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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcoholism, drug addiction problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. Numerous research studies suggest that CBT leads to significant improvement in functioning and quality of life. In many studies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been demonstrated to be as effective as or more effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications.

What Principle Underlies Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

It is important to emphasize that advances in CBT have been made on the basis of both research and clinical practice. Indeed, CBT is an approach for which there is ample scientific evidence that the methods that have been developed actually produce change. In this manner, CBT differs from many other forms of psychological treatment.

CBT is based on several core principles, including:

  1. Psychological problems are based, in part, on faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking.
  2. Psychological problems are based, in part, on learned patterns of unhelpful behavior.
  3. People suffering from psychological problems can learn better ways of coping with them, thereby relieving their symptoms and becoming more effective in their lives.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques

CBT treatment usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns. These strategies might include:

  • Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality.
  • Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others.
  • Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations.
  • Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s own abilities.

CBT treatment also usually involves efforts to change behavioral patterns. These strategies might include:

  • Facing one’s fears instead of avoiding them.
  • Using role playing to prepare for potentially problematic interactions with others.
  • Learning to calm one’s mind and relax one’s body.

Not all CBT will use all of these strategies. Rather, the psychologist and patient/client work together, in a collaborative fashion, to develop an understanding of the problem and to develop a treatment strategy.

CBT places an emphasis on helping individuals learn to be their own therapists. Through exercises in the session as well as “homework” exercises outside of sessions, patients/clients are helped to develop coping skills, whereby they can learn to change their own thinking, problematic emotions, and behavior.

CBT therapists emphasize what is going on in the person’s current life, rather than what has led up to their difficulties. A certain amount of information about one’s history is needed, but the focus is primarily on moving forward in time to develop more effective ways of coping with life. [1]

Types of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy encompasses a range of techniques and approaches that address thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. These can range from structured psychotherapies to self-help materials. There are a number of specific types of therapeutic approaches that involve CBT, including:

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.
  • Cognitive therapy centers on identifying and changing inaccurate or distorted thinking patterns, emotional responses, and behaviors.
  • Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) addresses thoughts and behaviors while incorporating strategies such as emotional regulation and mindfulness.
  • Multimodal therapy suggests that psychological issues must be treated by addressing seven different but interconnected modalities: behavior, affect, sensation, imagery, cognition, interpersonal factors, and drug/biological considerations.
  • Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) involves identifying irrational beliefs, actively challenging these beliefs, and finally learning to recognize and change these thought patterns. [2]

What CBT Can Help With?

Cognitive-behavioral 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.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can improve your sleep by changing your behavior before bedtime as well as changing the ways of thinking that keep you from falling asleep. It also focuses on improving relaxation skills and changing lifestyle habits that impact your sleeping patterns.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety

For people with anxiety disorders, negative ways of thinking fuel the negative emotions of anxiety and fear. The goal of cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety is to identify and correct these negative thoughts and beliefs. The idea is that if you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

CBT has been demonstrated to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder. In many studies, CBT has been demonstrated to be as effective as, or more effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for ADHD

What therapy works best for ADHD? Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the type most used for ADHD and is especially well-suited for adults. Behavioral therapy is simply therapy that helps you change your behavior. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps you change your behavior by changing your thought processes.
The core modules are (1) psychoeducation and organizing/planning, (2) coping with distractibility, and (3) adaptive thinking. The optional modules are (4) addressing procrastination and (5) involvement of a partner or spouse.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Bipolar Disorder

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is effective in patients with bipolar disorder in decreasing the relapse rate and improving symptoms of depression and mania severity, as well as psychosocial functioning.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for OCD

CBT has been found to result in long-lasting benefits in OCD patients and also aims to provide you with a more effective way of managing unwanted thoughts and feelings that don’t impair your functioning in the long term. With Exposure and Response Prevention, a mental health professional trained in CBT conducts a series of controlled ERP sessions with the patient who has OCD. During these sessions, the therapist gradually exposes the person to the situations that trigger his or her obsessions and compulsions.

Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Addiction Treatment

As understanding of the nature of substance use patterns has improved, greater specificity of both psychosocial and pharmacologic treatments has followed, with evidence for the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of these approaches. CBT for substance use disorders includes several distinct interventions, either combined or used in isolation, many of which can be administered in both individual and group formats.

Although substance abuse treatment often occurs in an individual or group format, the disorder itself has strong ties to the patient’s social environment. Accordingly, several promising treatments have been developed, which utilize the support of the partner, family, and community to aid the patient in achieving abstinence. 

Effectiveness of CBT

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for substance use disorders has demonstrated efficacy as both a monotherapy and as part of combination treatment strategies. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are heterogeneous conditions characterized by recurrent maladaptive use of a psychoactive substance associated with significant distress and disability.

These disorders are highly common, with lifetime rates of substance abuse or dependence estimated at over 30% for alcohol and over 10% for other drugs, and past year point prevalence rates of 8.5% for alcohol and 2% for other drugs. [3]

CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts.

Length of Therapy

Highly effective psychotherapy called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on how our thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes can affect our feelings and behavior. Traditional CBT treatment usually requires weekly 30- to 60-minute sessions over 12 to 20 weeks. CBT is generally considered short-term therapy — ranging from about five to 20 sessions. You and your therapist can discuss how many sessions may be right for you. Factors to consider include the type of disorder or situation.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Infographic

The infographic below provides information on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a psychological treatment proven effective for various issues such as depression, anxiety disorders, alcoholism, drug addiction, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Near Me

CBT for substance use disorders captures a broad range of behavioral treatments including those targeting operant learning processes, motivational barriers to improvement, and a traditional variety of other cognitive-behavioral interventions. 

As the addiction treatment community begins to realize that addiction is itself a mental disorder, the relationship between substance abuse and mental disorders becomes more complicated. The greater treatment community largely lacks a proper understanding of dually diagnosed conditions, so these conditions are still treated separately, or worse–not treated or diagnosed at all. We Level Up dual diagnosis treatment centers in Florida, California, Texas, New Jersey are some of the facilities that have professionals trained to help treat co-occurring disorders concurrently. This type of tandem treatment provides some of the best success rates. 

Get dual diagnosis treatment and cognitive behavioral therapy for individuals struggling with substance abuse and mental health disorders. Call 24 Hour We Level Up TX rehab helpline. There’s No Obligation. Calls Are 100% Confidential.

Sources:

[1] What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? – https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral
[2] What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)? – https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-behavior-therapy-2795747
[3] Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Substance Use Disorders National Center for Biotechnology InformationU.S. National Library of Medicine