{"id":1992,"date":"2024-04-08T15:01:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T15:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/?p=1992"},"modified":"2024-04-21T10:53:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T10:53:30","slug":"cbt-psychologist-help-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/blog\/cbt-psychologist-help-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"How would CBT by a psychologist help my depression?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What is Depression?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are various types of depression that psychologists see in daily clinical practice. First, there is Major Depression. Some of the symptoms of Major Depression include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Persistent sadness and \/ or difficulty enjoying activities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lack of energy \/ fatigue<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Problems with sleep (too much or too little)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Problems with appetite (eating too much or too little)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Problems with concentration and \/ or memory<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low self-esteem<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Suicidal thinking<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low sexual interest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>With Major Depression, these symptoms cause the person to struggle with their everyday functioning, such that they have difficulty working, studying or interacting socially. It also significantly decreases their quality of life.<br>Major depression is often a recurring a problem \u2013 it\u2019s important to treat depression sooner than later.<br>However, not everyone who sees a psychologist for depression meets criteria for Major Depression. Occasionally, someone might have symptoms of depression for a period of years, but not meet actual criteria for depression. Many of these people have what psychologists call Dysthymia. Dysthymia is similar to Major Depression, but with milder and fewer symptoms, and lasts longer (at least 2 years). Having Dysthymia increases the person\u2019s chances of eventually developing Major Depression \u2013 in other words, it is a risk factor.<br>Aside from Major Depression and Dysthymia, psychologists also often work with people who do not have a \u201cdiagnosable\u201d issue, but they have some symptoms of depression that interfere with their quality of life. These cases are known as subsyndromal depression, which can also be a risk factor for eventually developing Major Depression.<br>Hence, there are different faces of depression, with some being more severe than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people believe they have to wait until they are incapacitated before seeking help \u2013 the reality is that it\u2019s important to seek treatment sooner than later, in order to avoid a situation where the symptoms worsen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, regardless of the type of depression one has, the most important question is \u2013 what can they do to treat this depression?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>CBT for Depression<\/strong><br>Psychologists have been testing and refining, for many decades, a treatment for depression called Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT has been found to be a very effective treatment for depression \u2013 as effective as medication.<br>The reason for CBT\u2019s effectiveness is the fact that this therapy allows the psychologist to target many of the factors known to impact people\u2019s mood, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When people are depressed, their behaviour changes and they start to do things that make being depressed more likely. For example, they stop doing things that they usually enjoy, and they stop doing things they are good at. There may be other changes in behaviour as well, including those that affect social \/ interpersonal and romantic relationships. Such behaviour changes reduce opportunities to enjoy life and receive pleasure. Indeed, people do not experience happiness for no reason \u2013 we must do things to create happiness. CBT addresses this issue in a way that is collaborative with the client.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One of the hallmark symptoms of depression is a change in cognition \u2013 thoughts, memories, beliefs, interpretations, attitudes \u2013 all become more negative during depression. CBT can help make changes to cognition that help alleviate the symptoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One of the most important things a psychologist does is assess each client and develop a conceptualization of how exactly this person came to be depressed and develop a treatment plan that is specific to the conceptualization. Psychologists can use cognitive-behavioural\u00a0<em>theory<\/em>\u00a0to understand and plan for how to use cognitive-behavioural\u00a0<em>therapy<\/em>. For example, two people can have identical symptoms of depression and have very similar thoughts, but the root causes can be very different. Having a psychologist get at the root cause (ex: core beliefs developed in early relationships) is very important.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Coping with depression can be a tremendous battle and CBT can help many people defeat this problem for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source photo :&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hamedmasoumi\/4073629258\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hamed Masoumi<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>We are here to help you.<br><\/em><\/strong>For more information on our services, or for help on deciding which of our team psychologists to choose, don\u2019t hesitate&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:coordinatrice@psymontreal.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to contact our clinic coordinator<\/a>&nbsp;at 514-337-2473, ext. 0, and it is with great pleasure that we will discuss with you the psychological services we can offer you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Depression? There are various types of depression that psychologists see in daily clinical practice. First, there is Major Depression. Some of the symptoms of Major Depression include: With Major Depression, these symptoms cause the person to struggle with their everyday functioning, such that they have difficulty working, studying or interacting socially. It also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":16,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psyclopedia-psychological-encyclopedia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1994,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1992\/revisions\/1994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dee-goo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}