Seeking professional help for a mental illness is one of the best decisions you can make, even if you do not believe you really need help. Depression, anger problems, and anxiety are all issues that can fall into the category of mental illness, and these issues can often be treated with psychiatry. If you are currently suffering from depression and cannot seem to break it, you may want to visit a psychiatrist for cognitive therapy. This is a technique that can be very helpful for treating depression, and here are three things you may want to know about this technique.

What Is The Purpose Of Cognitive Therapy?

Psychiatrists use a variety of different techniques when counseling clients, and one of these is called cognitive therapy. This technique may be used alone or combined with other treatment methods, such as medication, and it can offer great results for many people.

Cognitive therapy is something that could be used to help you:

• Discover why you think the way you do and why you are feeling so depressed
• Learn how to stop the irrational thoughts you have when your depression starts kicking in
• Find better ways of coping with your problems and feelings
• Change the way you think and handle situations
• Develop a more satisfying life

Cognitive therapy can help you overcome your feelings of depression and anxiety, and you might be able to do this without using any form of medication.

What Is The Main Goal?

In cognitive therapy, your psychiatrist will help you in the ways listed above, but the main goal is to teach you to understand your emotions so that you can learn to accept them and react to them in ways that are healthy. To make this happen, your psychiatrist will first need to learn who you are and how you think, and he or she must earn your trust.

When you begin trusting your psychiatrist, it will be easier for you to open up with him or her and be honest about the way you think. As this happens, the psychiatrist will begin to help you understand the flaws in the way you think, which will help the psychiatrist understand what changes need to be made.

The end result will be that you feel better about yourself and reality. You will begin to understand the ways in which your negative thought processes are affecting you, your life, and the quality of living, and this is when true change can take place. You will learn how to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

How Can You Make Sure It Is Effective?

If you have been struggling with depression for months or even years, cognitive therapy could help. The first step is meeting with a psychiatrist to determine if you have any other types of mental disorders. During an initial meeting, the psychiatrist will most likely be able to diagnose the conditions or problems that you have, and he or she will be able to tell if cognitive therapy would be beneficial for you.

If the psychiatrist believes that this would help you, it will be important for you to attend your weekly visits, but you will also need to understand these three principles:

1. It requires repetition – The only way to break a habit is by practicing and making conscious decisions to do things differently. If you want cognitive therapy to work for you, you must be dedicated to repetitious activities, even if they get boring. For example, if your psychiatrist wants you to read a certain portion of a self-help book every day for 30 days, you must be willing to do this. As you repeat acts like these, they may develop into habits over time.
2. It takes time – Studies show that it takes a minimum of 21 days to form a new habit, so you should not expect to see changes over night. With repetition and dedication, you may be able to change your thinking processes in as little as 21 days though.
3. You must avoid triggers – Through your sessions, your psychiatrist will help you determine what things trigger your depression. Triggers can be many things, including alcohol, loneliness, certain people, smells, or songs. Once you discover what these are, you will need to find ways to avoid them.

Cognitive therapy is very helpful for treating depression, but you will get better results if you are willing to commit to these three principles. When you are ready to begin living a life that is more satisfying, call a psychiatrist and make an appointment to find out if cognitive therapy is right for you. Click here for more info, or contact a local psychiatry clinic.