This sounded so familiar to me dude. When I started reading into CBT it explained that this is quite common; discounting one's own achievements while focussing on faults. And also the self-medicating with booze or whatever else. Berating yourself serves no useful purpose but I used to do it on a regular basis.

I know it's easy for me to say don't do that but you should give yourself a pat on the back when you do something good. And when you do something bad, say oh well, I'm only human and therefore imperfect. But I'm not all bad or all good, I'm a constantly evolving and changing being so can't be judged in such a simplistic way.

My doc advised CBT, I might take a look into it, any suggested reading?

CBT is the result of 30 odd years of scientific research and practice. It's tried and tested and much simpler than NLP which can be a bit freaky tbh.

I've read a few books on CBT and NLP. There might be better one's out there but this is the best one I've read: http://www.monkeymax.com/phocadownlo...%20Dummies.pdf

Don't have to read it start to finish, though that's useful, but you can jump to the sections that you think apply to you.

Ha, I have a bit of an aversion to reading any of the 'for dummies' books, but I'll give it a go thanks.

yea, I was the same. Don't be put off by that title. It was the last one I got around to reading for that same reason but it's actually very well written.

Oh I've also started learning German, no idea why, maybe I just want to be able to understand Rammstein lyrics.
Ich nicht so gut...

Yeh I've had CBT experience @D!ce.

If memory serves the first thing Kowalski ever said to me on here was that I needed CBT (!) cos I was freaked out with anxiety and depression problems. I ignored him and tried to plough through forcing myself to game, I made sporadic progress but it didn't really solve the stupid shit I had in my head about various things.

Eventually I bit the bullet and found a CBT therapist. On the one hand it seems self explanatory and that it could be done using a book, but the truth is it can throw shit up that's confronting to handle and it's best with the help of a decent therapist imho.

I still use it sometimes but in general it helped me understand and manage myself to the point where a lot of things that seemed big dramas for me a couple of years ago, simply aren't issues anymore.

Dice- I read the CBT dummies book a few years ago - definitely worth reading.
The chimp paradox, by the guy who England are taking to the World Cup, is worth a read too.
I think you may have read it but worth looking into if anyone else is reading.
Interesting take on the brain and strategies for handling negative thoughts/doubts.

That's inspiring man, cheers, would you say its better to see a therapist or to self teach (ie from a book)?

You're not the first guy to recommend that book, its on my to do list