COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY (CBT)
We take for granted the thoughts within our head, the constant chatter of our mind. We assume that what we think on a daily basis is helpful, accurate, reliable, and in our best interest. However, when you look at it, VERY LITTLE of what we think about is FACT, or about the CURRENT MOMENT. Many of our thoughts are not helpful and they can make us feel unhappy or anxious.
Our thoughts can be about the past, the future, what others may be thinking or feeling, what may go wrong. And yet these thoughts determine how we feel and behave. CBT fundamentally looks at the relationship between these thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
When you are feeling down or anxious you are more likely to experience negative, anxious, intrusive or unhelpful thoughts, which in turn make you feel more depressed and anxious, and so it goes on......
"I am useless....I am ugly....I'm a failure....I must be perfect....I should make people happy....It's my fault....Everyone is better than me....I am boring....People will laugh at me....Something bad is going to happen....Nobody likes me....Nobody cares....There's no point....The world is dangerous....People think I am....What if?"
A THOUGHT IS NOT A FACT, A BELIEF IS NOT A TRUTH......
These thoughts not only affect how we feel, they also influence our behaviour. People who feel depressed often withdraw from social activities, people with anxiety often avoid situations that make them anxious, people with social anxiety may avoid looking at or talking to people, people with OCD may repeatedly check their doors.
This change in behaviour often feels helpful, comfortable or reassuring. However, it tends to reinforce unhelpful thoughts rather than get rid of them. So by avoiding making eye contact with people, someone with social anxiety continues to believe that everyone is looking at them or talking about them. By withdrawing from social activities, someone with depression continues to believe that they are alone and no one understands. So the behaviours maintain and trigger more unhelpful thoughts and so the vicious cycle continues.....
CBT aims to break these unhelpful cycles by finding more accurate ways of thinking and more helpful ways of behaving. CBT is a very active, collaborative therapy, with the client being the expert in their difficulties, and the therapist a facilitator to increased understanding and change. CBT works with problems in the 'here and now', with less time spent in the past. However, the past may be used to make sense of current thinking patterns or ways of behaving.
