Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a psycho-social intervention that aims to improve mental health. CBT focuses on challenging and changing unhelpful cognitive distortions and behaviors, improving emotional regulation, and the development of personal coping strategies that target solving current problems.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.
It’s most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical health problems.
How Does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Works?
CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a vicious cycle. CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts.
You’re shown how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel. Unlike some other talking treatments, CBT deals with your current problems, rather than focusing on issues from your past. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind on a daily basis.
The Problems That Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Addresses?
CBT has been shown to be an effective way of treating a number of different mental health conditions.
In addition to depression or anxiety disorders, CBT can also help people with:
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Phobias
- Eating disorders – such as anorexia and bulimia
- sleep problems – such as insomnia
- problems related to alcohol misuse
CBT is also sometimes used to treat people with long-term health conditions, such as:
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)
Although CBT can’t cure the physical symptoms of these conditions, it can help people cope better with their symptoms.
Major Benefits & Importance of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Some of the major ways cognitive behavioral therapy benefits patients from different walks of life includes lowering symptoms of depressions, reducing anxiety, treating eating disorders, reducing addictive behaviors and substance abuse, and helping to improve self-esteem and confidence.
