Cognitive restructuring

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Cognitive restructuring in cognitive therapy is the process of learning to refute cognitive distortions, or fundamental "faulty thinking," with the goal of replacing one's irrational, counter-factual beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones.

The cognitive restructuring theory holds that your own unrealistic beliefs are directly responsible for generating dysfunctional emotions and their resultant behaviors, like stress, depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal, and that we humans can be rid of such emotions and their effects by dismantling the beliefs that give them life. Because one sets unachievable goals — "Everyone must love me; I have to be thoroughly competent; I have to be the best in everything" — a fear of failure results. Cognitive restructuring then advises to change such irrational beliefs and substitute more rational ones: "I can fail. Although it would be nice, I didn't have to be the best in everything." [Ellis and Harper, 1975; Ellis 1998]

This is accomplished by leading the subject to:

Gain awareness of detrimental thought habits
Learn to challenge them
Substitute life-enhancing thoughts and beliefs

The rationale used in cognitive restructuring attempts to strengthen the client's belief that 1) 'self-talk' can influence performance, and 2) in particular self-defeating thoughts or negative self-statements can cause emotional distress and interfere with performance, a process that then repeats again in a cycle.

[edit] Clinical Applications

ANGER MANAGEMENT

Anger management programs have used Cognitive Restructuring to help high-anger drivers stay calm and collected. Anger control training combines cognitive restructuring with social skills training, thus helping the chronically angry to overcome their rage that arises in specific situations as well as their general anger against themselves, loved ones and the world in general. Interestingly, Cognitive Restructuring has also shown great beneficence in the pre-release preparations of criminals, reducing recidivism.

DEPRESSION

An example of how cognitive restructuring can be used in treating clinical depression is to find a statement that describes the cause of the depression, such as "I lost my job today." and to turn this into a positive affirmation "but hopefully I will find a new job." Some refer to this general technique as “reframing” or “frame braking “. In clinical depression the triggers of the feelings of hopelessness and helplessness are often concealed and using cognitive therapy and communicating in words about what the causes of the feelings are has the effect of making it possible to identify triggers. Thought processes are activated by external stimuli and so finding what external stimuli activate these thought processes restructures the way the mind deals with triggering stimuli. For example if being in a party where everybody is laughing and dancing causes depression cognitive therapy investigates the thought process that is triggered by the external stimuli. A statement about the stimuli explaining the trigger is: "I do not know how to dance, I will never be as happy as those people." and a restructuring statement is: "I want to learn how to dance." This is a way of changing a belief from a negative to a positive one. This is extremely useful in treating depression and schizophrenia. The key to changing behavior is changing the cognitive structure from passive to active and creating behaviors by first changing the mind.

SOCIAL PHOBIA

Cognitive restructuring, integrated with exposure techniques, is used in Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) to break the cycle of social anxiety. CR is used to conquer social phobia both in the therapist's office and in the client’s daily life. Under the therapist's direction, clients are guided through cognitive restructuring before, during, and after in-session exposures to high-anxiety social situations. Then for homework, clients are asked to engage in cognitive restructuring activities before, during, and after each assigned in vivo exposure.

TRAUMA VICTIM ANXIETY

Cognitive restructuring, in combination with other techniques, has been used successfully to reduce anxiety in many people from trauma victims to students suffering from test anxiety to diabetes-related issues. It has also helped patients struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), substance abuse habits and non-generalized social phobia.

[edit] Non-Clinical Applications

CR is used extensively in the life skills curriculum created by ACCI for rehabilitating both juvenile and adult criminals. Apparently, their theory is that crime is a result of faulty thinking, and therefore, can be "cured" through cognitive restructuring.