Cognitive Therapy is a psychotherapy that seeks to make you feel better about yourself and about your life. Since Dr. Albert Ellis and Dr. Aaron T. Beck first began writing about and practicing cognitive therapy in the 1960s, people all over the world have used the techniques to beat depression and to vastly improve their lives.
In essence, cognitive therapy says the way a person thinks, chiefly what a person chooses to think, influences how he or she feels and only by changing how you think can you change how you feel. While philosophers have considered that notion for centuries, it took hold with the work of Beck, who believed that reality was the key to changing how depressed people feel.
At the time, the view that reality was a key to changing how a depressed person felt was a radical notion, and is still considered to be that by some. After all, isn't reality what makes someone feel depressed? Not so, Beck and Ellis said. Look closer at reality and you'll find the pathway to happiness.
Cognitive Therapy Works on Depressed and Dysfunctional Thinking
Beck and Ellis proposed a surprising premise: Use the reality of a depressed person's world to change,, and improve, how they feel. They began to show patients that it was their way of thinking about themselves and their life, not their life itself, that was causing them to feel depressed. They used the truth to illustrate their point and improve people's moods.
"The therapy explicitly deals with reality, rather than obscuring it with bland reassurance, positive self-talk or the investigation of complex Psychodynamics," Beck said. "Cognitive therapy...is concerned with confronting reality rather than simply substituting positive for negative, distorted thinking."
While severely depressed people may require antidepressants in conjunction with cognitive therapy, patients experiencing a minor case of the blues can benefit from positive thinking, along with encouragement from others. The individual elevates his mood by maintaining positive thoughts.
Dr. Judith Beck: Depressed Moods Come From Distorted Thoughts
Dr. Judith Beck, daughter of Dr. Aaron Beck and a cognitive therapist, explains in an interview published by the Beck Institute: "One person reading this might think, 'Wow! This sounds good, it's just what I've always been looking for!' and feels happy. Another person reading this information might think, 'Well, this sounds good but I don't think I can do it.' This person feels sad and discouraged. So it is not a situation which directly affects how a person feels emotionally but rather his or her thoughts in that situation.
"When people are in distress they often do not think clearly and their thoughts are distorted in some way. Cognitive therapy helps people to identify their distressing thoughts and to evaluate how realistic the thoughts are. Then they learn to change their distorted thinking.
"When they think more realistically, they feel better."
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by Dr. David D. Burns Lists Distortions
In his book Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, Dr. David D. Burns, who studied under Aaron T. Beck, made a list of ten cognitive distortions "that form the basis of all your depressions." He says depressed people use these distortions to continue thinking negatively. Briefly, the distortions are:
- All or Nothing Thinking – Seeing things in black and white, perfection or failure
- Over-generalization – Negative event triggers belief one is in an endless pattern of failure
- Mental Filter: One focuses and dwells on a negative detail until everything looks dark
- Disqualifying the Positive – The person does not count the positive – only the negative
- Jumping to Conclusions – One anticipates negative results without basis in fact
- Magnification or Minimization – Magnifying mistakes, while minimizing successes
- Emotional Reasoning – Person assumes that negative feelings reflect reality
- Should Statements – Constantly using "shoulds" and '"should nots" for motivation
- Labeling and Mislabeling – One mistake leads to thoughts of being a failure, loser, etc.
- Personalization – Feeling you're the cause of negative event when you had no role.
How Cognitive Therapy and You Work on Negative Thinking to Beat Depression
Cognitive therapists show people who are feeling depressed how to examine negative thoughts with those distortions in mind. Which one, or ones, apply to the negative thought you are having? Once your distorted thinking is exposed, you replace it with a modified set of beliefs based on truth rather than on distorted thinking.
For example, thoughts like "I'm a loser because I can't do this," might become "I can try, some things I fail at but everyone fails sometimes. Besides, if I try, I am sure to learn something and if I keep trying, I'll keep learning. And I have successfully learned how to..." etc. etc..
Beck Still Practices Cognitive Therapy
While Ellis died in 2007 at 94, the 89-year-old Beck continues work in the psychiatry department at the University of Pennsylvania. For more on cognitive therapy, try Beck's Depression: Causes and Treatment, published in 1967, and Burns' Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, published in 1980.
Disclaimer: This article is not a substitute for an evaluation by a licensed medical professional. Individuals who believe they may be experiencing depression or another mental health condition should consult a qualified professional.
Sources:
- “Depression: Causes and Treatment”, by Dr. Aaron T. Beck; Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research.
- “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy”’ by Dr. David D. Burns, Canadian Medical Association literature, Psychiatric News.
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