Adish Article DirectoryFast Approval Article Directory

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of therapy that is often used to treat personality disorders and other dysfunctions, most notably social anxiety disorder. CBT is a progressive and goal-oriented discipline one that is intense and involved but also brief, considering the effectiveness of its techniques. The doctor’s primary goal in CBT is to try and challenge a patient’s viewpoint, which in turn, is cause the patient’s debilitating behavior to continue.

In the initial stages the doctor will attempt to show the patient that his or her thought processes are distorted and a far picture from reality. Patients must not only realize these things logically but also emotionally since personality disorders usually involve dysfunctional emotions. There are two cognitive therapy techniques commonly used: systematic desensitization and gradual exposure.

Gradual exposure involves a doctor forcing the patient (through his or her own will of course) to confront the fear that plagues him/her. It basically involves limited and supervised exposure to a feared social situation. It is not haphazardly done, as if dropping a non-swimmer into a pool. Rather, the doctor carefully chooses the situation, ensuring that the anxiety is bearable but still provoking. It usually takes place two to three times a day. The doctor may also construct a series of “steps” that gradually expose the patient to a little more anxiety with each movement forward. What is the goal of gradual exposure? To help the patient realize that their perspective is distorted and to start looking for different reactions to stressful stimuli.

Systematic desensitization is similar, but mainly involves the doctor or therapist simulating the stressful experience rather than literally introducing it. For example, the doctor might ask the patient to visualize an uncomfortable setting and then state how he or she would respond to it.