My name is Dr Emma Gray, and I'm the Lead Clinical Psychologist at the British CBT & Counselling
Service.
And in this video, I'm going to talk to you about CBT for depression.
Now a significant number of people suffering from depression go undiagnosed and, as a result,
untreated.
So, let's start by working out if you actually have depression.
So, ask yourself these questions.
Do you feel sad a lot of the time?
Do you find that you have nothing to look forward to?
Do you look back over your life and see lots of failures?
Do you find that you get no real satisfaction from things anymore?
Do you feel guilty a lot of the time?
Maybe you find you have to push yourself quite hard to get anything done?
Do you struggle to fall asleep, and then find you wake only a number of hours later?
Are you becoming easily tired?
Have you noticed a change in your appetite—either it's increased, or it's decreased?
Do you find you're less interested in sex?
If you're answering 'yes' to one or more of these questions, it's quite likely that you're
suffering with depression—or low mood.
The best therapy, currently available, for depression, is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy—or
CBT.
So now we're going to look at what a good CBT programme looks like.
A good CBT programme consists of 4 key phases.
The first phase is a kind of assessment where your therapist will try and understand why
your symptoms have developed, and why they've stayed with you—this will enable them to
develop an approach that will bring you the quickest and most enduring relief.
And this is really important; the treatment programme has to be tailored to what you need
as an individual.
If your therapist is just using an off-the-shelf treatment that they use with everyone, it's
far less likely to be effective.
The second phase of treatment is where we look at trying to reduce your symptoms and
help you to function better on a day-to-day basis.
And this will involve a combination of psychological and practical strategies which you'll need
to practise outside of the session.
And this is quite important because it's what you do in between your sessions that is going
to make the biggest difference.
It's not enough just to come to your session and talk to your therapist once a week.
So, let's look at these psychological techniques first.
So the idea is that it's our thoughts—the way we think about the world—that affects
how we feel.
Specifically, in depression, you'll find that your thoughts are very self-critical.
You may have a tendency to underestimate yourself, compare yourself negatively to other people,
to take responsibility for things that might not be your problem (or responsibility), to
take what other people do as a personal attack, to generally be quite unkind towards yourself.
So in your CBT, what you'll be doing is identifying these thoughts, assessing their accuracy and
their helpfulness.
And if they're found to not be accurate, or helpful, you will be helped to develop alternative
thoughts which will improve your mood and bring you a little bit more peace and happiness.
In terms of the practical techniques that you'll be learning; when we become depressed
we behave in ways that tend to make our mood worse—more specifically, we withdraw from
people and from doing the things that might have, in the past, brought us a sense of achievement
and pleasure.
Now it's quite hard to reconnect with the world—to start doing these things again—but
your therapist will gradually help you to do this through a range of practical techniques.
And, over time, this will help to lift your mood.
Once you're feeling better on a day-to-day basis, you will begin the third phase of therapy
which is about future-proofing the changes that you've made.
This is quite important because depression doesn't just strike people down randomly—there
will be something in your past that has happened that has made you vulnerable to developing
your depression.
And it's really important that you identify that—and limit its impact on you—otherwise,
you will find that your symptoms just return.
The final phase of therapy is about consolidating the changes that you've made and building
your confidence so that you can manage your mood independently.
Hopefully, I've answered all the questions that you have about CBT for depression, but
if not, please post them in the comments below, and I will do my best to answer them.
I'll see you soon.