Cognitive Behavioral Therapy summary

Let’s start with a basic question: What is cognitive behavioral therapy? Commonly known as CBT, it’s a psychological intervention or treatment that can be applied to a range of problematic conditions, disorders, and mental health issues.

No matter what you apply it to, at its core, CBT centers on the impact of the stories we tell ourselves and how they shape our thoughts, emotional responses, and behavior. The treatment recognizes that sometimes the stories we tell ourselves, including the core beliefs we hold about ourselves and the world, may be inaccurate or be detrimental to us in some way. These beliefs can lead to behavior and thinking that can cause any number of problems.

CBT comes in a number of flavors, so to speak. One of the earliest, dating back to 1955, is the ABC model, and it explains the basic principles rather concisely. A stands for activating external events; B stands for beliefs; and C stands for consequences, or resulting behaviors. For example, an outside event happens, and how you react to it depends on what you believe and the kind of story you tell yourself.

There are many factors that determine our beliefs. They include genetics – which play a role in determining our personality – as well as our upbringing and the environment we live in. These factors can lead us to interpreting events in a way that may not reflect reality, particularly when it involves someone or something we care deeply about. To put it simply, these factors can work together to create a distorted worldview.

Not only that, negative stories and thought patterns can lead to a cycle of thinking that acts like a trap – one that can seem impossible to escape from. It can result in depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, obsessive compulsive behaviors, as well as harmful behaviors that are associated with addiction, jealousy, and procrastination.

Fortunately, by identifying and questioning these patterns, CBT can help with all of these issues. Let’s take a look at how it can be applied to depression.

The roots of depression are often tied to what therapists refer to as our self-schema. A schema is a set of beliefs and expectations about a person, thing, or scenario. Everyone possesses schemas about various aspects of life, and we all possess self-schemas, which influence the perceptions and beliefs we have about ourselves.

Negative self-schemas can lead to the belief that we’re hopeless failures and to demoralizing thoughts such as “What’s the point of trying?” If someone thinks poorly of themselves, it becomes challenging to appreciate achievements and enjoy relationships, which in turn creates a perpetual cycle of self-doubt. This can lead to depression, isolation, and loneliness. 

This cycle of negativity falls under the category of Faulty Processing & Logical Errors. Logical errors in the field of mental health are self-defeating thought patterns that keep people trapped in an unhealthy state of mind.

The solution is known as cognitive restructuring. This core technique aims to help you process thoughts in a balanced, rational way without denying or suppressing them. Cognitive restructuring involves three key steps: identifying unhelpful thoughts, weighing the evidence for and against those thoughts, and generating a rational, more helpful alternative. 

For example, if someone breaks up with you, it can lead to thoughts that you’re unlovable and will end up being alone forever. But if you stop to think about the evidence against this thought, you’ll see a number of reasons. You might recognize that you’ve had many friends over the years and that this wasn’t your first relationship. This should tell you that people enjoy your company. There’s also the fact that people usually date for years before finding the right partner, and that not everyone is a good match for you.

This is just one example of how CBT works. Everyone has negative and disruptive thoughts from time to time. The point of CBT isn’t to suppress these thoughts but rather to identify them when they occur, reexamine them, and prevent them from leading you down the wrong path.