1. Focus On Behavior, Not Pills
According to many modern psychiatrists, a person can change their mental attitude by merely popping a pill. There are prescription medications for anxiety, depression, anger, fear and even shyness. Proponents of cognitive, or behavioral therapy, focus on training the individual to change their behaviors without drugs. Developed initially by theorists like B. F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov (yes, that's where we get the phrase "Pavlov's Dog"), cognitive or behavioral therapy uses therapy to modify an individual's thoughts and actions to change their lives for the better.
2. Keep a Diary
Keeping a record of your daily activities and your responses to it forms the basis of cognitive therapy. Patients keep a record of their emotions throughout the day and later discuss the activities and thought patterns that precipitated all their emotions, the positive as well as the negative. In this way, the patient learns what behavioral patterns cause them pain, sorrow or anger. The therapist then helps the patient to discover new ways of speaking, thinking and acting.
3. Analyze This
A person who has low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness can benefit greatly from behavioral therapy. If, for example, a patient loses out on a promotion at work, they may paint the situation with an all or nothing brush. "I didn't get the promotion. I can't do anything right. I'm no good." These negative thoughts lead them to spend all night at home instead of meeting friends for dinner, who then get angry at him for being a flake. A cognitive or behavioral therapist helps the patient to understand this. Life's a result of action or behavior in each moment. Cognitive therapy teaches that our life pivots toward happiness or sadness based on our choices.
4. It's All in Your Head
The Cognitive therapist works with an individual to identify irrational thought patterns that cause pain and loneliness in their lives. They discuss why these thoughts result in actions that make their life worse and retrain them with healthier, more constructive thoughts. Instead of thinking "I didn't get that job because I'm stupid and worthless," the patients learn to accept the rejection as part of life, learn from it and move on. Writers such as Aaron Beck and Gary Emery popularized the phrase "automatic thoughts" which many individuals apply to every situation in life, instead of thinking things through in a calm and logical fashion. Cognitive therapy also retrains individuals who refuse to take risks because they're afraid of failure or embarrassment.
5. You're in Control of You
Cognitive therapy puts the ultimate responsibility for an individual's life in their own hands, not in the therapist's choices or the strength of a prescription drug. It frees the individual to look honestly at themselves, not concentrate on other people or what happened during their childhood.
