Role of CBT In Dealing Mental Illnesses
A mental illness becomes a big hurdle in a person’s life because it brings a lot of change in their thought patterns and behaviour, which eventually robs them from enjoying a peaceful lifestyle. It is characterised by a drastic change in the thought pattern of a person. It means if you are struggling with a mental disorder your perception towards the world around you changes drastically. You start experiencing negative thoughts frequently which play a crucial role in changing your behaviour. Whether you talk about a situation, an event or, yourself you begin to get negative thoughts about them, which is why it becomes really difficult for you to handle them peacefully. In other words, mental illnesses stop you from positive thinking, and that’s the reason you start behaving in a weird manner. It’s absolutely important to seek proper treatment for curing your mental disorder, otherwise, you will never be able to return to your normal life and perform your daily work efficiently. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the best ways of overcoming a mental illness. It’s a kind of treatment which can help patients to recover from different types of mental disorders in a short time, provided the fact that, patients follow the advice of the therapist religiously.
Here’re some of those mental illnesses that can be treated with CBT. Anxiety Disorder Anxiety disorders are mental illnesses which are characterised by symptoms like a high level of fear and worry, which keep worsening with the passage of time if you fail to take the right treatment. Specific phobia, suffering from anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder are some of the most common types of anxiety disorders that are faced by people across the world. In short, these are different kinds of fears and anxieties that are associated with different situations, and the intensity of these fears keep on increasing if you don’t take treatment to recover from them. Yes, all the mental illnesses are progressive disorders, which keep on worsening in the absence of a right treatment, and the same applies to anxiety disorders.
Depression Depression is also a mental illness, which can affect a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviour. It is characterised by low mood and there can be several underlying causes of that. In order to treat depression or any other mental disorder for that matter, it’s crucial that root cause is identified in the first place. It means once you know the right problem then only you will get the right solution for it. Without having a proper idea of the root cause of the problem, it’s impossible to get a correct solution for it. In case of mental disorders, you must know how to deal with your negative thoughts, because half of the problem is caused by them. If you think that you are unable to perform effectively in your workplace, you may face depression. Similarly, if you get to know that your spouse is no more interested in you, you get depressed very soon. And if you fail to deal with your thoughts which are causing all the problems for you, your problem may soon take the shape of a mental illness called depression. In lay man’s words, depression is a type of mental disorder which results from high-level of fear and anxiety.
Eating Disorder Eating disorders can be elucidated as behavioural and emotional problems which are generally characterised by person’s abnormal relationship with food. It means, a person suffering from an eating disorder does not enjoy a healthy relationship with food because they believe that it helps in increasing their weight, which makes them look really ugly. Some of the most common eating disorder include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating, and people suffering from them fear weight gain. For example, if you talk about anorexia nervosa, which is a mental disorder that forces a person to believe that they look really bad because of their weight, is characterised by food avoidance. Patients suffering from anorexia nervosa start
avoiding different types of foods from their diet, thinking that they help in weight gain. These patients are constantly haunted by their negative thoughts which say that should stay away from food. And because of that, these people start avoiding social and family functions wherein food remains an important part of the celebrations.
Alcohol Addiction Another common mental illness that is experienced by a wide range of people across the globe is alcohol addiction, wherein even after knowing that alcohol is harmful to their health, they keep on consuming it without fail. Alcohol addiction is a brain disease, which is characterised by episodes of excessive drinking on a regular basis. Alcohol interferes with the function of your brain, and you lose control of your body and behaviour if you drink it in heavy amounts.
Here is how CBT helps in treating these mental illnesses. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a kind of Psychotherapy wherein a therapist examines both a patient’s thought patterns and their behaviour and then designs a perfect treatment solution to cure their problems. Once a person’s negative thought patterns are effectively understood by the therapist, they then try to develop a person’s coping skills, which eventually allow them to deal with their negative thoughts effectively. Teaching patients how to develop coping skills remains an important part of the treatment process in CBT. For example, if you are suffering from eating disorder, wherein you believe that you are overweight and because of which you begin to avoid foods, your therapist will teach your coping skills to deal with your negative thoughts. They teach you to love yourself and your body the way it is, rather than following abnormal eating patterns. At the same time, if someone is really overweight, they may suggest them to take the help of a nutritionist to get the right solution, rather than avoiding food unnecessarily. On the other hand, if you are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, your therapist will talk to you in detail about your problem. In case, you are struggling with PTSD because you experienced sexual abuse in childhood, they will teach you how to form coping skills to defeat your negative thoughts and live a peaceful life. Source URL: https://www.healtheo360.com/stories/role-of-cbt-in-dealing-mental-illnesses/