Question

1) Pretend you are a cognitive behavioral psychologist. What cognitive and behavioral techniques would you use to treat the following: -loneliness/fear of developing a friendship with others, -fear of losing weight despite morbid obesity, and -a not well acknowledged fear of sexual intimacy even though they have a strong desire for it.

Please answer in detail. Thank you.

Answer 1

1- Loneliness is very painful at emotional level. It influence our physical and mental health. Lonely people generally can not sleep peacefully. They experience stress and depression. As a cognitive behavioural psychologist, I would apply these techniques for treating loneliness-

• Social skills are very important for everyone. I would suggest my patients to improve their social skills. I would encourage them to talk over phone, use non-verbal communication, give response positively while interacting with other people. Lonely people need encouragement to establish relationships. A psychologists works on improving the confidence level of such people.
• I would help people facing loneliness by providing them social support . Their family needs to be supportive. As a psychologist, I would provide proper counselling and help to that person.
• These types of people need chances to interact with other people. So it would be very beneficial for them to participate in various group activities.
• Loneliness makes people emotional and sensitive. They do not have courage to interact and involve with other people. So, as a cognitive behavioural psychologists, I would work for changing this negative thinking of my patients to tackle this problem.

2- Some people do not want to lose weight despite morbid obesity. They think that their lifestyle would change or they would look different after losing weight. There are many cognitive behavioural techniques which help people to overcome this phobia. As a cognitive behavioural psychologist, I would set some goals to make them lose weight like eating healthy food regularly to control the fat and cholestrol. I would boost up their confidence that after losing weight, they would look very attractive and people will like them. I would encourage them to exercise daily and also provide some incentives to them.

3- Fear of sexual intimacy is a kind of social phobia which creates difficulty in maintaining close relationships. This fear can originate due to some mishappening with that person. A person feels emotionally and physically uncomfortable when he gets closer to another person. Cognitive behavioural techniques are helpful in treating this phobia. The people need proper counselling and therapies to overcome this fear. They need encouragement to be committed in their relationships. As a cognitive behavioural psychologist I would counsel that person to reduce his anxiety related to his past life. I would also ask his partner to support to make him more comfortable during their personal time.