Question

Treatment of psychology disorders

Cognitive therapy is widely utilized by therapists for a variety of psychological disorders. Using table 13.2, select three cognitive distortion you know you have used within the past few weeks or months. List the distortions, provide a brief definition of each, and then follow each with your example. We all including your instructor, use cognitive distortions all the time. It is how we survive, but, they can be unhealthy sometimes. Then provide your own comments about cognitive therapy ( what you like about it, what you don’t like about it).

Answer 1

Cognitive therapy is widely used b therapists and comprises of techniques that are used to change the distorted thinking patterns that people end up developing in their life time. One of the cognitive distortions I have used lately is personalization, i.e. taking onus of events that were actually out of my own control. This occurred when my mom fell sick recently and developed pain in her knees. Although I knew I wasn’t to blame in this and it was due to physiological mechanisms, I tended to blame my ignorance at home as the cause behind her health deterioration. Similarly, magnification is something that I engage in more often than I usually like to admit. This means that blowing things out of proportion and exaggerating them is something that I tend to quite a lot. Also, arbitrary inference, i.e. reaching conclusions based on little evidence is something that I have done to a great deal lately. Last week, a friend remained preoccupied with work due to which she couldn’t stay in touch and accumulated frustration towards other factors led to a disastrous outrage on her. The mere fact of not being in touch for a week was concluded as being ignorant and emotionally unavailable. Cognitive therapy in its truest essence, when used is highly effective since whether or not one admits, most of us do indulge in distorted thinking patterns that are unhealthy. Sadly, once on a repeat mode, they tend to become a habit and the whole cognitive operative system adapts itself accordingly. This can compromise on a person’s overall emotional wellbeing. Therefore, aiming at altering the distortions in order to improve the mental health & well being of people is nothing short of a brilliant idea. However, the fact that it requires a great deal of writing and maintenance of journals can be a deal breaker for many lazy people who undergo therapy. Doing homework and constantly being on the vigil is something that is hard and requires a lot of commitment from the participant’s end.