will be helping me on a one to one bases to help me catch up.

Anyway this was my way of getting a place. Mind you i'm in the UK so it maybe different for the assesment depending what country you are in.

Somthing that made me laugh though...The weirdest part of the group is apparently it's held in the fire station interesting place to have DBT haha

Questions. More questions.

When I first began to see my psychologist I could NOT remember the date or the year when filling out my paperwork. It was awful. I felt like such an idiot.

Then when we were doing the questions I was all over the place. My thoughts were. They were racing. I very distinctly remember wanting to run. To leave. I even tried tried doodling while talking. Which helped somewhat. Needless to say it took a few sessions.

I hope it will be only 1 person. I assume from the way she talked to me it will be the one who called me. I didn't think to ask any questions. I need to work on that.

Think I will be signing that release.

And as for exhausting. Completely in agreement. Therapy at times literally drains me. I would have all these plans for what I was going to do after a session and instead would just come home and go to bed.