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There are many various forms of treatment that are used to help improve your mental health as well as treat behavioural disorders such as addiction. However, one of the most successful and widely used forms of therapy is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
Many mental health clinics and rehabs employ mindfulness cognitive behavioural therapy for addiction and for overcoming other associated mental health illnesses.
This is because this form of talking therapy allows an individual to manage the emotional, mental, or behavioural issues they have developed by actually altering the way that they think and behave.
On the surface, that might seem like quite a daunting prospect; although, this is a perfectly safe process and CBT can help individuals suffering from the likes of addiction, depression, anxiety, or many other illnesses to live their lives free from their affliction.
If you’re still unsure about whether CBT may be able to help you, then we will take a quick look at some of cognitive behavioural therapy’s strengths and weaknesses, some of the key features of CBT, as well as how it is implemented.
How Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Techniques Work
Cognitive behavioural therapy is a form of a psycho-social intervention that is grounded in the idea that all of your thoughts, feelings, physiology and your actions are interconnected — and, as such, that negative feelings and/or thoughts can leave you trapped within a vicious cycle (such as an additive cycle).
When experiencing CBT, this therapy will work towards the goal of assisting you in managing your everyday problems by breaking them into smaller parts — and, in turn, help you to start living a more positive life.
By analysing and challenging the negative behavioural patterns you have developed over time, you will be able to improve the way that you feel. Furthermore, when treating addictive disorders, CBT can help an individual to identify the triggers and situations which typically lead them to use, drinking, or resorting to another addictive activity.
While a lot of talking therapies can be based entirely on analysing your past, CBT will help you to look at the current problems that you are facing in your everyday life.
A lot of individuals can therefore find this form of therapy a lot more effective at helping them to get through their day-to-day life as CBT helps you to find practical ways to overcome the issues you are facing.
What Can CBT Be Used To Treat?
While CBT is commonly thought of as treating mental health conditions, which is certainly true, CBT can also be used to treat some physical ailments as well. CBT can be used to treat such varied illnesses as:
- Bipolar disorder
- BPD (borderline personality disorder)
- OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
- Phobias
- Bulimia, anorexia, and any other eating disorder
- Panic attacks
- PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)
- Insomnia
- Schizophrenia
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)
- Fibromyalgia
- CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome)
In some instances, while CBT might not be able to actively cure the individual of a physiological disorder, it can also be used to help the individual to cope with the symptoms of that illness on a daily basis.
How A Course Of CBT Plays Out
If you have been recommended a course of cognitive behavioural therapy by a specialist, then you will commonly experience a therapist-led session of treatment once a week — or in some instances once every two weeks.
A session of CBT will often last from half an hour to an hour, with each course of CBT can typically last from anywhere between five and twenty sessions. The specific duration of your course of therapy can be dependent upon the type of illness you are struggling with as well as your progress from session to session.
In the individual sessions with your therapist, you will be attempting to deconstruct the issues that you are facing into their requisite parts — for example, into your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions in response to a situation or problem.
Once you have broken down your issues, you and your therapy will work together to analyse each area and figure out whether they are detrimental to your overall wellbeing, as well as figuring out the effect that each area has on the problems you are immediately facing and those around you.
Once you have determined the aspects of your daily life which are detrimental to your overall health, you will work with your therapist in order to figure out how to effectively change these unhelpful thought patterns and learned behaviours.
From this point, you will discuss with your therapist how implementing these changes in your daily life is going, and how to make even further improvements going forward into your subsequent sessions and daily life.
After a course of treatment, these positive attitudes will become second nature, and before you know it you will be seeing positive repercussions in both your general mental health as well as daily life.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Strengths And Weaknesses
CBT has a lot of benefits to offer people; however, there are some people who may not be perfectly suited to this particular form of treatment.
Some of the strengths of CBT include:
- You will typically begin to see positive results in a shorter period of time than with other talking therapies.
- Due to CBT being a highly structured form of therapy, it can take a variety of forms and fit in with all types of schedules and lifestyles.
- It can be very effective in instances where conventional medicine has proven ineffectual.
- The results that you will work towards are practical goals that will seek to actually make physical changes to your daily life. Practical goals equal practical results.
Some of the weaknesses of CBT include:
- CBT can require you to commit to the practices of your treatment, meaning that you may have to do more work than with other talking therapies.
- CBT typically involves confronting your deep-rooted emotions and memories, so you should be prepared for this when considering CBT.
- You must be prepared to make changes to various aspects of your life. If you are not committed to making a positive change, then you will not see many positive results.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Near Me
If you think that CBT may be able to help you overcome an illness that you are currently battling, then Rehab Clinics Group may be able to provide this service for you at one of our locations across the UK.
Simply call us today on 0800 470 0382 to find out more about how we can help you start a course of CBT treatment.
