Until recently, the idea of someone with a mental health disorder has always had a stigma attached to it, causing many individuals to avoid seeking help. Something that could have been corrected with the right treatment would worsen because of the fear of judgment and scorn.
Today, mental health wellness is widely recognized as an integral part of overall wellness. Research connects our minds and bodies in ways never understood in the past. Now, we know that your physical health can affect your mental health and vice versa, making it crucial to address both as equally important.
Through mental health treatment, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), we can work through our thought patterns and control them before they have a debilitating impact on our lives. What is CBT, and what does it treat? We’ll help you understand the significance of this science here.
Defining Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive refers to aspects of the mind and thinking. Behavioral refers to our actions, whether they’re conscious or subconscious. Together, you have cognitive behavioral therapy, a treatment that focuses on a person’s thinking patterns, the emotional responses to them, and the behaviors that follow. With CBT, a trained specialist helps the patient recognize their maladaptive thinking patterns and learn how to replace those habits with healthier ones.
Most of us pick up negative thinking patterns automatically over the years unless we actively work to think and act positively. Negativity spreads much easier than positive thinking. In fact, studies show that humans are hardwired for negative thinking, but positive thinking can significantly impact our health in powerful ways.
CBT actively encourages patients to attempt to wrangle those negative thought patterns and strategically replace them with more realistic and positive habits instead.
CBT Techniques to Treat Various Diagnoses
Underneath the CBT umbrella, you’ll find a variety of techniques that are used as approaches, depending on the diagnosis, including the following:
● Negative thought identification and applying those thoughts to their relevant behaviors to recognize the destructive potential, as well as discovering why your thought patterns exist as they do,
● Determining targets for improvement in mental health and future life goals and addressing those targets through achievable strategies,
● Learning and practicing skills to replace the unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns,
● Learning and practicing methods to solve real-life problems caused by stressors and triggers to assist in handling them at the moment they actually occur,
● Tracking behaviors and thoughts through journaling and other forms of self-monitoring.
These techniques are proven to be effective when used consistently with a trained and licensed provider.
Conditions CBT May Help
Although CBT is generally linked to mental health disorders, as mentioned earlier, one’s physical health can impact their thoughts and behaviors. CBT is a treatment that can aid wellness and recovery in a wide range of mental and physical conditions, such as:
● Anxiety
● Depression
● Bipolar disorder
● Anger issues
● Phobias
● Personality disorders
● Panic attacks
● Chronic pain, terminal illnesses, or long-term serious health conditions
● Eating disorders
● Loss and grief
● Stress management
● Relationship trouble
● Confidence issues
With cognitive behavioral therapy, if you’re experiencing any of these conditions or others that affect your thoughts and feelings, you can find strategies to shift your behaviors. CBT gives you the tools you need to recognize what you can and can’t control and learn how to use this knowledge to move forward with dealing with everything around you.
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