Does Cognitive behavior therapy rewires the Brain?

Mon Jul 1

Did you know that in 2020-21, there were 1.46 million referrals to talking therapies like CBT. (Source: digital.nhs.uk) CBT also known by the name of  Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that makes you understand the thoughts and feelings that usually influence how you think and behave. The main goal of cognitive behavior therapy  is to change your patterns of thinking or behavior that are related to the difficulties of your life. These problems can be anything from sleeping difficulties or relationship problems to drug and alcohol abuse.

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From this blog, we are going to learn about CBT in detail and will see what impact it would have on your brain. With this we will also see how this therapy alters your brain functioning and leads to changes in thought pattern and behaviors. When you will understand the neuroscience of CBT, then you will see how effective it is and in how many ways it can be used when it comes to therapeutic contexts. 

How does Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) rewire your Brain?

The way of understanding the impact of cognitive behavior therapy on your brain is the concept  of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity also known by the name of brain plasticity usually refers to your brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. It is the process by which all experiences reorganize as the neural pathways in your brain. The long-lasting changes happen in your brain when you learn new things or memorize new information. These changes that occur in your neural connections are what makes your brain flexible and adaptable.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy also promotes positive changes in your brain and during the process of CBT you can learn new ways for coping mechanisms and cognitive strategies. These new patterns of thought and behavior can lead to changes in a way that your brain works and processes information. To make you understand better, let’s take an example: cognitive behavior therapy helps create new neural pathways that promote positive thought patterns and replaces the old negative ones which are related to the problem. This is what neuroplasticity is, where your brain structures and functions are altered by your experiences and thoughts. 

Some Benefits and Limitations of CBT in Rewiring your Brain

Below we have talked about some benefits and limitations which you should know when it comes to using CBT for rewiring your brain.

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Benefits of Cognitive Behavior Therapy 

1. Improved Self-Esteem

Through cognitive behavior therapy you can easily reshape your thought patterns. And, when you do so your brain starts making new neural pathways also known as neuroplasticity. This process then allows your brain to adapt and change which leads to increased optimism. To tell it in simpler words optimism is a positive mental attitude that interprets situations and events as being best. To be more precise it is the belief that good automatically predominates over evil in the world.

With all these things mentioned above cognitive behavior therapy then leads to improved self-esteem. Self- esteem means your overall sense of value and worth. By changing all the negative beliefs about yourself you can easily improve your self-esteem and when you do so your cognitive functions are enhanced and all your stress and anxiety goes away. 

2. Emotion Regulation

Cognitive behavior therapy helps in emotion regulation by guiding you to manage your emotional responses to different situations more effectively. It also involves:

• Identification of emotions
• Understanding the triggers behind the emotions
• Developing healthier responses.

With time you learn to recognize your emotional patterns and the thoughts or situation which triggers your emotions. You are then taught to challenge any negative or unhelpful thoughts that are causing you these emotional responses. CBT also provides you with practical strategies like mindfulness techniques, breathing exercises and cognitive restructuring methods to manage your emotional responses. 

3. Fight against Addictions 

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can come very handy to combat addictions by helping you to rewire the thinking patterns of your brain. It works by controlling your thoughts and giving you more power over your reactions. CBT also focuses on identifying negative thought patterns which lead to addictive behaviors and replacing them with much healthier ones. 

Limitations of Cognitive Behavior Therapy  

Some of the limitations for cognitive behavior therapy are:

• CBT does not work well for all types of conditions, for example if we talk about certain forms of depression then it might not be as effective as other therapies.
• CBT requires you to spend time doing exercises related to self-monitoring and journaling between sessions which is really time consuming.
• This therapy primarily focuses on you and may not consider the impact of it on your family, friends and surroundings.
• The nature of CBT is to confront emotions and anxieties which may lead you to initial periods of increased anxiety and emotional discomfort.

Conclusion

Yes, cognitive behavior therapy does rewire your brain and it does help you with regulating your emotions, improves your self-esteem and makes you fight against the addictions. But, there are also several limitations that are linked to it but don’t worry, do your best and you will definitely see better results.

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