Understanding Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Understanding Cognitive Behavioral Therapy“It's like a weird feeling. It's not like the room is spinning. It’s like I’m spinning. I have nausea.”José Carmona has an anxiety disorder where he’s petrified of crowds and open spaces. He is not alone. It’sestimated that 40 million adults in the U.S. have some type of anxiety disorder. Another 16.2 million suffer atleast one major bout with depression a year. One of the most common ways to treat many mental illnesses,including depression and anxiety, is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT teaches a person to recognizethoughts and behaviors that may be causing anxiety or depression, then learn new ways to respond.“Two individuals, for example, can be very diagnostically similar, both diagnosed with depression, bothdiagnosed with panic disorder, social anxiety disorder. Yet the way that CBT, cognitive behavioraltherapy, is applied to those patients might look different from one patient to the next.”For Christopher Wojnar, who has both anxiety and bipolar disorder, CBT taught him to deal with the darkthoughts that sometimes come over him.“Cognitive Behavioral Therapy does a really good job with trying to, you know, have you change thosethoughts. But ultimately there are these negative thoughts that just come out of nowhere sometimes.And it's really battling those and using positive self-talk and using tools to try to, you know, changeyour thoughts to be positive.”Another CBT approach, Exposure Therapy, helps Claudine Jackson manage her anxiety. By safely exposingher to social settings, Claudine got over her fear of being around other people.“Going around people and getting out of the house is much better than staying in the house andisolating yourself because when you isolate yourself, your condition gets worse to me.”“Taking one manageable step at a time we reintroduce people, in this case, to being around otherpeople. But again not ‘hey, suck it up. You just need to be around other ‘people.’ It is a very strategicsystematic way of going about it.”Relaxation techniques to help calm you are still another CBT skill. It works for José and his Agoraphobia.“I inhale count to three, count to three and then exhale and count to three and I keep doing that overand over again. Or maybe I'll do math. And I have to think about what the next number is when I’mdoing it. So, two, four, six and that keeps me occupied because it's me thinking about it and notthinking about my anxiety.”The skills in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy toolbox are many. A trained mental health professional candetermine the best tools for your particular symptoms. Learning the skills and practicing them, can help yougain confidence to better manage your anxiety or depression.“If a fire started and I just sat back and waited 10 minutes it's pretty hard to put out at that point, right?And so, we kind of teach anxious patients the same thing. Don't wait 10 minutes. Don't sit back andsay, ‘well I'm feeling anxious but maybe it'll go away.’ Maybe it will, but chances are it won’t. It's goingThis program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.PRG54622A EN UnderstandingCognitiveBehavioralTherapy.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 1 of 2Understanding Cognitive Behavioral Therapyto be a bigger fire. So, we train people to apply these skills as quickly as possible. Put that fire outwhen it's very small.”Talk to your mental health professional to see if Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may be right for you.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.PRG54622A EN UnderstandingCognitiveBehavioralTherapy.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 2 of 2
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