How CBT can help with different mental health problems

Depression

What is Depression.

Depression is type of mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of low mood, sadness and loss of interest and/or enjoyment. Everyone has the occasional down day however in depression those feelings of sadness will have been ongoing for at least two weeks.

Depression affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. Depression greatly reduces your motivation to do things making everyday things feel much harder. People may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities resulting in them doing less and withdrawing from others socially.

It can have a detrimental impact on

everyday aspects of life such as getting up, having a shower, cooking, eating and doing household chores. Depression impacts on all aspects of life including work, relationships, leisure, social life and hobbies.

Depression can lead to

decreased energy levels, fatigue and exhaustion. People may experience changes to sleep patterns and/or appetite. They may find themselves eating or sleeping more or less than usual. People may find it difficult to concentrate and find they get irritated and annoyed more easily.

Depression can lead to people developing unhelpful and negative thinking patterns. They may experience negative and pessimistic thoughts about themselves and the future. They may also spend large amounts of time going over negative things that have happened in the past. People with depression often have a sense of hopelessness and/or helplessness. Sometimes this may lead to people feeling as if life isn't worth living.

NICE guidelines recommend up to 16 sessions.

How CBT helps

CBT helps people understand the connections between their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It helps people to understand how depression negatively affects thoughts and behaviours and how these keep the Vicious Cycle of Depression going.

CBT helps people understand the relationship between their behaviours and activities and how these impact on their mood. It helps people identify behaviours and activities that improve their mood and those that worsen their mood.

CBT helps people find ways to increase mood enhancing behaviours and activities. It helps people re-engage in meaningful and enjoyable activities which bring a sense of achievement and/or connection and improve wellbeing and mood. It helps people to identify and modify any problems, challenges or obstacles that might be getting in the way of them engaging in these.

CBT helps people to identify, challenge and modify the unhelpful negative thinking patterns that are keeping their depression going. It helps people reframe negative thoughts and turn them into more balanced, accurate and helpful ones.