Seth Goleman

A Beginners Guide to CBT

If you've been diagnosed with anxiety or depression, you may find yourself stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

You may also feel trapped in feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and fear, while frequently having thoughts suggesting that nothing will ever get better.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in helping people struggling with these situations. It is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings, and actions are all connected, and that dysfunctional patterns of behavior are often caused by unhealthy, negative thought patterns. These negative thought patterns, in turn, can have a massive impact on how we feel as well as how we behave.

Imagine you make a mistake on a project at work, and this is causing you distress. As a result, you begin experiencing negative thoughts about yourself and interpret this situation as you being useless.

The next day, you call in sick so that you won't have to face the consequences of your mistake.

This scenario is an example of a negative thought pattern, and as you can see, it is not a healthy response.

Cognitive behavioral therapy can break you from negative cycles like these.

It introduces you to strategies and techniques that can help you retrain your brain to see things from a positive perspective.

By practicing CBT techniques, you gain the ability to see where your negative thoughts come from and decide if there is any actual evidence to sustain them.