Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Major Depressive Disorder
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that can improve your mood and self-image. It helps you recognize and alter negative thoughts and behaviors that cause depression, helping prevent relapses. CBT may be used alone or combined with other treatments like antidepressants.
Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a type of treatment that seeks to alter your perceptions about yourself and other people. Additionally, CBT teaches new coping mechanisms for dealing with difficult circumstances.
CBT is a collaborative effort between you and your therapist to identify what’s causing your issues, then develop new strategies for dealing with them. This could involve altering your thinking, trying different reactions to situations, and learning ways to relax when feeling anxious or depressed.
Your therapist will ask you to keep a journal of your thoughts and reactions to various situations. While this can be challenging at first, with practice it becomes easier. Your therapist also helps identify any irrational beliefs or thought patterns that contribute to depression.
Before you feel better, you may need to begin CBT and it could take weeks or months of sessions before any progress is evident. Nevertheless, most people find success with this treatment method.
Therapy involves recognizing negative automatic thoughts (thoughts that come to you without conscious awareness) and challenging them. The aim is to replace these with healthier alternatives that do not contribute to the issue at hand.
Your therapist can assist in challenging your beliefs, explaining how they affect your actions, and providing examples of other people’s solutions to similar difficulties. Other techniques such as exposure therapy or guided discovery may also be employed.
Your therapist may suggest writing down the things that worry you and discussing them with someone else, such as a close friend or family member. This can give you an understanding of what might be triggering your depression and provide you with a safe space to work through it in.
Maintaining a journal of your experiences and feelings during treatment is beneficial, as it allows you to monitor progress more easily. Additionally, sharing this progress with your therapist may be beneficial at certain points.
Typically, your therapist will set small but achievable objectives that you can work toward over time. This makes the process seem less overwhelming and gives you a chance to take an active role in your recovery.
Your therapist may give you exercises to do on your own between sessions, such as reading or writing. These tasks can help alter your thoughts and behaviors, creating new habits that make therapy easier to maintain.
Research suggests cognitive behavioral therapy may be as or more effective than medication for certain types of depression. Furthermore, it’s more affordable than some other treatments and has a high success rate when treating long-term.