Anxiety and depression are debilitating mental health conditions that impact all aspects of life. They can lead to negative coping behaviors, including self-medication through drugs and alcohol, and can rob you of your potential and happiness. One of the leading tools to help treat anxiety and depression is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT has a significant impact on anxiety and depression because it can help you understand how to make necessary changes to your thought patterns. Learn more about how cognitive-behavioral therapy can affect anxiety and depression by calling Northpoint Omaha at 888.687.8014.
The Principles of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
CBT has a few key principles. One of them is that your core beliefs stem from your childhood experiences and are deeply rooted in how you see yourself, your future, and even your environment.
Another principle is that it’s more common for people to hold on to negative thoughts, leading them to form dysfunctional assumptions. For example, believing that you can’t fail if you don’t try is a dysfunctional assumption. These assumptions then lead to the third principle of CBT: how negative automatic thoughts affect your moods and actions.
Negative automatic thoughts in someone who has depression can include feelings of uselessness or thoughts that display low self-esteem. In people with anxiety disorders, these automatic thoughts include the overestimation of risk and underestimation of your ability to cope.
CBT can help with all manner of conditions — not just depression and anxiety. For instance, it can assist with:
- Substance use disorders
- PTSD
- Eating disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Phobias
- Personality disorders
When you turn to CBT for anxiety or depression, you can expect a goal-oriented and short-term treatment option that helps you challenge the negative beliefs you have. But what is the impact of cognitive-behavioral therapy on anxiety and depression?
Impact of CBT on Anxiety and Depression
Anxiety and depression are issues that often stem from not living fully in the present. Someone who’s worried about the future can experience anxiety, while someone who’s focused on the past can struggle with depression. One crucial impact of CBT on anxiety and depression is that it teaches you mindfulness.
Mindfulness keeps you in the moment. It allows you to avoid the automatic reactions you may have to stressors by focusing on your environment and stepping away from the spiral of negative thoughts that can quickly affect your mood.
It’s common for people who struggle with anxiety and depression to experience all-or-nothing thinking. Viewing the world in these kinds of black-and-white terms is unhelpful and can contribute to feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness.
Another way CBT impacts anxiety is by trying to help you see that having this kind of viewpoint is unhealthy while also showing you how to recognize when you’re engaging in it.
The impact of cognitive-behavioral therapy on depression and anxiety also includes teaching you to recognize when you’re using a mental filter. It’s common for people who have mental health conditions to only focus on the negative, and this leads to a distorted sense of reality.
It can also help you adjust your automatic negative thought patterns while learning coping skills to better manage stressors. By having mindfulness and relaxation techniques you can apply when negative emotions and thoughts appear, you can change how you respond to daily challenges.
Start Treatment for Anxiety and Depression at Northpoint Omaha Now
The crucial impact of cognitive-behavioral therapy on depression and anxiety makes this therapeutic option one of the most respected in the mental health field. It allows you to learn how to manage your automatic thoughts and beliefs so that you can make healthier adjustments.
When you’re considering whether to turn to this treatment strategy, think about the impact of cognitive-behavioral therapy on anxiety and depression and what it might mean for your recovery and your entire life. Contact the team at Northpoint Omaha to learn more about our services by calling 888.687.8014 or using our online contact form.