9 Mental Health Conditions Best Treated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Psychotherapy is a mainstay of mental health treatment, but other than being “talk therapy,” most people don’t know what aspects are included in the practice. One of the major types of psychotherapy, and one that’s rapidly gaining ground, is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which teaches you how to approach and solve problems in more effective ways.

At Sidhu Psychiatric in Palm Harbor, Florida, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner Kanwaljit “Kavi” Sidhu NP-C, PMHNP-BC, and the skilled staff provide psychiatric services to help people manage mental health disorders and overcome emotional problems. Here, they describe what’s involved in psychotherapy using CBT, so you can understand its role in your treatment plan.

The history of CBT

Aaron Beck developed the field of cognitive behavior therapy in the 1960s. Since that time, research has found it to be effective for a large number of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse, and personality disorders. It’s also proven effective in combination with medication for serious mental disorders such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Beck noticed that his patients with depression often verbalized thoughts lacking in validity and noted characteristic “cognitive distortions” in their thinking processes, leading him to think it wasn’t so much a mood disorder as a cognitive one. Based on both clinical observations and empirical results, Beck proposed a new “cognitive theory of depression.”

The combination of a detailed treatment protocol with positive evidence-based research results revolutionized psychotherapy practice. Beck’s complex set of clinical interventions included cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components, allowing him to pioneer what was an “empirically validated psychological treatment.”

How CBT works

CBT is both structured and goal-oriented, and it contains several core principles. It holds that psychological issues are based partly on:

1. Problematic or unhelpful patterns of thinking
2. Learned patterns of unhelpful behavior
3. Problematic core beliefs, including ideas about yourself and the world around you

The idea is that people experiencing mental health issues can learn to think about them and cope with them in better ways, helping to relieve their symptoms and improve mental and emotional health. Through CBT, you can unlearn negative thoughts and behaviors like catastrophizing (predicting the worst outcome all the time) and replace them with healthier thinking patterns and habits.

CBT usually occurs over a limited number of sessions, using a question-and-answer format. The therapist shows you how to see yourself and the world from a different perspective. Because of this, you respond better to stress, pain, and difficult situations.

9 mental health conditions treated with CBT

Many different mental health conditions are best treated with CBT. Nine of the most common include:

1. Depression
2. Anxiety
3. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
4. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
5. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
6. Phobias
7. Personality disorders
8. Eating disorders, including bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating disorder
9. Substance/alcohol use disorder

CBT can also help you work through everyday challenges and life changes.

Want to learn more about how CBT can help you cope with your mental health challenges? Sidhu Psychiatric can help. Call our office at 727-382-1383, or contact us online today.