What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? Cognitive behavior therapy helps people break the connections between difficult situations and their habitual reactions to them. This can be reactions such as fear, rage or depression, and self-defeating or self-damaging behavior. It also teaches people how to calm their mind and body, so they can feel better, think more clearly, and make better decisions. Cognitive therapy also teaches people how certain

thinking patterns are causing their symptoms. This is accomplished by giving people a distorted picture of what's going on in their life, and making them feel anxious, depressed or angry for no good reason.(Francis, 2000) When people are in behavior therapy and cognitive therapy, it provides them with various tools for stopping their symptoms and getting their life on a more satisfying track. In cognitive therapy, the therapist takes an active part in solving a patient's problems. He or she doesn't settle for just nodding wisely while the patient carries the whole burden of finding the answers they came to therapy for initially. Cognitive therapists teach patients to identify their negative thoughts, recognize their erroneous nature and devise a corrective plan that leads to more positive assessments and an ability to deal more realistically with every day problems.(Burns, 1996-2000) Dr. Frances M. Christian, a clinical social worker and cognitive therapist at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, says, "Thoughts and beliefs have a lot to do with how people feel and behave. Early in life, people develop core beliefs about themselves and other people and about how the world operates." Cognitive behavioral therapy 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, cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be better than drugs in avoiding treatment failures and in preventing relapse after the end of treatment. A cognitive therapist directs a patient's attention to "automatic" thoughts, the things people say to themselves, that result in unpleasant feelings. (Stopa, 2000) For example, someone prone to anxiety attacks might automatically think, "I'm going to mess up," when taking an exam, participating in a school event or being interviewed for a job. After failing such a task, the person might conclude, again automatically, "I'm a loser." In therapy, the person is helped to recognize delusions in thought, which include exaggerating the sense of threat, anticipating disaster as the outcome, and over generalizing from one negative experience and ignoring times when things went well. Finally, once the damaging automatic thoughts are recognized, the person is helped to examine how realistic they are, and they consider alternative explanations, then imagine other outcomes and realize that the symptoms of anxiety are not the prelude to a heart attack or some other medical disaster. (Stopa, 2000) This same approach is practiced for depression. The difference in the therapeutic approach versus medicating is dramatic, and the relief people feel is immediate. Instead of dwelling on the negative, which the other therapists sometimes do, they acquire therapeutic tools the depressed can apply on his or her own, in case they may find themselves slipping into old patterns of thought or behavior. (Stopa, 2000) Furthermore, studies have shown that the results of cognitive therapy are long lasting, with relapse rates much lower than with other modes of treatment, including psychiatric drugs. And while medication is sometimes used, at least briefly, to relieve intense emotional disturbances and improve receptivity to therapy, most patients can be spared the side effects of drugs, which may include the inability to function sexually, upset stomach, difficulty sleeping and difficulty concentrating.(Brody, 1996) While no one approach to psychotherapy is appropriate for everyone, many thousands of patients have benefited from the strategies unique to cognitive therapy. In the 30 or so years since the approach was developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck, a world-renowned psychiatrist at the Beck Center for Cognitive Therapy in Philadelphia, it has become the most scientifically tested model of psychotherapy. (Brody, 1996) What is Depression? According to Dr. Judith S. Beck and Dr. Aaron Beck, her daughter, "Patients have continual unpleasant t

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