How Does Cognitive Behavior Therapy Reduce Depression? Dr David Purves

A good goal in life is to develop the ability to think accurately about things. This is harder than you might imagine but all effort is repaid ten-fold. The alternative to accurate thinking is inaccurate thinking and that leads to depression and anxiety, so let us be clear...the stakes are high.

The most effective therapeutic approach for treating low mood and clinical depression is called Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT. CBT is a structured approach to working on some of the better defined and understood aspects of depression and anxiety. There is good evidence that it is both an effective and an empowering form of therapy because you are an active participant in helping yourself.

Let us offer an example of the power of negative thought to frighten and depress you. Imagine that you have to speak in front of a large group of people who you think are knowledgeable about your subject. You believe that your performance is important; it matters to you how well you do. Depending upon your experience of this kind of activity, your reaction might range from excitement to absolute terror. Let us assume that you are rather more on the terror side. What would make you feel terrified?

It is easy to imagine that because you believe the talk to be important, you are also aware of every possible negative outcome that you can imagine. Here are some examples:-

I will make a fool of myself
People will know I am a fraud
People will see I do not know enough
I will lose control and panic while I am speaking
People will laugh at me

If you believed that any of these were true, or even likely, how would you feel? You would probably feel a mixture of fear, shame, guilt, despair, helplessness, panic, anger and a strong desire to run away and hide.

You have not even given the talk, but all of these emotions are the result of how you imagine it might go. Suppose you give the talk and it is a success. Will you forget the powerful emotions you felt beforehand, and realise that they were unfounded? Probably not; they remain in place and the next time you are called upon to speak they come back again, to ruin the experience. Strange as it may seem, you are probably more likely to remember the negative thoughts and feelings rather than the actual fact that you gave a good talk.

This example illustrates one of the bases for depression and anxiety.

The negative things you believe about yourself and the world are often more powerful than reality. The fact that they are wrong does not diminish their power; because you believe they might come true next time.

It is not events themselves that are depressing it is your interpretation of them.

In low mood and depression it is very common to hold a series of self-defeating and damaging beliefs about yourself. These beliefs detract from your ability to enjoy your life. If they are very strong they can even make your very survival problematic.

Many of the negative beliefs you hold about yourself have never been demonstrated, neither is there any evidence to support them. Suppose you gave a successful talk 99 times and one time you gave a poor talk. Which would be the most memorable and which would you think most accurately reflected who you are?

We reckon it is the one bad talk. All of your life you have probably had normal everyday experiences. It is very rare for the negative beliefs you hold about yourself to have been demonstrated in reality. They reside in your mind and direct you to feel bad, but there is probably little or no evidence that they reflect reality.

CBT is a means of accessing these damaging negative beliefs and finding ways of understanding their actions and then testing them against reality. This process is easy to describe but in reality it is a profound re-working of the most fundamental negative beliefs you hold about yourself, the world and your future. Allowing reality to bath your deepest held negative beliefs can be a great relief and is definitely a life changing experience.

About the Author:
For more information about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Mental Health Therapy ,please visit: mental-health-and-wellbeing.com

Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com

Tags: Depression

, Anxiety

, Stress

, Depression Therapy

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