The topic that I found most interesting in Chapter 16 was on Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Mostly because it was something that I have personally gone through. This type of behavioral therapy is focused for those who have difficulty with mood disorders (i.e. Borderline Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, BiPolar, etc.), extreme anxiety, eating disorders, and substance abuse problems. The main focus is in helping the person to move from a negative schema to a positive one by staying in the present moment, being mindful of the uncomfortable/negative feeling, and recognize that life will go on and you will make it through.
Therapy is not only a one-on-one session with a therapist but in a group setting as well. A one-on-one therapy session allows the therapist to have the client imagine uncomfortable life instances and then guides them on how to positively work through them while sitting with the feeling (ex: Receiving an C- on a test is not the end of your school career). When/if the client starts to move back to their old comfortable negative coping mechanisms the therapist prods them to see things differently and in a more positive manner. The benefit of receiving therapy in a group setting is that it makes one realize they're not alone, and that others struggle with the same things. Group-mates bounce ideas of positive coping skills off one another for dealing with life's stressful events.
From my personal experience, it's very difficult to do, and often takes a person years of new, repetitive, positive thinking to get the hang of it and cease using their current coping mechanism. It was worth every minute of struggle to learn new ways of positive coping, and move from thinking only in black and white to gray.
Has anyone else struggled with anything similar?
