# What do they tell you in CBT?



## Sadaiyappan (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi, I can't afford CBT right now. But I was wondering what they tell you?


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## Fuzzy Logic (Sep 16, 2009)

Its bit much to just explain in a post. You can buy books on it fairly cheaply if you want, which will have all the information you need.


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## redtogo72 (Jun 7, 2008)

I found this while googling: http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/80/04700183/0470018380.pdf. It looks like a good read!

Main point: Learn that your thoughts affect how you feel and behave.

Exercises you could try:

1. Go on walks outside and write whatever you are thinking and feeling ("that stranger thinks I'm weird" "I know that person. I need to cross the street"). Analyze it later and realize how irrational many of them are.

2. Do deep breathing techniques. Close your eyes, take slow and long breaths, and try to clear your mind and focus only on breathing.


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## arth98 (Nov 30, 2009)

CBT teaches new coping skills for anxiety, stress and spmetimes SA situations, many cheap books tell you all about it


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## scarpia (Nov 23, 2009)

The Mayo Clinic site has a good article on CBT. Here's part of it:

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapy based on the idea that your own distorted thoughts and beliefs lead to your negative moods and unhealthy behavior. Cognitive behavioral therapy says that other people, situations and events aren't responsible for your mood and behavior - you are. 
According to the theory behind cognitive behavioral therapy, you have automatic but inaccurate thoughts or beliefs in certain situations. These inaccurate thoughts lead to unhealthy moods and behavior, such as anxiety and overeating. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you become aware of these inaccurate thoughts and beliefs. You learn to view situations more realistically. This allows you to behave and react in a healthier way - even if the situation itself hasn't changed.

*Five typical steps in cognitive behavioral therapy*
Although there are different ways to conduct cognitive behavioral therapy, it typically includes five steps: 

*Identify troubling situations or conditions in your life.* These may include such issues as a medical condition, divorce, grief, anger and specific mental illnesses, such as panic disorder or bipolar disorder. You and your therapist may have to spend some time deciding what problems and goals you want to focus on.
*Become aware of your thoughts, emotions and beliefs about these situations or conditions.* Once you've identified the problems you want to work on, your therapist encourages you to share your thoughts about them. This may include what you tell yourself about an experience (your "self-talk"), your interpretation of the meaning of a situation, and your beliefs about yourself, other people and events. Your therapist may suggest that you keep a journal of your thoughts and self-talk. Your thoughts and beliefs may be positive, negative or neutral. They may be rational (based on reason, logic or facts) or they may be irrational. As you continue with cognitive behavioral therapy, you explore negative or inaccurate thought patterns and work to replace them with more positive, accurate thinking.
*Identify negative or inaccurate thinking.* Your thoughts about a situation or condition can affect the way you react to it. Inaccurate or negative thoughts and beliefs about something or someone can lead you to react in undesirable ways. To help you determine whether distorted thinking may be contributing to your problem, your therapist may ask you to pay attention to your physical, emotional and behavioral responses to a troubling event.
*Challenge negative or inaccurate thinking.* As you continue to examine your thinking patterns, your therapist may encourage you to test the validity of your thoughts and beliefs. This may include asking yourself whether your view of an event fits the facts and logic, and whether there might be other explanations for a situation. This step can be difficult. You may have long-standing ways of thinking about your life and yourself. Many thought patterns are first developed in childhood. Thoughts and beliefs that you've held for a long time feel normal and correct to you. You may not easily recognize inaccuracies in your thinking.
*Change your thoughts and beliefs.* The final step in the cognitive behavioral therapy process is to replace negative or inaccurate thinking with positive and accurate thoughts and beliefs. By changing your view of a situation and your view of yourself, you may be able to find more constructive ways to cope - your behavior will become less harmful or self-defeating. Changing your thought patterns also can be difficult. Thoughts often occur spontaneously or automatically, without any effort on your part. It can be hard to control or turn off your thoughts. Thoughts can be very powerful, and they aren't always based on logic. It takes time and effort to learn how to replace distressing thoughts with rational, positive ones. Your therapist can help you recognize and challenge distorted thinking with more realistic thinking. Your therapist also may help you identify behaviors you wish to change and give you the chance to practice new ways to deal with situations that trigger negative, distorted thoughts.


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## fictionz (Nov 18, 2006)

arth98 said:


> CBT teaches new coping skills for anxiety, stress and spmetimes SA situations, many cheap books tell you all about it


anyone can suggest a good book of it?


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## derwalrus (Dec 22, 2009)

fictionz said:


> anyone can suggest a good book of it?


I think I got more out of this book than actual CBT with a therapist: _The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook 4th Edition_ by Edmund J. Bourne. Amazon has it for $15.80

This book has tons of information and techniques about dealing with anxiety including quite a lot of CBT along with deep relaxation, etc.


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## meyaj (Sep 5, 2009)

derwalrus said:


> I think I got more out of this book than actual CBT with a therapist: _The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook 4th Edition_ by Edmund J. Bourne. Amazon has it for $15.80
> 
> This book has tons of information and techniques about dealing with anxiety including quite a lot of CBT along with deep relaxation, etc.


My therapist recommended that book to me... couldn't stand it. There were maybe a few pages of solid information, but the rest was mostly unbelievably condescending and treated the reader as stupid, and required ridiculous leaps of faith.

CBT only makes sense to me when it's not being dumbed-down and simplified just so that any idiot can get the gist of it. I'm not the kind of person that can just take these people's words for it - I need a very convincing argument - and Bourne's book does a piss-poor job of it in my opinion. Unfortunately, since CBT is structured in a way that's intentionally conducive to being validated by the scientific method, it really can't get too cerebral lest it run the risk of appearing effective for a great deal less people, and thus being labelled, from a scientific perspective, as

A book like that just can't do it for me... I need a therapist who's intelligent and knowledgeable enough to examine some of CBT's loftier premises with strong, rational, arguments. Otherwise, outside the painfully obvious concepts of the different types of cognitive distortions, I have a hard time buying into any of it. Luckily my therapist is pretty sharp and isn't afraid to catch me in my own bull****, but still, CBT hasn't really done much for me to date.

We're all dealing with a social disorder though and just being able to share your problems, obstacles, fears, and dreams with another real person will probably far surpass anything you could glean from a book. After a year of seeing her, my therapist is really the closest thing I have to an actual close friend, and that kind of trusting relationship is a huge milestone in SA recovery.

If you really feel like you need to read a book... try this one: The Great Psychotherapy Debate. It quite convincingly argues, using mountains of statistical scientific data, that the type of therapy isn't really all that critical to the patient's success, but rather it's the strength and conviction of the individual therapist, and the relationship formed between the two that REALLY matter. And even though my own progress is slow... I couldn't agree with this more.


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## jim_morrison (Aug 17, 2008)

Not sure if this answers your question, but I've been going to CBT for a long time now, and with my therapist it seems to be split into 2 things, the first is taking control over your thoughts, and the second is exposure therapy. Personally the first doesn't and has never worked for me at all, anxiety is an irrational disorder so why would trying to think about it more rationally help? As for the second one exposure therapy, I have had some success with this part, particularly with goal setting and desensitizing, gradual exposure etc.


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## ayyak (Dec 19, 2008)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What tape are you talking about?


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