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Copyright 2006 www.stopdepressiontoday.com
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive-behavioral therapists help patients by focusing on their negative “cognitions” or thoughts about themselves, the world, and the future. Negative thoughts about oneself lead to lowered self esteem; depressed people often feel defective and lacking in positive attributes that they believe everyone else has in abundance. Negative thoughts about the world lead to excessive caution and guardedness; those who are depressed view the glass as “half empty” and describe life as demanding and depriving. Typically, they place a negative interpretation on ambiguous events that others would view more neutrally or even positively. Negative thoughts about the future lead to pessimism and hopelessness; when depressed, many are convinced that the feelings they have will continue forever and that they deserve this fate. Cognitive therapists believe that these negative thoughts can precipitate and perpetuate depression.
To understand the cognitive perspective on depression, you might conduct an exercise of immersing yourself in consistently negative cognitions for 5 minutes to determine what effect this process has on your mood. Most people find the experience somewhat depressing and can understand how a preoccupation with such pessimistic themes can contribute to depression. Specific educational, congnitive, and behavioral techniques have been combined to counteract the negative thoughts so common in depression and the behaviors that result from negative thinking. Usually, behaviors are changed first before focused work begins on thoughts, which, in turn, precedes improvements in mood. For example, an individual who reports “I can’t do anything”, when asked to be more specific might say “I used to love to cook but now I have no interest, and couldn’t even take the first step if I did”. The cognitive-behavioral therapist would attempt to have the patient perform a simple task first, such as boiling water.
A number of studies have shown a beneficial effect of cognitive therapy in treating mild to moderately severe depression. Cognitive therapy does not appear to be effective for severe depression.
Cognitive-behavioral therapists help patients by focusing on their negative “cognitions” or thoughts about themselves, the world, and the future. Negative thoughts about oneself lead to lowered self esteem; depressed people often feel defective and lacking in positive attributes that they believe everyone else has in abundance. Negative thoughts about the world lead to excessive caution and guardedness; those who are depressed view the glass as “half empty” and describe life as demanding and depriving. Typically, they place a negative interpretation on ambiguous events that others would view more neutrally or even positively. Negative thoughts about the future lead to pessimism and hopelessness; when depressed, many are convinced that the feelings they have will continue forever and that they deserve this fate. Cognitive therapists believe that these negative thoughts can precipitate and perpetuate depression.
To understand the cognitive perspective on depression, you might conduct an exercise of immersing yourself in consistently negative cognitions for 5 minutes to determine what effect this process has on your mood. Most people find the experience somewhat depressing and can understand how a preoccupation with such pessimistic themes can contribute to depression. Specific educational, congnitive, and behavioral techniques have been combined to counteract the negative thoughts so common in depression and the behaviors that result from negative thinking. Usually, behaviors are changed first before focused work begins on thoughts, which, in turn, precedes improvements in mood. For example, an individual who reports “I can’t do anything”, when asked to be more specific might say “I used to love to cook but now I have no interest, and couldn’t even take the first step if I did”. The cognitive-behavioral therapist would attempt to have the patient perform a simple task first, such as boiling water.
A number of studies have shown a beneficial effect of cognitive therapy in treating mild to moderately severe depression. Cognitive therapy does not appear to be effective for severe depression.