Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
Known as the gold standard of psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is a type of psychological treatment therapy used to treat a broad range of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, and bipolar disorder. It also serves as an option for treating physical conditions such as chronic pain by relieving the symptoms.
What Is the Goal of CBT?
CBT treatment aims to reveal and change false and self-limiting thoughts, promoting positive emotional and behavioral habits and perspectives. The core principle underlying CBT is that thoughts and feelings largely influence behavior. For substance use disorders, the use of drugs and alcohol is a powerful reinforcement of behavior. The primary goal of CBT is to understand these reinforcement effects and the relationship between your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and substance abuse.
Benefits of CBT
The American Psychological Association (APA) emphasizes the difference between CBT and other types of talk therapy, focusing on CBT’s abundance of scientific evidence in support of its techniques for producing a change in individuals. CBT has various benefits, such as:
- Recognizing your distorted thoughts that are causing problems and achieving a more realistic perspective to reevaluate them realistically
- Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others
- Developing problem solving skills to cope with challenging situations
- Learning to hold a greater sense of confidence in your abilities
