Imagine you are walking down the street, and see someone across the road who you know, so you wave at them, but they don’t wave back…
How would that make you feel?
You might feel Sad? Anxious? Angry? Embarrassed? Or you may not bat an eyelid, or even laugh it off.
But why, given the exact same situation, would someone feel differently to someone else? Surely, we should all react the same?
Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, looks to explain this by understanding that it is not just what happens around us that causes our emotions, but how we process the situation individually. It looks at identifying how our own thinking biases, learned through our past experiences, may shape how we respond to life on a day to day basis, influencing how we feel and how we react.
CBT is a psychological talking therapy used to support individuals with emotional difficulties and mental health problems. CBT looks at the relationship between how we feel, what we think, and what we do, and can help identify learned emotional reactions, unhelpful thinking styles, unhelpful behavioural patterns, and understand what is maintaining your difficulties.
You do not need to have a diagnosis to benefit from CBT, and many people find that it can help them with the stressors of daily life such as work, relationships and significant life events. By exploring the here and now, or your past, we can help to uncover where we can make changes to build on your resilience and coping skills.
CBT is recommended by NHS England for some of the following difficulties:
o Low mood and depression
o Self esteem difficulties
o Stress and burnout
o Anger
o Panic attacks
o Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
o Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
o Health anxiety
o Social anxiety
o General anxiety disorder and worry.
o ADHD/ ADD
o Some long term physical health issues
NHS England suggests that CBT can be useful for ADHD as it can help teach practical coping skills to manage symptoms, improve executive functions and change unhelpful thinking patterns. Here are a list of some of the key ways CBT can support you with ADHD:
o Rejection sensitivity disorder – intense emotional response to perceived or actual rejection or criticism.
o Emotional dysregulation and overwhelm.
o Procrastination, focus and attention, and time management
o Self esteem difficulties and perfectionism
o Executive dysfunction
o Managing impulsivity
o Assertiveness and communication difficulties in relationships
You don’t need to be diagnosed with ADHD to have some of these difficulties, but CBT can still help you with them. Reach out to see how CBT may work for you.
Many people struggle with their self-worth but do not resonate with labels such as anxiety and depression, which may put them off accessing therapy.
More often than not, they struggle to see how their self-esteem impacts their day to day as it is something they have lived with since they were children. Many people have been encouraged to just ‘get on with it’ or have done so well at hiding it they don’t realise that there are other ways to cope.
Some of the ways low self-esteem can impact you are:
o Low mood
o Anxiety
o Fear of failure
o Fear of rejection
o Self-criticism
o Avoid putting themselves out there
o Predicting the worst in social situations
o Downplaying achievements whilst emphasising ‘failures’
o Setting high expectations
o Taking blame and responsibility for things, and not making others accountable
o People pleasing, always putting others first and themselves last.
o Being passive, not speaking up when they want to and kicking themselves after.
You don’t need a diagnosis to benefit from therapy, find out how you may be able to start being fairer to yourself.