Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a form of counselling that aims to help people improve their mental health and overall well-being. Mental health conditions like depression, stress, anxiety, panic attacks or phobias are all treatable using CBT.
It involves using strategies such as self-monitoring, identifying problems by specifying triggers for specific problems, developing more realistic thoughts based on facts rather than emotions and practising relaxation techniques to deal with increasing stress levels.
People who undergo CBT usually become very clear about the causes behind their fears and anxieties. Being aware of these causes brings about effective results in tackling those concerns. CBT has been shown to be highly successful in treating various kinds of emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety.
Some CBT therapists may also provide important advice on how stress can be managed and a person’s lifestyle to prevent recurrence of depression or anxiety attacks.
CBT is also referred to as cognitive therapy, which helps people adjust their feelings, beliefs and behaviours in order to achieve emotional well-being. In fact, the very first sign of effective therapeutic intervention for someone suffering from mental health problems is when they begin feeling better about themselves. Since it deals with thoughts, emotions and Behavioural Patterns that are being displayed by an individual at present, rather than dwelling on what has happened in the past or worrying too much about what might occur in the future – Cognitive behaviour Therapy aims at making life more manageable.
This approach helps uncover many negative ideas and feelings that are often at the root of unproductive behaviour. The therapy also involves the development of individual coping skills to be used in daily life, which can prove to be very effective for people who need help in dealing with ongoing stress or anxiety-related problems.
CBT is not just one specific kind of therapy but rather a combination of different therapies that focus on unhelpful thinking styles, including Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT), Cognitive Therapy (CT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Schema-focused CBT, etc.
Some other forms might include exposure therapy or Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing(EMDR). Through CBT, apart from dealing with emotional issues, people can also see a boost in their professional and personal lives.
How people can get help using CBT
1.) Patients suffering from depression, anxiety and phobias usually experience tremendous relief after undergoing CBT. Therapy helps people learn positive coping skills to deal with life’s problems. With regular practice at home, the induced sense of calmness will help them lead more productive lives.
2.) People dealing with grief or loss can find CBT very helpful in coming out of prolonged periods of sadness and despair. By expressing emotions fully they can overcome avoidable complications such as alcohol abuse or even suicidal tendencies. This form of therapy has been shown to be extremely beneficial for patients suffering from long-standing mental issues like depression and stress, which prevent effective social functioning and general well being.
3.) There are various other conditions in which CBT is proving to be very helpful, such as eating disorders like bulimia or anorexia. Patients have also shown better results in quitting smoking, reducing alcohol intake and improving performance at work by focusing on personal goals after undergoing this form of therapy.
4.) It helps people manage their stress levels. By developing healthier habits towards coping with problems that arise instead of suppressing emotions, it can help boost emotional stability. This advancement ensures that they continue to live a positive lifestyle even when faced with challenges during difficult times.
5.) As opposed to psychotherapy sessions where patients mostly talk about their issues at length, Cognitive behaviour Therapy works differently by providing practical solutions through the identification of thoughts, feelings, behaviours and emotions that are holding the individual back from achieving their personal goals.
6.) Another benefit of CBT is that it can be used to treat a wide range of mental health issues, ranging from severe depression to mild anxiety, eating disorders like bulimia or anorexia or even obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) apart from conditions related to addiction.
7.) Through this form of therapy people make use of various techniques to handle stress, feelings of low self-esteem etc., which helps them deal with life’s problems in a more constructive manner instead of relying on substances like drugs or alcohol for emotional support. By learning new skills through CBT they can finally start enjoying life instead of just merely living it day by day.
8.) CBT sessions are typically short-term which means that people get to deal with their emotional issues in a time-bound manner. This also ensures that they continue to lead more productive lives even when the therapy is complete, by gradually inducing positive change in thoughts and behaviours without any disruptions.
9.) It helps identify negative patterns of thinking, which enhances personal growth through increased self-awareness. People can finally start enjoying life instead of just merely surviving it day by day. There exists no age bar for seeking help for anxiety or depression related issues, which makes it the most effective form of therapy for anyone who needs some help getting back on track.
CBT has been found to be highly effective when it comes to helping patients deal with depression, anxiety, grief or loss and various other conditions. By boosting the patient’s ability to cope with problems in a positive manner, therapists can help improve their overall lifestyle. There is no age bar for this form of treatment which makes it suitable for anyone who feels that they are not able to function effectively due to their mental health issues.
With so many advantages associated with CBT, more and more people are looking at Cognitive behaviour Therapy as an effective solution for tackling daily life challenges. With regular practice at home, it can help achieve long-lasting results by changing habitual patterns of thinking and behavior. This form of therapy has helped millions live a better quality of life by taking control of their emotions.
What are the benefits of cognitive behaviour therapy? What are the advantages of CBT over other forms of treatment? Why is Cognitive behavioural therapy highly recommended for emotional issues? How can it help manage stress levels and other concerns effectively? These are just some questions that will be answered here to help you understand this form of therapy in a better way.
Cognitive-behavioral therapists use mental and physical health to get the emotional responses and humans especially patients use the thought patterns copied from other family members or online resources to express emotions. CBT therapists use the mental illness symptoms to determine how many sessions the patient can go it also depends on how they are reacting to the emotional trauma effects.
Post-traumatic stress disorder
PTSD is a mental disorder that may develop after a person is exposed to a life-threatening experience (either short or long-term)
Symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks and nightmares, avoidance of people, places, or other triggers that remind one of the event, negative thoughts about self or others, hypervigilance, an enhanced startle response, and problems sleeping. These symptoms last more than 1 month after the traumatic event. About half of people with PTSD have lasting symptoms for longer periods of time. A number are affected by depression or substance abuse as well.
The DSM-IV diagnosis requires that the individual experience significant distress from the symptoms and have difficulty functioning in social situations, at work, or in other important areas of life.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatments for PTSD. CBT exposes people to their fears in a safe environment and teaches them coping skills including cognitive restructuring, exposure therapy, relaxation training, and assertiveness training. A combination of medication and CBT seems to provide the best results for overcoming trauma symptoms.
Depression
Depression also known as clinical depression, major depression, unipolar depression, or major depressive disorder is a mental illness that manifests primarily as prolonged sadness. Other symptoms include cognitive problems such as loss of concentration and memory loss; emotional problems such as irritability and anxiety; physical problems such as fatigue and lack of energy; and behavioral problems such as crying spells, lethargy, and insomnia. Depression is more than just feeling sad or “blue” for a few days. Severe signs of clinical depression include major changes in sleep patterns (either sleeping too much or not being able to sleep at all), loss of interest in activities that were once pleasurable, significant weight gain or weight loss regardless of dieting, noticeable changes in one’s personality or feelings about oneself, constant feelings of worthlessness and/or guilt, persistent thoughts of death or suicide with or without a specific plan for committing suicide, an inability to concentrate on anything including tasks that were once routine, recurrent thoughts of death often accompanied by suicidal ideation without any specific plans for committing suicide, and persistent physical symptoms such as digestive problems, persistent headaches, and chronic pain.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective treatments for depression that exists today. CBT exposes people to their fears in a safe environment and teaches them coping skills including cognitive restructuring, exposure therapy, relaxation training, and assertiveness training. In addition to these specific techniques, CBT also focuses on helping individuals become aware of distorted thinking processes so that they can alter them when necessary. The form of CBT that is mainly used to treat depression involves helping individuals develop more accurate evaluations of themselves by recognizing their automatic depressive thoughts and learning how to replace them with less negative thoughts.
Panic disorder or panic is described as sudden feelings of terror that strike repeatedly and unexpectedly. Panic attacks usually begin with a feeling of having lost control, followed by severe chest pains and shortness of breath. The fear and discomfort can also cause people to think they are having a heart attack or even dying. These episodes can last from minutes to hours at a time and typically begin in late adolescence or early adulthood. Symptoms can be worse during times of stress or when one is tired, as well as during specific activities such as eating lunch, driving, exercising, riding in an elevator, or other enclosed spaces that may prompt feelings of suffocation or choking. Although panic attacks are frightening and uncomfortable the first few times they occur, most panic disorder sufferers learn that nothing terrible actually happens during these episodes and that they’re more likely the result of imbalances in brain chemistry than the consequences of stress.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely used treatments for panic disorder. It is based on the idea that panic attacks are merely catastrophic misinterpretations of normal bodily sensations such as increased heart rate, tingling or trembling. CBT works by helping individuals learn how to distinguish between actual anxiety symptoms and those caused by other factors like caffeine use or dehydration. Individuals also learn various ways to manage their anxiety levels through breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, exposure to stressful situations and eliminating people who regularly stress them out from their lives.
Social phobia or social anxiety disorder is an intense fear that one will act in a way that will be humiliating or embarrassing, and it is the most common anxiety disorder. The fear can take many forms, such as a fear of speaking in public (causing sweaty palms and shaking voice), or it could be general dread about interacting with people at all. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often develop during childhood or adolescence, but they can also develop later in life as a result of a particular event that triggers them. Many social phobics will avoid the feared situation altogether if possible, while others do so only to a point where they have what is known as “avoidance coping”, meaning that although they realize their fears are irrational, they cannot help themselves from being frightened anyway.
Cognitive behavioural therapy concentrates on major issues: how individuals evaluate themselves, their tendency to catastrophise, the negative thinking they engage in, and how they can learn to relate to people more effectively. It focuses on specific examples of the individuals’ social fears so that sufferers will begin to regard them as manageable and avoidable rather than intimidating threats.
Generalized anxiety disorder is chronic and excessive worry about events or activities such as work or school, money, health or relationships at home or with others which may be difficult to control and causes significant distress and impaired functioning. People who suffer from GAD tend to anticipate disaster and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as catching a flight. Symptoms can include fatigue, muscle tension, irritability, poor concentration and insomnia. There is no single treatment for generalised anxiety disorder, but CBT can be a helpful treatment in conjunction with medications.
As with other anxiety disorders, the main components of cognitive behavioural therapy for GAD involve exposure therapy and skills training; however, it also uses relaxation techniques such as meditation and imagery to provide relief from symptoms such as fatigue and muscle tension. The goal is to help individuals learn how to experience less distress when facing various worries or stressful situations. Medication tends to be used primarily during times of heightened anxiety levels which make the therapy difficult; research has found that 41 percent of sufferers combine antidepressants with CBT once they are able to follow through with the therapy, while 21 percent will only use medication throughout their recovery process.
Mental health disorders
such as depression and anxiety can take a toll on individuals by causing them to experience challenges in their everyday lives such as school, work or home life. While there are medications available for these types of disorders, they may cause unwanted side effects or be ineffective when used alone. Cognitive behavioural therapy has been proven to alleviate certain symptoms and help sufferers lead more fulfilling lives.
CBT has also been shown to reduce rates of relapse among substance abusers and maintain gains made during substance abuse treatment (sometimes referred to as “therapeutic education”), but the effect sizes associated with CBT’s ability to do this are not always large. Some sources suggest that CBT is effective for treating drug addiction; others state that evidence indicates that CBT is no more effective than non-CBT approaches for treating drug addiction. The head of the UK government’s substance abuse unit has stated that CBT is a “waste of time”.
In some studies, CBT was as effective as antipsychotic medication in reducing psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. In other studies it was found to be superior to lithium and valproate, the two most frequently used medications for bipolar disorder at the time.
A systematic review of 16 reports of randomized controlled trials by the Cochrane Collaboration concluded that no effects from being assigned to receive CBT could be detected on any adverse outcomes, including depression and anxiety. However, more patients dropped out of the CBT group than from control or alternative therapy (9% vs. 5%). The review found no evidence that CBT was effective for anxiety and depression, although individual studies suggested that some people benefited from it. A follow-up study by the same authors after a further 5 years concluded that there were no clinical differences between patients receiving CBT and those receiving other treatments in terms of relapse rates, levels of psychopathology, or employment status.
One study has shown that exposure therapy is better than CBT when treating people with severe OCD who do not respond to medication; however, these conclusions have been contested by many researchers using clinical experience rather than empirical data. Some research supports the use of analogues of various hallucinogenic amphetamines as adjuncts to psychotherapy for refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder. There is evidence that using psychoactive substances with psychotherapy may reduce anxiety associated with the use of these drugs.
The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines (April 2000) indicated that all depressive patients should be offered a form of “psychotherapy or counseling, or both” as an initial treatment choice. A meta-analysis published in 1999 found that CBT was either equivalent to or more effective than antidepressant medication in treating depression. It also pointed out that the benefits of continued medication are only tentative due to the lack of studies extending past the maintenance phase; therefore, CBT would be preferred in cases where there is an ongoing risk of relapse in addition to stressful life circumstances.
Mental health conditions and eating disorders are
common in children and adolescents. Some research shows CBT is an effective therapy for this age group, but further analysis is needed to determine which specific areas of CBT are most effective for treating symptoms related to eating disorders. Studies have shown that online CBT-based treatments may be helpful in people with bulimia nervosa.
CBT has also been found to reduce the number of sick days taken by people with psychological problems when used alongside ‘psychoeducation’ and motivational interviewing techniques.
A review carried out in 2008, commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), examined 26 published trials on cognitive behavioral therapy as a treatment method for irritable bowel syndrome they found it had no effect on global symptoms but may have a small effect on abdominal pain.
Cognitive behavioural therapy has been found to be effective for people who suffer from tinnitus or ringing in the ears. CBT techniques are used to help people learn how to manage the condition by changing their reaction and perception of the intrusive sounds it brings. A 2012 Cochrane review concluded that there was not enough evidence to give any firm recommendations about CBT’s effectiveness for tinnitus, but given the moderate quality evidence available, it appears likely that CBT is helpful at least as an adjunct treatment for this condition.
A number of studies suggest that cognitive behavioral therapy can improve sleep quality in adults and reduce suicidal thinking in those at high risk of suicide; however, more research is needed.
In adults, CBT has been shown to have some short-term benefits with moderate effects on reducing anxiety and depression symptoms in those who had experienced a traumatic event. However, there was no difference between groups receiving immediate treatment or waiting list control conditions. A review of the research literature suggested that 70% of people do not benefit from CBT after 3 months. This suggests that 30% improve it may be useful as an adjunct to medication with antidepressants. In children, cognitive behavioral therapy may reduce self-harm however more high-quality studies are required as evidence is currently not conclusive
CBT has been found to be effective for treating young adults aged 12-25 years who self-injure. A 2004 meta-analysis found that CBT was effective for reducing non-suicidal self-injury, but the benefits were found to be particularly pronounced for younger individuals. A 2009 study by Charles et al., which compared CBT with brief supportive therapy (a form of short-term psychotherapy that is not specific to treating self-harm), found that both treatments were equally effective, and more than 80% of both conditions had stopped self-harming one year after treatment.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy has also been shown to help those who want to stop smoking. The effects increase over time up to a year after the end of treatment. At this point in time, the beneficial effects persist at a similar magnitude to when it was being applied. It can also reduce weight gain after smoking cessation. A significant proportion of individuals using CBT to quit smoking gain weight back after quitting, although the average weight gain is less than half that expected due to nicotine withdrawal, and a meta-analysis found that overall people were twice as likely to have lost weight by following up with usual care control group at 9 months. Other evidence suggests that CBT is not effective for smoking cessation and any weight loss that occurs is due to the extra effort of people participating in it.
A Cochrane review of CBT in schizophrenia found that there was no evidence for its effectiveness, however, this conclusion should be treated with caution as only a few relevant studies were reviewed.
