Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Introduction
Cognitive behavioral therapy treatment is a systematic treatment to treat a wide range of psychological problems. From anxiety and depression to eating disorders and behavioral issues, the therapy improves mental well-being and quality of life.
This blog gives a comprehensive account of cognitive behavioral therapy. The various techniques and treatments available and what makes them different from others.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive behavioral Therapy is a psychological treatment for people suffering from mental health issues. The therapy aims to understand what a person is going through currently and treat the faulty behavior accordingly.
Unlike other therapies, cognitive behavioral therapy does not focus on the circumstances that caused the problem. On the other hand, it treats the problem at hand. This therapy treats people from all age groups, and the duration of the therapy depends on the severity of the condition.
Principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:
- Psychological problems arise from negative thinking patterns. This creates self-defeating beliefs and emotions, leading to depression and low self-esteem.
- Psychological issues are influenced by learned counterproductive behaviors. This therapy breaks the vicious cycle of avoidance, fear and useless coping mechanisms.
- Individuals can adopt healthier lifestyles. With the right training, they can manage symptoms and improve functioning.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques
Some of the best cognitive behavioral therapy techniques are:
1. Systematic Desensitization: Systematic desensitization is gradually exposing a patient to a situation or thing that triggers anxiety. The aim is to manage these triggers to overcome the psychological problem. The therapist first trains a patient to relax his or her muscles. Then, he or she will ask the patient to make a list of all the fears to get rid of confusion and rank them in order of intensity. In the end, the therapist will expose the patient to those dreaded situations. Patients are asked to independently work their way around the problem without feeling anxious.
2. Activity Scheduling: Activity scheduling is a process of performing activities that a patient avoids due to fear. Activities are actively completed by systematically re-introducing fears. These activities are carefully planned to fight this avoidance behavior. The therapist trains the patient to fight the triggers. These activities include building confidence and ensuring there is no relapse in the process.
3. Flooding: Flooding is a technique under cognitive behavioral therapy in which a patient is unabashedly exposed to a stimulus. This exposure therapy is one of the most effective therapies to treat phobia. In contrast to systematic desensitization, where patients are exposed to stimulus gradually and sometimes virtually, flooding involves overloading a person with the worst triggers suddenly.
4. Journaling & Thought Recording: Journaling ideas and recording thoughts is an effective technique of cognitive behavioral therapy. Therapists ask patients to record all negative thoughts that crossed their minds during sessions. Once the session is over, the positive aspect of the session is looked at, and the mind is trained to work towards positive stimuli. Patients can analyze their progress and understand what exactly is wrong with them.
5. Constructive Self-Conversation: Constructive self-talk is a technique that teaches a patient to be mentally strong at all times. Reciting affirmative and positive words to oneself at all times reduces negativity in the mind. The technique includes adopting the following habits:
- Not uttering negative sentences and seeing things as black and white.
- Talking to the inner self casually and calmly. The therapy teaches a patient to be his or her friend.
- Practice self-care and gratitude in routine. Self-love is important, so taking care of one's inner self and outer self is essential.
- Exclude negative thoughts and eliminate all kinds of negative words from the vocabulary to lead a pleasant life.
6. Graded Exposure: Systematic exposure to phobias and fears is an effective way to heal. The therapist addresses the worst fears and proceeds towards minor ones. He or she then studies patients’ reactions. As the therapy progresses, therapists work on managing these reactions. They hone their coping capabilities and make them feel less susceptible to unpredictability.
7. Cognitive Rehearsal: Cognitive rehearsal or restructuring involves analyzing all the negative thoughts that enter a patient’s mind. Therapists present certain situations to the patient who shares his or her ideas. The therapist will work on all the negative approaches in the mind of the patient to improve thought patterns.
Types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral Therapy includes multiple techniques that treat various mental problems. The therapy does not have a one-size-fits-all approach. Therefore, a therapist selects one of the following or a combination of techniques to treat a patient.
1. Exposure Therapy: Exposure Therapy is one of the most effective therapies to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), phobias and other stress-related issues. This therapy is considered best for short-term solutions and managing triggers. The therapist exposes the patient to stimuli in real life by making the patient imagine situations. The aim is to trigger the patient to elicit a response or a reaction from him. The purpose is to confront the worst fears and manage response of the body in certain difficult situations.
2. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT): This theory addresses disturbing thoughts that come to a patient’s mind. These thoughts hinder a person’s emotional balance and prevent mindfulness. The purpose of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is to develop skills that will help a patient live a fulfilling life independently. These emotional management skills improve distress tolerance and interpersonal relationships.
3. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) promotes incorporating constructive activities in daily life. The purpose is to smartly deal with negative thoughts and emotions while training them to adopt value-based actions. Therapists work towards connecting the patient with his or her inner self. This leads to self-improvement and heightened emotional awareness.
4. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy focuses on increasing a patient’s consciousness regarding bodily sensations. Meditation and body-scan exercises enable a patient to scan his or her feelings without any judgment. Sitting quietly with thoughts and sounds trains a person to analyze his or her failings in a constructive manner.
5. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy: Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy helps a person get over common irrational beliefs and thoughts. This psychological treatment identifies events that trigger a problem. They further help a patient to understand which beliefs created those negative feelings. The therapy treats people who obsess over other people’s opinions about them. The theory reminds an individual that internal factors create enough happiness.
6. Schema Therapy: Schemas are frameworks in the mind of a person through which the world is comprehended. Schemas form in childhood and are framed on the basis of environment. These schemas govern emotions, thinking and habits. Maladaptive schemas form due to abuse or mistreatment. However, less severe experiences also contribute. Schema therapy replaces these maladaptive schemas with healthy schemas. This way, a patient experiences lesser emotional distress.
7. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy : Functional Systematic Approach is a systematic approach. It understands reasons for a particular response and involves identifying problem behavior. The therapist recognises the triggers and what makes the response last for a particular period. Once a therapist has completed this analysis, he or she introduces interventions accordingly. For instance, the therapist will try to understand what happened a day before or a few hours before a patient experienced a panic attack. The therapist will ask who the patient met during the day, what conversations he or she had and what kind of response was exhibited by the person.
Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
1. Short-Term and Long-Term Benefits Craving for a drug immediately after stopping consumption is a common withdrawal symptom faced by addicts. Such short-term problems are solved by cognitive behavioral therapy. Other short-term problems that are solved include managing triggers and diverting attention. The long-term benefit is the prevention of relapse and not wanting to consume the drug under any circumstances.
2. Improves Interpersonal Communication Cognitive behavioral Therapy enhances a person’s interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. Treated patients feel no anxiety, depression or eating disorders. They are able to communicate their problems properly and maintain their behavior throughout.
3. Emotional Regulation Cognitive behavioral Therapy regulates emotions and improves thought processes. The therapy makes a patient aware of his or her thoughts and reactions to a particular situation. This way, a patient realizes what triggers his or her anger, disappointment, sadness and so on.
4. Accelerates Personal Growth This therapy trains a patient to use his rational thought processes, which speeds up personal growth. Cognitive distortion and exaggerated patterns of thinking are corrected with this treatment. Once the negative approach towards life is corrected, the lifestyle of a person gets better.
5. Treats Multiple Disorders Cognitive behavioral Therapy can treat multiple mental problems. From eating disorders to anxiety-related issues, the therapy has various approaches that work well for all problems. This theory focuses on eliminating suicidal thoughts, enhancing happiness and lowering the intensity of depressing thoughts.
6. Develops Problem-Solving Skills Problem-solving and decision-making skills of a person get better when a patient opts for CBT. Thought clarity and drawing conclusions based on logic make a person feel confident. Simple techniques like rationally thinking about a problem and deconstructing an issue can serve a lot of purposes. The aim is to not panic in distress and manage triggers calmly.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs Other Therapies
Here is a brief comparison between cognitive behavioral therapy and other psychotherapies from a different perspective.
1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy Cognitive behavioral Therapy focuses on treating the current mental problems of a patient. The healing process involves setting clear goals to treat disorders and then proceeding. Psychodynamic Therapy learns about an individual’s emotional past to know the reason for the current situation. It traces what situations lead to the present circumstances and explores the unconscious mind.
2. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs behavioral Therapy The difference between these therapies is that behavioral therapy studies patterns of action, whereas CBT studies patterns of thought. behavioral therapy trains patients to alter their behavior to lessen pain. CBT trains an individual to avoid negative thoughts altogether.
3. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs Humanistic Therapy Cognitive behavioral therapy works to alter negative thought patterns completely. Humanistic Therapy works on patients working on themselves for personal growth. The aim is to ignore external factors that affect a person’s thinking and ensure that the process of self-actualisation is complete.
Problems Treated by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive behavioral Theory is renowned for treating patients with various psychological disorders. Here is how the therapy is effective in doing so:
- Anxiety and Depression : Anxiety and depression are caused due to a constant stream of negative thoughts. CBT helps individuals fight these thoughts with cognitive restructuring. Exposure therapy and activity scheduling are two techniques used to cure anxiety and depression. Patients are made to face their worst fears after multiple sessions. They are trained to control their reactions, change their behaviors and lather their thought processes. This allows patients to enjoy activities and overcome psychological challenges.
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) : Cognitive behavioral Theory trains individuals to face dangers and reduce the emotional impact of trauma. Cognitive restructuring helps individuals arrange all the scattered thoughts cohesively. This enables them to visit their negative past experiences and internalize emotions slowly without getting triggered. Exposure therapy also trains patients to revisit their past and manage their emotional distress independently.
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder : Schema Therapy has proven to be effective in treating disorders like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other obsessive disorders. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy changes the relationship of a patient with the disorder. They accept the disorder and commit to stop acting a certain way. Coping with a problem is made easy by systematically learning about the stimulus. Consequently, habits of the patient are worked on, and change is introduced systematically.
- Substance Abuse & Eating Disorders : Thought recording and cognitive restructuring help in treating substance abuse and eating disorders. Cognitive behavioral Therapy encourages the person to record thoughts and solve problems realistically. By introducing balanced thinking patterns, a therapist treats an individual by making him more mindful of his or her actions. Although CBT treats a range of psychological issues, consulting a professional therapist is a must if symptoms seem to worsen.