cognitive behavioral therapy

If your psychiatrist has prescribed cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT for you or your loved ones, read on to learn the basics and types of CBT.

In this article, we want to introduce you to one of the types of psychotherapy called Cognitive behavioral therapy which is processically prescribed by psychiatrists.

CBT helps you better understand the thoughts and feelings behind behaviors and actions

A wide range of disorders such as mood disorders including depression, anxiety disorders, a variety of phobias and withdrawal from a variety of substances, etc. Today, CBT is in their treatment prescription.

 

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What are the principles of CBT?

CBT is a short-term treatment and is often cheaper than other psychoanalytic modalities. It has been scientifically proven that CBT can help you overcome a variety of annoying problems effectively. CBT’s philosophy is that our thoughts and feelings play a key role in our outward behavior and actions.

With CBT, you can understand your cognitive errors. These are cognitive errors that can cause you emotional problems, anxiety and depression, and your fears. This is how CBT encourages you to look at the facts that support and shape your behavior.

Gradually, with the continuation of CBT sessions, you can participate in building your new healthy thinking patterns by eliminating negative and delusional thoughts that weaken your feelings and mood.

 

Types of CBT

This treatment is based on identifying and changing patterns of incorrect or disturbed thinking as well as emotional and behavioral reactions and responses to these patterns of thinking.

 

This type of psychotherapy is based on recognizing and changing unrealistic beliefs and perceptions.

This treatment challenges unrealistic believes and ultimately leads to learning how to recognize misconceptions.

 

This method says that psychological problems should be treated by examining seven different and contradictory aspects, which are:

 

In this type, your psychologist deals with thought and practical patterns and includes strategies such as emotion regulation and mindfulness.

Each person will be introduced to one or more of the above methods according to his / her condition and problems according to the diagnosis of his / her treating physician.

CBT applications

This type of treatment focuses on very specific goals and its results can be easily measured and expressed. Compared to psychoanalytic-based psychotherapy that encourages endless abstinence, CBT is suitable for those who communicate better with a structured and focused approach.

For CBT to be successful, you must be enthusiastic and willing to spend your time and energy analyzing your thoughts and ideas.

Little by little, during your own analysis, you will understand how internal thoughts, believes, and moods will affect your external behavior.

 

What is the route of CBT?

CBT is very purposeful and both you and the therapist will work and interact with you and you will play a very active role and will help you in a short time to deal with a very specific disorder and problem.

 

Research results on CBT

New research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is far more effective in treating insomnia than sleeping pills. Other research has also shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is at least as effective in the treatment of depression in the short term as it is in the long term, and in the long term it is more effective than drug therapy.

On the other hand, cognitive behavioral therapy is even more effective in treating various types of anxiety and fears than drug therapy. Cognitive behavior therapy can play an important role in the treatment of almost any type of behavioral and psychological disorder.

Based on cognitive behavioral therapy, our pattern of thinking is like glasses on our eyes. We see everything that happens to us through these glasses. Cognitive behavior therapy makes us aware of the impact of thought patterns on the course of our behavior and emotions.

 

What are cognitive errors?

Professor Aaron T. Beck, one of the pioneers and founders of the theory of cognitive-behavioral therapy, explains that the thoughts, perceptions, and perceptions of depressed people about life events are completely distorted and unrealistic. Depressed people have a wide range of “cognitive errors”.

Cognitive errors refer to the thought patterns of our minds that misinterpret the reality of life events. For example, a person with a cognitive error called \”mind reading\” thinks that if he enters a party and different people look at him at the party, these people are making fun of the way he dresses and talks in his own mind.

However, there is no evidence that the people who look at him at the party necessarily think of him, and even if they think of him, they make fun of the way he dresses and behaves! When a person suffers from such a cognitive error, he becomes very upset because of his unrealistic and irrational way of thinking.

Cognitive errors include many things, including emotional reasoning, black-and-white thinking, hasty conclusions, and more.

Professor Beck points out that these misconceptions of reality occur as a result of \”automatic thoughts.\”

These automatic thoughts cause people to perceive distorted and unrealistic meanings of what is happening around them instead of examining the facts. The focus of cognitive behavioral therapy is on correcting automatic thoughts and challenging the validity of unrealistic thoughts against facts. When people can stop their unreal and annoying thoughts, they will feel much better and will perform better throughout their lives.

 

Criticism of CBT

CBT does not emphasize subconscious resistance to changing believes and thoughts as much as psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

CBT with specific strategies only helps people to overcome thoughts

Strategies such as: