Do you find yourself nervous, stressed, depressed, needlessly worried, panicky? Me too. Like all the time!
I honestly cannot remember a time in my life where I was not burdened by never ending anxiety.
I was lucky enough to be diagnosed with not one, but two different disorders that really heighten feelings of depression and anxiety, after I hit my 20’s. So that meant that all the anguish and panic I felt on a regular basis as a student in middle school and high school, got heightened! I was a walking, talking disaster of a human. A garbage fire of anxiety, if you will. You would think that after literal decades of dealing with bouts of depression and a cascade or anxiety and panic attacks, that I would have just given up on getting help and just learned to live with it but I believe I can have a better standard of living and using CBT has really helped a lot.
And no, CBT is not in any way related to CBD, other than the “C” and “B” in the anagram… CBT actually stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy! I know, I know. Big words but what do they actually mean?
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychological treatment that helps a person learn how to identify and change detrimental or destructive thoughts and patterns that have a negative influence on your behavior and emotions. This form of therapy focuses on changing those automatic negative thoughts that can add to emotional issues such as depression and anxiety, and make them worse.
This incredible take on therapy helps with everything from run of the mill anxiety to PTSD to phobias!
To make it as simple as possible, this is how CBT breaks down:
Identify troubling situations or conditions in your life.
Become aware of your thoughts, emotions and beliefs about these problems.
Identify negative or inaccurate thinking.
Reshape negative or inaccurate thinking.
This means being open and honest with yourself about what brings you down, and how you deal with those situations. Any time you begin the healing process, you should remember that the journey to being well adjusted is neither short nor easy. Prepare for tears, prepare for anger, but also prepare to let it all go. And remember you get out what you put in, so do that work.
If you want to learn more about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy we have a couple of great titles for teens:
Kristie Hill, Library Associate
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