Cognitive Behavior Therapy CBT : Fight Depression And Anxiety

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a counselling technique and a form of psychotherapy used by many psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors to treat depression or anxiety disorders, phobias, addictions and many other problems . The CBT method teaches the patients to change their thought and feeling patterns and to react differently to problems.

The CBT will help depression sufferes to replace their negative thoughts with positive ones. Depression sufferers usually think that a certain process will end negatively. CBT teaches them to change these thought patterns and reinforce the positive in every matter.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may be used to treat problems including depression, anxiety, excessive anger, eating disorders, low self-esteem, substance abuse and many other compulsive and obsessive behaviors.

CBT uses strategies for sufferes to help themselves to make positive changes in their lives and in the quality of their lives.

CBT works in three ways:

1. CBT Helps You Identify And Change Negative Thinking Associated With Depressed Feelings.

When you are depressed you feel weak, tired, hopeless and anxious. These feelings make it difficult for you to think positively about yourself and about the people in your life.

Your therapist will help you to look into the events in your life and talk about the possible interpretations of those events.

Through this therapy the negative thoughts are identified and your therapist will give you a helpful interpretation of a situation. Through this process you learn how to replace negative thinking patters with more positive ones and this helps you feel better about yourself and your life in general.

2. CBT Helps You To Focus On Positive Things

It is possible that if you are feeling depressed you will not enjoy the things that you used to enjoy. This can turn into a cycle where doing less fun things results in sadness and in turn makes you feel too sad to do any fun things. In this situation, it is important for someone to support and motivate you.

A therapist can work with you to gradually increase the fun activities in your life through using cognitive behaviour therapy techniques.

3. CBT Helps To Manage Your Problems

It is very hard for depression sufferes to manage everyday problems which seem to be getting on top of them. CBT helps them to manage these problems through different techniques.

CBT teaches people to control their thoughts, feelings and behaviors. It is particularly helpful for people who have phobias including social phobia.

CBT combines two therapies "Cogntive Therapy" and "Behavior Therapy" to change unhealthy and unhelpful thoughts and behaviors.

Cognitive Therapy acknowledge that distorted thoughts cause self-destructive feelings and behaviors. For example, someone who thinks they are unworthy of love and respect may behave shyly in social situations and isolate themselves and refuse to attend social functions.

Cognitive Therapy restructures the thoughts of a person by showing them that what they believe or perceive is not the right thoughts or feelings. This is done through asking certain questions and making the person realize that they are worth of love and respect.

While Behavior Therapy teaches the person techniques to change their behaviors and reaactions to certain issues.

CBT has a good success rate because it combines the techniques of these two very effective therapies.

How Long Will It Take For You To See The Benefits Of The CBT Sessions

Your psychologist or counsellor will first assess your condition and structure sessions accordingly. The sessions usually last an hour and might possibly be weekly or forthnightly. After a certain period, your counsellor will review the progress and accordingly structure the future sessions. You will start seeing the benefits of these sessions within few months.

It is better to discuss CBT with your doctor and ask them to refer you to a psychiatrist or a counsellor that uses these techniques.