Cognitive therapy is a type of therapy used for several mental illnesses, specifically depression. Cognitive therapy focuses on the thoughts, emotions and behaviors of the patient and how they are related to their symptoms of depression. The basic theory of cognitive therapy is that your thoughts affect your emotions, which affect your behavior, which then affect your thoughts. Negative thoughts create a vicious cycle.
Thoughts
Negative thoughts are especially pertinent in individuals who are depressed. They often feel down about themselves, have no hope for the future and think badly about the past, according to Psychologyinfo.com. Thinking negatively about everything makes a person more depressed. Many times, the negative thoughts are irrational, according to Psychologyinfo.com. For example, if someone thinks that a situation will never get better, that is irrational because a person cannot tell the future. Cognitive therapy has a list of "cognitive distortions," which are types of irrational thoughts individuals can have. Often, people do not realize that they are thinking irrationally. Cognitive therapy states that negative thoughts harmfully affect a person's emotions.
Emotions
Common emotions in a person who is depressed are hopelessness, helplessness, worthlessness, sadness and suicidality. Cognitive therapy states that negative thoughts affect emotions in a bad way. If someone changes her cognitions to think that things have a chance to get better if she does certain things about it, she will then start to feel more hopeful and happy.
Behaviors
Negative emotions affect a person's behavior. For example, if a person is sad, he will not want to socialize with friends, engage in hobbies or do productive things he usually does. If he is in a good mood, he will want to do those things. Cognitive therapists suggest that patients engage in things they used to like to do before they became depressed, to elevate their mood and decrease negative thoughts.
