Friday, June 8, 2012

Cognitive Therapy for Depression

Are your thoughts dragging you down?
By
WebMD Feature
Almost everyone has dark thoughts when his or her mood is bad. With depression, though, the thoughts can be extremely negative. They can also take over and distort your view of reality.
Cognitive therapy can be an effective way to defuse those thoughts. When used for depression, cognitive therapy provides a mental tool kit that can be used to challenge negative thoughts. Over the long term, cognitive therapy for depression can change the way a depressed person sees the world.
Studies have shown that cognitive therapy works at least as well as antidepressants in helping people with mild to moderate depression. Treatment with medication and/or psychotherapy can shorten depression's course and can help reduce symptoms such as fatigue and poor self-esteem that accompany depression. Read on to see how cognitive therapy or talk therapy might help you start thinking and feeling better if you are depressed.

Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A Thinking Problem

Cognitive therapy was developed in the 1960s as an alternative way to treat depression, says Judith S. Beck, PhD. Beck is director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research located outside Philadelphia. She tells WebMD that the principle underlying cognitive therapy is "thoughts influence moods."
According to cognitive therapists, depression is maintained by constant negative thoughts. These thoughts are known as automatic thoughts. That means they occur without a conscious effort. For example, a depressed person might have automatic thoughts like these:
  • "I always fail at everything."
  • "I'm the world's worst mother."
  • "I am doomed to be unhappy."
To read more, click here. 

2 comments:

  1. It's an amazing post about cognitive therapy.it more helpful for motor disorder persons or infants If you think your child might benefit from cognitive therapy. Click Here

    ReplyDelete
  2. it sounds great, but sure the help is not in my area, Northern Canada, we have very little help here for that or anything

    ReplyDelete