Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Depression, anxiety, bad habits etc

[Liza]

Sounds GOOD!

Cognitive behavior therapy is a clinically and research proven breakthrough in mental health care. Hundreds of studies by research psychologists and psychiatrists make it clear why CBT has become the preferred treatment for conditions such as these . . .

Depression and mood swings
Shyness and social anxiety
Panic attacks and phobias
Obsessions and compulsions (OCD and related conditions)
Chronic anxiety or worry
Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSD and related conditions)
Eating disorders (anorexia and bulimia) and obesity
Insomnia and other sleep problems
Difficulty establishing or staying in relationships
Problems with marriage or other relationships you're already in
Job, career or school difficulties
Feeling “stressed out”
Insufficient self-esteem (accepting or respecting yourself)
Inadequate coping skills, or ill-chosen methods of coping
Passivity, procrastination and “passive aggression”
Substance abuse, co-dependency and “enabling”
Trouble keeping feelings such as anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, eagerness, excitement, etc., within bounds
Over-inhibition of feelings or expression

Just what is CBT? How does it work?
Cognitive behavior therapy* combines two very effective kinds of psychotherapy — cognitive therapy and behavior therapy.

Behavior therapy helps you weaken the connections between troublesome situations and your habitual reactions to them. Reactions such as fear, depression or rage, and self-defeating or self-damaging behavior. It also teaches you how to calm your mind and body, so you can feel better, think more clearly, and make better decisions.

Cognitive therapy teaches you how certain thinking patterns are causing your symptoms — by giving you a distorted picture of what's going on in your life, and making you feel anxious, depressed or angry for no good reason, or provoking you into ill-chosen actions.

When combined into CBT, behavior therapy and cognitive therapy provide you with very powerful tools for stopping your symptoms and getting your life on a more satisfying track.

CBT is usually brief
Most CBT patients are able to complete their treatment in just a few weeks or months — even for problems that traditional therapies often take years to resolve, or aren't able to resolve at all.

Meanwhile, for people with complex problems, or who are forced to live in adverse conditions beyond their control, longer-term treatment is also available.[/size]

What else is different about CBT?
Most people coming for therapy need to change something in their lives — whether it's the way they feel, the way they act, or how other people treat them. CBT focuses on finding out just what needs to be changed and what doesn't — and then works for those targeted changes.

Some exploration of people's life histories is necessary and desirable — if their current problems are closely tied to “unfinished emotional business” from the past, or if they grow out of a repeating pattern of difficulty. Nevertheless, 100 years of psychotherapy have made this clear . . .

Past vs. present and future
Focusing on the past (and on dreams) can at times help explain a person's difficulties. But these activities all too often do little to actually overcome them. Instead, in CBT we aim at rapid improvement in your feelings and moods, and early changes in any self-defeating behavior you may be caught up in. As you can see, CBT is more present-centered and forward-looking than traditional therapies.

The levers of change
The two most powerful levers of constructive change (apart from medication in some cases) are these . . .

Altering ways of thinking — a person's thoughts, beliefs, ideas, attitudes, assumptions, mental imagery, and ways of directing his or her attention — for the better. This is the cognitive aspect of CBT.
Helping a person greet the challenges and opportunities in his or her life with a clear and calm mind — and then taking actions that are likely to have desirable results. This is the behavioral aspect of CBT.
In other words, CBT focuses on exactly what traditional therapies tend to leave out — how to achieve beneficial change, as opposed to mere explanation or “insight.”

CBT: The therapy with by far the most research support
CBT has been very thoroughly researched. In study after study, it has been shown to be as effective as drugs in treating both depression and anxiety.

In particular, CBT has been shown to be better than drugs in avoiding treatment failures and in preventing relapse after the end of treatment. If you are concerned about your ability to complete treatment and maintain your gains thereafter, keep this in mind.

Other symptoms for which CBT has demonstrated its effectiveness include problems with relationships, family, work, school, insomnia, and self-esteem. And it is usually the preferred treatment for shyness, headaches, panic attacks, phobias, post-traumatic stress, eating disorders, loneliness, and procrastination. It can also be combined, if needed, with psychiatric medications. (See next section.)

No other type of psychotherapy has anything like this track record in outcome research.

http://www.cognitivetherapy.com/basics.html

 

[Liza]

Oooh, Buddha's in it too!

Buddha: Still earlier fundamentals
John Winston Bush, PhD
New York Institute for Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA (c. 563-483 BC), better known as Buddha, was the first "cognitive behavior therapist" we know of, antedating even Epictetus by 600 years.

And unlike Epictetus — who seems to have confined himself to enunciating general principles such as you have seen on the page devoted to his teachings — Siddhartha left behind something analogous to a modern psychotherapeutic treatment manual. He was quite specific on many aspects of how one can go about reducing needless suffering. I have seen some of them appear to work strikingly well in my own, highly scientifically-informed, practice. As a result, I look forward to the day when my research colleagues study Siddhartha's meditation and related practices in the rigorous format of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) — the "gold standard" of treatment research.

We usually think of Buddhism as one of the major religions of the world. Even in Asia it is regarded and practiced by many in a manner that resembles the Western religions we are familiar with. Yet it is also practiced, especially in the Theravada ("Elders") tradition — believed to adhere more than other flavors of Buddhism to Siddhartha's own precepts and methods — as more of a cross between a moral philosophy and an applied psychology. There is little appeal to the supernatural: much of what has come down to us over 2,500 years is a set of practical instructions on how to live ethically — i.e., in accord with what Siddhartha regarded as natural law — and how to meditate so as to approach or even attain enlightenment (Nirvana), which is defined as a state devoid of all dukkha (roughly translated from the Pali, suffering).

Rich boy finally makes good
Siddhartha was a son of King Suddhodana in a region of northern India close to what is now Nepal. He grew up and began his adult life in sheltered luxury. But at the age of 29, curious about the world beyond his family's palace walls, he made a series of secret forays into the outside world. There, he encountered in quick succession a very old man, a very sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic. Astounded by the amount of pain he had discovered in the human condition, he was inspired to leave his wife, young son and princely lifestyle behind and devote himself to penetrating the mystery of human suffering. For six years he traveled in India as a mendicant holy man — an odyssey that left him disillusioned with extreme asceticism. Then, at 35, he set himself to meditate under a tree, having made a vow to himself that he would stay until he had realized his quest.

When Siddhartha emerged from under the tree, he believed he had found the secret of enlightenment (Buddha means "enlightened" or "awakened" in Pali). He gave over the rest of his life — like Epictetus after his emancipation — to teaching all who would listen. It appears that a good many people did listen to him — and that his teachings were found to work in practice. (If they had not worked, he most likely would have become just another unsung armchair philosopher and low-fee psychotherapist instead of the major historical and spiritual figure he actually became.)

To get an idea of how a leading form of Buddhist practice looks and feels (Vipassana meditation, i.e., "seeing things just as they are"), the best guides I've found are Thich Nhat Hanh's "The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation" and Joseph Goldstein's "Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom." They contain specific instructions that you can try out for yourself, and they're listed on the Bookshelf page of this site.

http://www.cognitivetherapy.com/buddha.html

 

[Gemtun]

Excellent! I have read all of Thich Nhat Hanh's readings. Very powerful and enlightening.

During my most painful events of life, I have used Buddhist mediations to help cope with emotional traumas, my self esteem and gaining insight into why good people suffer.

I know I would not have came this far if not for this. A lot of people have remarked on my strength after learning what I have endured/suffered during my time on Earth. I give all of credit to reading these books and learning that suffering is part of life ....real suffering is when these people refuse to accept that suffering is a part of life. Life is never suffer-free.

 

[Catmandu]

I see a lot of them that I have to deal with. I try to keep myself busy and maintain interacting with people to keep me happy even though I can be very shy. If I didn't do these then I'd be very depressed. Great posts Lizachick!

 

[Liza]

Meg and Katzie, thanks for your input! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts...

Meg, that is interesting to learn about your journey! I do admit that most of my beliefs border on Buddhism, too.. attachments lead to suffering, and that resonates with me... because with the way we were programmed from our childhood, we just latch onto an unhealthy pattern for the rest of our lives until we are fed up with the suffering we have through that... I think I'm rambling here I've gone into some areas of new age and eastern philosophy to find a way to cope with the things I've gone through in my life.. relationships, family, friends, and all. You name it! I'll admit that I'm still a long way off from achieving that inner peace or Nirvana or something like that... but it's a goal worthy of achieving for me.

Meg, I'd like to hear more about Thich Nhat Hanh's readings, and more of your insights if that's okay with you!