Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: An Overview
The term "cognitive behavioral therapy," or CBT for short, refers to a sort of psychosocial intervention that tries to reduce the symptoms of a variety of mental health issues.
Over 2000 research have shown that CBT is beneficial in treating the following conditions:
- Alcohol use disorder
- Substance use disorder
- Depression
- Anxiety
- PTSD
- Eating disorders
- Marital problems
What exactly is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Although some of the tenets of the discipline's foundation stretch back to an ancient philosophical tradition, Dr Aaron T. Beck created CBT in the 1960s.
CBT is a type of mental health treatment that is frequently employed to treat depression and anxiety. CBT may be used successfully in a variety of physical and mental health contexts.
The clinical term for talk therapy is psychotherapy, and cognitive behavioural therapy is one subset of psychotherapy. This colloquial word highlights the value of communication as the cornerstone of healing. By changing your beliefs and habits, you may learn to control and lessen difficulties when cognitive therapy is used in conjunction with behavioural treatment.
The following basic presumptions are made by CBT:
- The root cause of many psychological issues is problematic thinking.
- Many psychological issues are rooted in learned patterns of behaviour, which can be harmful and counterproductive.
- By utilising appropriate coping mechanisms through CBT, you may lessen your symptoms and improve your day-to-day effectiveness.
- CBT sessions are often guided by a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Sometimes cognitive behavioural therapy is also provided by professional social workers or counsellors.
Instead of examining the past, CBT focuses on the present and employs problem-solving techniques to help you move ahead and more easily manage daily challenges. While past actions are not completely disregarded, the present is the main focus of treatment.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Addiction
Many individuals who suffer from alcoholism or other drug use disorders battle negative or recovery-contradictory thoughts. The primary goals of CBT are first to recognise these thinking patterns and then change them to more constructive and adaptive ones.
There are many ways that CBT can be effective for people with addictions, including:
- Identifying self-destructive thoughts and behaviours
- Monitoring these thought patterns
- Utilizing a more adaptive way of thinking
- Applying these skills in new settings
- Implementing healthy coping strategies to deal with stressors
CBT may be beneficial for treating both alcoholism and drug addiction when utilised as a component of a comprehensive treatment strategy that also includes counselling, medication-assisted therapy, and holistic treatments.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques
A variety of approaches are used in cognitive behavioural therapy. To determine the most potent mix of approaches, your therapist will work closely with you.
Typical treatment includes the following:
- Seeing how faulty or erroneous thinking may exacerbate issues.
- Learning how to solve problems.
- Discovering other people's motives and how they think.
- Overcoming obstacles and worries.
- Enhancing self-worth and boosting self-assurance.
- Role-playing and relaxing strategies are used to demonstrate how to get through potentially difficult circumstances.
CBT for Mental Health
While evidence shows that CBT may address a wide range of illnesses, such as anxiety, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and some phobias, it was initially employed to treat the symptoms of depression. We will cover this topic in more detail later. CBT can also be used to treat mental health illnesses that co-occur with alcoholism and other drug use disorders.
Although certain forms of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be used to successfully treat insomnia and some eating disorders, the main goal of cognitive behavioural therapy is to help people overcome the mental health illnesses they are facing.
When used to treat mental health conditions, CBT is most commonly applied to:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- PTSD
Anxiety
Depression
Depression
According to studies in this field, cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety is a successful and long-lasting treatment.
One of the most prevalent mental health issues that people experience is anxiety. Nearly everyone has some level of anxiety, but for some people, that level of worry may become devastating and cause issues in their personal, social, and professional life. However, CBT can be useful in this situation.
The skills you need to alter the attitudes and conduct that feed your anxiety are provided by CBT. You may begin to replace these incorrect and destructive beliefs with constructive and realistic ones as you develop the ability to recognise and then confront them.
Depression
Depression
Depression
The advantages of cognitive behavioural therapy for depression are well supported by several research.
According to research, CBT can sometimes be just as helpful as antidepressants, and those who use it to treat their depression may be less likely to experience a relapse.
You may recuperate without experiencing depressive episodes again with the help of cognitive behavioural therapy, which can give you the inner fortitude and resources you need.
PTSD
Depression
PTSD
When a trauma-focused cognitive behavioural treatment like CT (cognitive therapy) is employed, cognitive behavioural therapy for PTSD is most successful.
Based on CBT, CT for PTSD entails changing unfavourable memories and assessments in order to stop the PTSD symptoms from interfering with your life.
According to the cognitive model, specific methods of processing traumatic events result in perceptions of grave and immediate danger.
The APA highly suggests cognitive therapy for the treatment of PTSD.
What Does a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist Do?
A cognitive behavioural therapist's primary responsibility is to assist the client in recognising thinking patterns and behaviours, particularly those that relate to their life, environment, and relationships. The therapist wants to help you change these beliefs and actions so that you don't become caught in a cycle of recurrent negative behaviours.
In the end, CBT therapists assist you in long-term self-empowerment through the modification of negative thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Three Goals of CBT
The primary goal of CBT is to help the client fully grasp how their thoughts influence their actions and behaviours. The three components of CBT that make this possible are as follows:
- Identification: Your therapist will help you recognise your feelings, behaviours, and ideas.
- Recognizing your negative thoughts and behaviours will help you start to break these destructive thoughts and behaviour patterns.
- Management: Rather than giving in to bad or self-defeating habits, you may calm your body and mind by using skills, strategies, and activities.
CBT Principles
The core tenet of cognitive theory is that emotions and behaviour are primarily influenced by thinking.
The foundation of CBT is the idea that people's reactions are more closely correlated with how they interpret events than with the events themselves. Information processing is the name given to this mental activity.
CBT's basic tenet is that you may process information similarly to a computer that is running a programme in order to get a particular result.
Your therapist will employ any or all of the following particular strategies to assist you in exploring the aforementioned ideas:
- Journaling: Your therapist can urge you to record any unfavourable thoughts you have during the week, as well as the good thoughts you utilised to counteract them.
- SMART objectives: SMART objectives are not only precise and quantifiable but also reachable, practical, and time-bound.
- Restructuring your thinking cognitively: Your therapist will assist you in examining any cognitive biases affecting your thoughts. Your therapist will assist you in unravelling any cognitive distortions you may have, such as the propensity to leap to conclusions, think in binary terms, or catastrophize.
- Guided questioning: Your therapist may assist you in challenging your preconceived notions about yourself or your present situation while also encouraging you to investigate different ideas.
- Thought recording: To use this strategy, you must come up with unbiased proof both for and against your negative ideas. You'll develop more realistic thought processes by employing concrete data.
- Positive activities: Scheduling time each day for an enjoyable activity may lift your spirits and increase your overall optimism.
- Situation exposure: With the help of your cognitive behavioural therapist, make a note of the circumstances or things that make you anxious and rate them according to the level of anxiety they create. You'll feel less strongly about these possible triggers over time if you expose yourself to them gradually.
- Systematic desensitisation: Comparable to scenario exposure, this approach teaches you how to employ relaxation methods to better handle challenging circumstances.
- Self-talk: Under the direction of your therapist, you speak to yourself about specific events or circumstances, substituting any critical or unkind self-talk with more kind and empathetic self-talk.
You can anticipate homework assignments if you choose to participate in cognitive behavioural therapy, which will give you the chance to put what you learned in your CBT sessions into practise.