Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive Behavioral therapy is a talking therapy where the patient talks to a specialist to manage the problem and reduce the symptoms. It considers a person’s thoughts and feelings are related to physical actions, and that might have caused the problem. It helps the person to understand the problem and assists the person in solving or controlling the problem or behavior. Dr Aaron T. Beck introduced CBT in the 1960s while he was experimenting with depression using psychoanalytic concepts.

During the experiments, he found depression patients had “automatic thoughts,” and he began identifying and evaluating the automatic thoughts. The results showed that the patient felt better without these thoughts, and cognitive behavior therapy was introduced (“History of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy,” 2018). CBT emphasizes the relationship between the therapist and the client. It requires cooperation from the client and completes the tasks that are assigned to him or her. It helps the client to identify, understand, and respond to the problem. It is goal-oriented and problem-focused, due to which it is helpful for the client. CBT is properly structured, and it takes less time compared to other talking therapies that are lengthy and require many weeks. It focuses on changing behavior and thoughts (Key, Rowa, Bieling, McCabe, & Pawluk, 2017).

However, it has limitations, such as focusing on individuals and not taking into account the environment, family, and friends, which might negatively influence the person and stimulate the condition. Taking into account the environment and people around the person is important to deal with issues such as anxiety, depression, phobias, sleep problems, and OCD because they might have influenced causing the problem or at least in the progress of the problem (Mancebo, Eisen, Sibrava, Dyck, & Rasmussen, 2011). For instance, if a person lives with people who are negative and do not help each other grow, it might cause problems. However, CBT does not take into account this. The role of the Therapist in CBT is not to force the client to change and replace a behavior. The role is to identify the problems and strengths of the clients and use them to help the clients. In these therapies, the client is important and must cooperate, helping the therapist and actively participating in the process. The therapist provides assignments, and the client must complete the assignment (Olatunji, Davis, Powers, & Smits, 2013). It is a collaborative relationship between the therapist and the client. The therapist provides tools and knowledge, and the client actively participates in improving their condition. Certain terminologies are important for CBT, such as automatic thoughts (thoughts due to a certain stimulus, i.e., I will fail), cognitive errors (misconceptions, i.e., driving leads to accident), cognitive restructuring (altering the thought patterns, i.e., driving is not always dangerous) and cognitive structure (executive processor that changes thinking patterns) (Rothbaum, Meadows, Resick, & Foy, 2000).

Part 2

1. I overthink and take things too seriously, which leaves no time for other activities that are important. I want to change my overthinking and OCD to be able to do what is important to me. I want to be able to participate and be as productive as my friends are, and I do not want to overthink simple and small things. I want to stop thinking about things that are unimportant.
2. As I am an over-thinker, I am unable to complete work. I take perspectives and analyze a thing by taking into account various points of view and end up spending all my time on work that is incomplete. I want to change this compulsion and overthinking. I want to be able to complete a task in a reasonable amount of time.
3. My OCD is not severe; it is not even moderate, but it is mild. I perform well, but it takes more time than required. I take more time than required to complete a task.
4. I would like to use cognitive unraveling of the distortion, Cognitive restructuring, and exposure and response prevention. I want to use these three techniques because they will help me understand the problem, what causes it, and how often it is caused. The second technique will help me to understand and change the problematic thoughts. If I know the reasons, I will be able to find solutions and try to focus on the opposite. For instance, if I know something triggers it, I will try to avoid it and try to do the opposite. Lastly, the Exposure and Response Prevention will help me understand and then try to refrain from the behavior. I can write about the problem and the refraining and try to figure out the impacts of the control on my OCD (Mancebo et al., 2011).
5. I will start writing a journal to understand when and why OCD occurs and how it impacts. I will discuss this with a therapist and will try to follow her instructions. I will notice the triggers and the time when they are severe. I will try to refrain myself from overthinking whenever it happens. I will keep myself busy working to avoid the gratification and getting into overthinking. I will start refraining from overthinking for a period initially and increase the time to five minutes every day. This practice will help me to stop wasting time overthinking a problem.
6. As I will be writing a journal to notice the triggers and try to control the obsessive behavior, I will time myself and increase the timing every day by 5 minutes. I will evaluate the effectiveness. I will be able to identify the triggers and causes so I avoid the things that might be a trigger. I will assess the effectiveness of refraining. If refraining from overthinking helps, I will continue to refrain and stay away from gratifications. However, if keeping myself busy at other work is effective, I will keep myself busy to avoid overthinking. Hence, I am aiming to avoid overthinking, and the evaluation of the two techniques will help me understand what works best for me. My ultimate goal is to stop overthinking and reduce it to normal levels, and the evaluation will help me achieve it.
7. I could start exercising or meditation to improve my attention and control my thoughts. It might be helpful to control the overthinking that interferes with my work. Meditation works as therapy and is considered useful, which is why it will help to improve my condition. As I have obsessive thoughts, it will be a useful way to control my thoughts and enhance my mindfulness.
8. I have not done meditation before, but many people have suggested it. In meditation, a person focuses on one thing and tries to avoid all other thoughts that might interfere with the calming process. It helps improve mindfulness and attention. I can start it with the help of free online meditation programs that help people to do meditation in the morning or anytime during the day or night. I will use meditation in the morning to control my thoughts for the whole day and increase mindfulness. I can also use them to calm my thoughts when I feel the urge to overthink.
9. There are mobile applications such as Live OCD free, which has CBT exercises to assist the client. It also helps children and adults. The children’s programs are game-like exercises that assist children. Another program is OCD Manager, which assists people with OCD. These mobile applications can be downloaded to help patients with OCD (Singer, 2011).

References

History of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. (2018). Retrieved from https://beckinstitute.org/about-beck/our-history/history-of-cognitive-therapy/

Key, B. L., Rowa, K., Bieling, P., McCabe, R., & Pawluk, E. J. (2017). Mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy as an augmentation treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 24(5), 1109–1120.

Mancebo, M. C., Eisen, J. L., Sibrava, N. J., Dyck, I. R., & Rasmussen, S. A. (2011). Patient utilization of cognitive-behavioral therapy for OCD. Behavior Therapy, 42(3), 399–412.

Olatunji, B. O., Davis, M. L., Powers, M. B., & Smits, J. A. (2013). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A meta-analysis of treatment outcome and moderators. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 47(1), 33–41.

Rothbaum, B. O., Meadows, E. A., Resick, P., & Foy, D. W. (2000). Cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Singer, J. (2011, September). Using Technology to Treat OCD…A Good Idea or Not? – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) & Anxiety Disorder Attacks, Symptoms & Treatment. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/using-technology-to-treat-ocd-a-good-idea-or-not/