Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:: Using CBT to Battle Anxiety, Depression, and Intrusive Thoughts

By Lawrence Franz

Do you feel depression, fear, or anxiety?

Do you have nightmares, flashbacks, panic attacks, or intrusive thoughts?

 Is your worldview distorted and causing you to be angry all the time?

Don't worry, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Using CBT to Battle Anxiety, Depression, and Intrusive Thoughts will help you to start reframing those negative thought patterns and begin battling the cognitive distortions that make you unhappy. You will be exposed to techniques and activities that help reshape your life to more closely match your core beliefs.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most widely used therapy because it works well in dealing with so many disorders and conditions. This book is a window into the world of cognitive behavioral therapy, the techniques, and activities that help with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, persistent pain, and intrusive thoughts. No matter if you are an aspiring therapist, someone who is looking for a therapist, or just curious about psychotherapy techniques, this book is for you. Within you will find the tools and essentials to either begin practicing or gain information about the various aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy. This book will help you take the next step to understand why you act the way you do, how to improve those thoughts, and to stay positive about your life, mistakes, and worries so that you avoid negative situations and cognitive distortions.

Within this book, you will

• Learn who can benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.

• Discover what behaviors and disorders CBT can help with.

• Get advice on how to find a therapist.

• Gain information about various cognitive distortions and how they impact your life.

• Learn CBT techniques for altering thoughts and reframing thought patterns.

• Learn how to avoid negative behaviors that cause anxiety and depression.

• Discover the activities that alter your negativity into positivity.

• Learn about visualization techniques.
• Discover constructive worrying about how to keep your worrying focused for a positive outcome.

              

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Heirs Publishing Company
• Release date: Oct 21, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386896265

Book preview

Chapter 1: Starting CBT

Who Benefits from CBT

CBT is useful for a range of issues from post-traumatic stress disorder to eating disorders. Most people can benefit from CBT as all people have some type of negative dialogue and patterns. CBT is specifically useful for serious mental illnesses where it can address the root causes of the negative dialogues. CBT is especially effective because it can be customized for each patient instead of following the same steps for each patient. Below are several disorders that CBT addresses. 

Depression

Depression is a mood disorder that affects 16.2 million Americans. It is an overwhelming feeling of sadness or feeling blue. While many people get sad, it usually lasts for hours while for someone having a major depressive episode that might last for days or weeks. Depression is often marked by apathy, lethargy, too much or too little sleep, and difficulty dealing with daily life. Symptoms of depression are divided into two categories. They are both emotional and physical symptoms of depression.

Emotional Symptoms

•  Anxiety

•  Irritability over minor issues 

•  Loss of interest in sex

•  Difficulty with anger management

•  Loss of interest in actives that were previously enjoyed

•  Fixation on past experiences

•  Suicidal thoughts or thinking things would be better off without the patient

Physical Symptoms

•  Oversleeping or insomnia

•  Overwhelming fatigue

•  Rapid weight gain or loss

•  Difficulty makes decisions or concentrating

•  Decrease or increase or appetite

Anxiety

Anxiety is a mood disorder where the patient is worried. While like in depression, just being sad does not make you depressed, an anxiety disorder is more than just worrying or experiencing fear. Anxiety surfaces in deliberating fears and excessive worrying about future events which cause negative emotional and behavioral consequences in the patient’s life. Anxiety can be triggered by events like speaking in front of a crowd, making an important presentation, or making decisions that affect your decision making while making life decisions. For some people even day-to-day activities are difficult. Anxiety can have physical signs like tense muscles, difficulty sleeping, nausea, and excessive energy or restlessness.

Intrusive Thoughts

Intrusive thoughts are involuntary negative thoughts. It can manifest as an unwelcome image, thought, or idea that recurs so often it becomes an obsession. Intrusive thoughts are a symptom of diseases like post-traumatic disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Intrusive thoughts are recurring negative thoughts–dwelling over past experiences like a negative incident with a boss or colleague, or a time when the patient believes they failed at something, or having inappropriate thoughts, images, or urges. People with intrusive thoughts often suffer from difficulty to control anger. CBT is very effective at treating intrusive thoughts because they arise directly from the person’s negative internal dialogue and thought patterns.

Mood Disorders

Mood disorders are psychiatric conditions in which the emotional state of the patient has elevated mania or depression or a fluctuation between the two ends of the spectrum. Mood disorder is an umbrella term that refers to a wide range of disorders such as bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Mood disorders can be a difficult disease to live with, and many people affected by these disorders are unable to cope with daily life. Below is a list of mood disorders:

•  Bipolar disorder

•  Cyclothymic disorder

•  Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder

•  Depression related to a medical illness

•  Depression caused by medication or substance abuse

•  Major depressive disorder

•  Premenstrual dysphoric disorder

•  Persistent depressive disorder

•  Seasonal affective disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health disorder where a person becomes traumatized by a tragic event. The patient may suffer from intrusive thoughts as they relive the traumatic experience over and over. Many people who go through a traumatic event have difficulties coping with the event. It becomes ingrained in the patient who relives the event through recurring negative