"Low self esteem, anxiety and depression"

I have been experiencing low self esteem, depression and anxiety since being a teenager. I am now 26. I had been seeing a therapist for talking therapy for four years before reaching out to IAPT. The talking therapy certainly helped me work through a lot of the issues that were bothering me but IAPT sessions are where are I learnt practical skills about how to accept and deal with my anxiety and low self esteem in a healthy way. In turn this helped with my depression as well. 

I have been taking Citalopram 20mg for 2 years and overlapped with therapy only for around 6 months.  While the medication on its own did help, i found the combination of the two to be the most effective. 

I used to miss days from work because I could not get out of bed. The emotional pain I was feeling was fueled by unhealthy thinking patterns and all of this seeped into the rest of my days in the form of anxiety and generally making decisions in my life based on the idea that I was not worth anything and that I will never be good enough to deserve to live. 

While some of these thoughts and feelings still creep in sometimes, they are no where near as disruptive and debilitating as before. One of the most helpful things my IAPT therapist taught me was how to use my behaviour and ability to move and take action to create healthy habits that would take me out of the damaging thinking loops and in turn make me feel better too. 

I thoroughly recommend this service. It is worth the wait.