The Most Effective Form of Therapy
© Neal Sideman
The most effective form of therapy is "cognitive-behavioral therapy" or "CBT" for short. Here is a quote from the website of the APA, the American Psychological Association ( http://helping.apa.org/therapy/panic.html ):
"How Can Panic Disorder Be Treated? "Most specialists agree that a combination of cognitive and behavioral therapies are the best treatment for panic disorder. Medication might also be appropriate in some cases."
CBT is the ONLY form of therapy that is widely proven to be effective for panic disorder, agoraphobia and other forms of anxiety disorder. There are dozens of studies that prove the dramatic effectiveness of CBT. There is an absence of studies showing the effectiveness of other forms of therapy.
How is CBT different from other kinds of therapy?>
CBT is not at all like traditional psychotherapy. In traditional psychotherapy, the focus is often on talking about one's past. Talking about the past can be very helpful in dealing with many life issues, but it has limited value in helping people to overcome panic disorder. CBT focuses on overcoming panic in the present, as opposed to searching the past for contributing factors.
In CBT, you learn skills that you practice in the therapist's office and on your own. CBT is like taking a class: you learn skills that empower you to overcome the anxiety and panic.
What will I learn in CBT?
First of all, CBT teaches you about the nature of the panic response and the panic attack (see this section on paniccure.com: http://www.paniccure.com/approaches/Educ... .
A panic attack is an overwhelming experience that seems like just one thing, but it's really a number of things all going on at the same time - sensations and scary thoughts.
Examples of sensations are racing or pounding heart, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, chest pain and sweating. Examples of scary thoughts are fear of going crazy, fear of losing control and fear of dying.
CBT demonstrates to you that each sensation and each scary thought is actually completely harmless. CBT empowers you to slow down the panic response, so that you can gradually master each sensation and each scary thought, one at a time.
As you learn to no longer fear the sensations and scary thoughts, you become less and less afraid of panic. Since the central feature of panic disorder is the persistent fear and worry about panic, CBT empowers you to completely heal from this condition.
How long does CBT take?
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