Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - negative thoughts?

Marv Malone said:
CBT is criticized as superficial treatment and pays no attention to the deeper traumas and problems
in the mind. It is an off shoot of behaviorism that became popular in Fifties. Hey, if it works, then use it... it is
probably not permanent. Albert Ellis is one of the founders of CBT...for all sorts of negative intruding obsessive thoughts.
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Therapy used to be a long, drawn out(and expensive) examination of the patients past, trying to determine the origin/root cause of the emotional pain & dysfunction. But, it was determined that such discovery was of low value in improving the patients present life. CBT aims to be 'goal oriented', to empower the individual to effect a positive change with the simple tools the therapist teaches.
 
When I was suffering from severe depression and anxiety, I went to a therapist who made me think back to my childhood. He said I had chosen to "bury" my 9 year-old self, with all the trauma that came with it. I was absolutely bawling when I thought back and it was very cathartic.

He then suggested I use CBT going forward and it has helped me tremendously over the years. As an example, I traveled often in my career and always went through separation anxiety that would overtake me the day before I was leaving. I realized that as soon as I got to the airport all would be fine, so I just visualized what it would be like when I reached the airport and boarded the plane. I'm a believer.
 

I have experienced both CBT and the more humanistic therapy focused on investigating feelings and past trauma. What surprised me were the similar outcomes, and while CBT focuses on "stop what you're doing" it still opens the same doors to feelings and the past, but in reverse order. Solve the problem with CBT and then, up come the feelings and trauma (or whatever) that may have caused it.

In my case, I had a lot of previous experience with investigating my unconscious, so maybe it happened for me because humanistic therapy had become so second nature. It may be different for others.

But here's the thing. Humanistic approaches didn't solve all my problems. Sometimes I would gain greater understanding, but still be bothered. I came to understand well enough, but didn't have all the tools to fix it. Enter CBT, which I scorned until I actually tried it, and realized the outcomes were similar. But there are also differences. CBT is indeed a more direct route to problem solving, but doesn't lead to greater self understanding, right? Wrong!

CBT is another tool to put in your tool kit alongside self understanding to achieve more pleasure from life experiences. It's also essential in changing bad habits. And I'm not talking about not brushing your teeth. Many problems that hinder personal growth are simply bad habits, although we don't recognize them as such. Consider the person who sits around moaning about how they were abused as a child. It's probably true, but is this a habitual disorder, or an emotional handicap? The best approach here may be to "stop doing it" and then come to a greater understanding later.

Behavior therapy got a bad rap 50 years ago when it became associated with training rats to navigate mazes, or changing behavior with reward and punishment, or God forbid... electroshock treatments for depression. It would be a mistake to see CBT as that. And I do see it as a more direct problem solving method, but like humanistic therapy, a bit more of each may be required to really progress.
 
The other day I ran across a short essay on Schopenhauer, the philosopher. I did not know that he boiled life down to this notion. There is a strong will to live, but most of our time is spent being bored or dealing with pain (emotional pain included). His advice to get a life was to be interested in and get involved in the life that is around us.
 
There have been times I've confided to someone in a general way about my anxiety, and I've posted about it in this forum, but I haven't found it helpful to be too specific. About 2 years ago, I participated in group support sessions, but dropped out after a time. It seemed we were just sitting there telling each other our problems, dragging one another down, and solving nothing. Overall it was a negative experience - at least for me.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
There have been times I've confided to someone in a general way about my anxiety, and I've posted about it in this forum, but I haven't found it helpful to be too specific. About 2 years ago, I participated in group support sessions, but dropped out after a time. It seemed we were just sitting there telling each other our problems, dragging one another down, and solving nothing. Overall it was a negative experience - at least for me.
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I can relate to that. I joined a chronic pain zoom group. If you weren't in to much pain at the start the pain, for me, seemed to increase. Dwelling on how bad it is sets a certain tone. These people needed each other. I felt like if I stayed with going to the zoom meetings I was admitting defeat. These people were in rough shape, I didn't want to identify with that severe a situation.

That said I did find a very helpful zoom group that attracts about 40 people per time. It is sponsored by the Western Neuropathy Association. I find it very interesting and helpful.
 
seadoug said:
When I was suffering from severe depression and anxiety, I went to a therapist who made me think back to my childhood. He said I had chosen to "bury" my 9 year-old self, with all the trauma that came with it. I was absolutely bawling when I thought back and it was very cathartic.

He then suggested I use CBT going forward and it has helped me tremendously over the years. As an example, I traveled often in my career and always went through separation anxiety that would overtake me the day before I was leaving. I realized that as soon as I got to the airport all would be fine, so I just visualized what it would be like when I reached the airport and boarded the plane. I'm a believer.
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You broke it down exactly, Seadoug. C and BT are actually 2 separate treatments. One supports the other. First, the patient gets therapy to become Cognitive of where their negative behavior is coming from. I had a nursing license in behavioral psychology for 9 years, and most of our patients were victims of early childhood abuse. They were referred to our clinic after successful treatment for cognitive awareness, and we did the Behavioral Therapy part.


side notes: I only worked there for about 4 years, then transferred to a state-funded in-patient facility, where I did behavioral therapy for patients with cognitive dysfunction due to severe childhood abuse, deprivation, or injury. Those patients were incapable of becoming cognitive of the reasons for their negative or socially unacceptable behaviors, but could adopt positive replacement behaviors through a system of rote and reward.

My job was to assist a licensed psychologist in assessing each patient, then I wrote up the patient's treatment plan (IEP), assigned a therapy team, and then trained and monitored the team for a few days or so to make sure they implemented the IEP and charted the patient's progress correctly.
 

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