CBT for Mental Health Treatment in Orange County, CA
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has released data stating that in 2022, at least 19.86% of adults in the US have experienced one form of mental illness or another. This means roughly 50 million Americans are in dire need of mental health treatment, such as that offered in a cognitive behavioral therapy program. This figure necessarily refers to health issues that are diagnosable as mental, behavioral, or emotional disorders. These disorders could range from mild cases to serious instances of mental illness.
Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, is an approach used in psychotherapy to address numerous mental and behavioral issues. It is believed to have been introduced and used first in 1960 by American psychiatrist Aaron Beck. There are, however, many known precursors to some of the fundamental concepts of the approach, particularly in how logic could be used to identify and deal with harmful thoughts and emotions.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is defined as a form of psychosocial intervention intended to reduce or allay the symptoms of certain disorders, such as that depression, anxiety disorder, and other mental health illnesses. This form of psychotherapy focuses on identifying certain forms and patterns of thinking and behavior that are believed to lead to negative results. Having thus identified these harmful thoughts, the person becomes fully aware of the destructive outcome resulting from them. There are theories that many mental health issues are brought on by a “trigger”, or an idea or thought that causes an aberrant line of thinking and reaction.
The focal point of this approach is to bring the attention of the person to what thoughts they might have, and associate these thoughts with the negative results that come with them. Once these harmful thoughts are identified, they could now better recognize anything associated with them that could also result in a negative outcome. Equipped with the knowledge of what to look out for, the person now has a better chance of not repeating the negative actions that result from the aberrant thoughts.
What Are The Benefits of CBT for Mental Health?
The primary benefit of cognitive behavioral therapy for anyone is a better understanding of how their thoughts and behavior contribute to the negative aspects of their life. These thought and behavioral patterns may be largely the reasons for many troubles or issues they have in their life, and now that they are aware of them, they are better equipped to deal with these troubles.
CBT is also beneficial in other aspects, including:
Most people are not even aware that they are already entertaining harmful thoughts and behavior, as they may come during moments of great stress or intense emotion, such as anger, jealousy, or sadness. These thoughts and behavioral patterns may cause the person to lash out, break down, or completely withdraw within themselves. In most cases, it is an involuntary and uncontrolled reaction.
To the person, a reaction such as lashing out might have felt like a release, the person might not have given it much thought after the emotion has passed. Also, being an unconscious reaction, they may be completely unaware, or even uninterested in the fact that these harmful thoughts and behavior might have also caused harm to others. This is why one of the primary goals of CBT is to identify these thoughts and behavioral patterns. Adlers Health CBT program can be administered either through an inpatient program or outpatient program.
There are many instances when people react without thinking, as strong emotions bring about a knee-jerk response action. Intense emotion is known to blind even the most logical of thinkers, as it is a basic human limitation. Being blind to their actions, however, does not mean that it is without consequence.
This is particularly true with people who have a knack for simply venting their emotions without any regulation. Bad days and unfortunate events may be unavoidable at times, but as logical and thinking individuals, we should still be in control of how we react to situations. CBT trains the person to identify these emotions as they come, and check their response to see if it is harmful.
Fostering a different mindset about adversity is difficult for many, which is why many give in to the first reaction that gets to them as a result of emotion. A person who develops a better way of looking at these things, however, is more likely to be in control of how they react to it since they did not allow emotion to completely drive their response.
Learning a more open-minded view of situations as they happen, instead of giving in to negative emotional responses, allows a person to see more ways to react to what happened. This removes the common pitfall of not having a choice in reaction since CBT gives the person the benefit of clearer thought that is not corrupted by emotion. This is particularly helpful because the simplest of troubles worsen quite quickly when a person chooses the emotional response over the logical one.
What Mental Health Issues is CBT Used For?
Psychologists have found numerous applications of CBT as an approach to helping people deal with mental health issues such as:
- Bipolar disorder
- Borderline personality disorder
- Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic disorder
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Psychosis
- Schizophrenia
- Disruption of sleep patterns (insomnia)
- Substance abuse disorder
Let Adler Health Help You Find the Treatment Suited for You
Mental health issues could leave you feeling trapped, hopeless, and despondent. This is because many believe that there are no cures for these disorders. This is why Adler Health’s mental health treatment center in orange county, makes a practice of helping people understand what these mental health issues really are so that they understand that there are approaches designed to help get over these troubles. We know this because we have helped so many with their mental health concerns. Talk to us now.
