What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive behavioral therapy was first created in the 1960s by psychiatrist Aaron Beck. He noticed that, when he was treating patients for depression, they would speak about thoughts they were having that were not rooted in reality, but that they felt to be true. This led Beck to believe that mental health disorders like depression may stem from the patient’s thoughts.
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Modern day CBT is a type of problem-focused, action-based psychotherapy (talk therapy) that is used to treat all types of mental health disorders, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders. It works by identifying the unhealthy relationships between your emotions, your thoughts, and your behaviors. With an emphasis on changing negative thought patterns to change behaviors, along with developing healthy coping strategies and skills in your life, cognitive behavioral therapy can be customized to suit the needs of each individual patient and address their unique underlying core beliefs.
Usually, you will work with a counselor or therapist one-on-one or in a group in a structured setting, with a limited number of sessions. The goal of CBT is to address negative thinking patterns and behaviors, creating positive change in a person’s life using a goal-oriented approach. It is encouraged, as you go through your CBT sessions, to apply what you learn to your everyday life. You will learn about your mental health issues, along with techniques like resilience, stress management, assertiveness, and relaxation skills. You may also learn to:
- Become aware of your beliefs
- Observe your self-talk, emotions, and thoughts
- Identify difficult or troubling issues or conditions in your life
- Identify and reshape inaccurate, automatic or negative thoughts
- Learn to set realistic goals
- Solve problems and manage stress and anxiety
- Use relaxation techniques like breathwork or meditation
- Approach situations you have avoided out of fear in the past
- Practice self-care in the form of exercise, social interactions, and hobbies
- Practice your newfound skills in your daily life
When Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Used?
Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most broadly applicable and successful types of therapies available. Ten signs you might need cognitive behavioral therapy are:
- Lacking the skill set to set and carry out long-term goals
- Struggling with making short-term plans or has a hard time following instruction
- Feeling hopeless, or has many negative thoughts that affect their overall wellbeing
- Having difficulty concentrating
- Taking psychiatric medication but still feeling like your life is out of control in some way
- Having insomnia or sleep issues
- Having anger issues, or is dealing with aggression and criminal behaviors
- Experiencing distress because of a medical diagnosis, chronic pain, or fatigue
- Feeling too much stress in day-to-day life
- Living with mental illnesses or mental health conditions like:
- Anxiety disorders
- Depression
- Bipolar disorder
- Personality disorders
- Somatoform disorders
- Eating disorders
- Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Phobias
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Substance use disorders
Top 7 Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
There are many benefits to cognitive behavioral therapy. It is used to treat a wide range of issues because it can quickly help you to figure out the underlying issues and provide practical help in coping with these issues. It takes work and a great deal of self-reflection, but CBT can help manage and prevent relapse of symptoms of mental illness, treat mental health disorders when medication isn’t a good option, provide stress-reduction and emotional management techniques, and help resolve communication issues. It can also help patients cope with loss or a medical issue, manage pain, and overcome trauma. Other benefits include:
- Encouraging positive and realistic thought, which improves a person’s overall outlook and wellness
- Providing realistic and practical coping skills for stress, triggers, and trauma
- Providing support for people who have mental disorders, which inspires patients to work toward changing negative behaviors
- Helping with anger management, which reduces guilt and shame, and helps patients live healthier lives with better relationships with others and with their own emotions
- Providing better communication skills, which then improves a person’s relationships and self-esteem
- Helping patients believe in themselves and achieve their goals
- Providing relapse prevention skills for mental health issues and substance use disorders, to ensure patients know how to identify problems and use coping mechanisms so they can avoid unhelpful thought patterns
CBT is known for having quick results, with most patients undergoing 5 to 20 sessions total, whereas other forms of therapy may require months or years of regular sessions to see results. CBT is highly engaging, and holds the patient accountable for their own well-being, saying that our feelings and behaviors all come from our own thoughts, and we can make changes ourselves by using practical techniques to move forward in life on a positive trajectory.
How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Helps with Addiction
If you have a substance use disorder and undergo cognitive behavioral therapy, you will learn how to create positive changes in your own life by learning healthier ways of coping with discomfort, emotional or physical pain, sadness, loneliness, fear, depression, and other distressing feelings. You will be able to change the way you see yourself, the world, and drugs and alcohol. CBT also helps with addiction by:
- Bringing awareness to maladaptive and unhelpful behavioral patterns
- Enhancing your motivation to make changes in your life
- Developing healthy coping skills through psychoeducation, strategies, and skills training
- Encouraging social support
- Teaching goal setting and achieving skills
- Encouraging healthy actions and habits like exercise or hobbies
- Reducing “automatic thoughts”, negative self-talk, self-destructive behavior, and the compulsion to revisit painful memories that lead to a person self-medicating with drugs or alcohol
- Teaching how to anticipate problems that could come up and take action to address them ahead of time
- Developing strategies to help you avoid high-risk situations that could lead to relapse
Addiction Treatment at The Detox Center of LA
At The Detox Center of Los Angeles, we provide individualized inpatient detox and rehabilitation programs that combine evidence-based therapies, medical care, holistic treatments, and physical health programs to heal the body, mind, and spirit. This type of integrated treatment will provide you with the best of all worlds, from eastern medicine to high-tech modern treatments, with physical, social, behavioral, emotional, nutritional, and mental health treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy. Some of the other treatments we provide are:
- Behavioral health treatments like CBT, as well as dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive restructuring groups, and emotional self-regulation therapy groups
- Family programs and family therapy
- Healing through creativity groups and art therapy
- Psychoeducation
- Interpersonal psychotherapy
- One meeting per week with a case manager
- Exercise programs and nutrition education
- Experiential therapy
- Holistic therapies and treatments like yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork
- Dual diagnosis programs customized for each person living with a co-occurring disorder like post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or depression
At The Detox Center of LA, you will live inside the treatment facility full-time, staying in a comfortable semi-private safe, and sober residence as you receive treatment. Along with all the aforementioned programs and therapies, your days will be structured to include an average of 40 to 47 hours of group therapy per week, with options like:
- Daily goals
- Life skills
- Seeking safety
- 12-steps principles
- Emotional self-regulation
- Cognitive restructuring
- Health and wellness
- Distress tolerance skills
- Interpersonal relationships
- Anger management
- Denial management
- Aftercare planning
We are an inpatient facility but can also refer you to trusted outpatient treatment centers once you have completed your program with us if you would like to continue receiving support and care. To learn more about our treatment center, detox and rehab programs, and insurance coverage for rehab, or to get started on your road to recovery today in a safe and effective program that includes cognitive behavioral therapy, please call us now. Our team of experienced, credentialled, non-judgmental, and caring doctors, therapists, nurses, and addictions specialists are here for you to help you get started on your own personal road to recovery.
