What Is CBT Therapy For? - Difficulties That CBT Can Help With
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most widely practiced and well-researched psychological treatments globally. While a lot of people have heard of CBT, fewer are aware of just how many different emotional and psychological difficulties it can help with. Today, CBT can be used to help with symptoms and difficulties caused by almost all mental health disorders. Furthermore, it is also used for personal growth and improved self-awareness in people who don’t have a diagnosis, but are looking to improve their lives.
In this article, we will talk about how CBT supports recovery, healing, and personal growth. Then, we will also dive deep into the specific issues and mental health disorders that CBT therapy can help with, as well as explore the particular symptoms of each disorder and how CBT tackles them.
What Is CBT?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most popular and sought-after psychotherapy models. It is practical and evidence-based, with countless studies supporting its usage and benefits.
Fundamentally, CBT, as the name suggests, focuses on understanding cognition (thinking) and thought patterns. From there, it also dives into the behavior that results from the thinking process. Although not mentioned in the name, CBT also explores emotions within the context of how they guide and support thinking and behavior. CBT works on the premise that our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are interconnected and that one can (and will) affect the other two. When we change how we think, we influence our emotions and our actions. Conversely, when we change how we act, we influence our emotional states and reshape our existing thoughts/beliefs.
By addressing the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behavior, CBT helps clients understand their mindset, pinpoint established thinking patterns, challenge restrictive patterns, and change them into more positive and constructive ones. It also helps them create and maintain healthier coping skills, which ultimately improve their emotional resilience and overall well-being.
CBT was first developed in the 1960s by psychiatrist Aaron Beck. He discovered that patients with depression tend to experience distorted and automatic negative thoughts, as well as ruminate on them continuously. These thoughts were not random; they followed established and predictable patterns, perpetuating their low mood. So, he started creating CBT to help individuals identify these thinking errors and replace them with more balanced, realistic perspectives.
Today, CBT is used by therapists around the world in both clinical and non-clinical settings. It is often the first-line treatment for many mental health conditions. From chronic anxiety to OCD, depressive symptoms, trauma responses, and even everyday stress, CBT can be used for many psychological difficulties in clients with different backgrounds. CBT therapists utilize a wide range of tools and techniques designed to help people examine how they understand and interpret past life events, understand their emotional responses, and make conscious and intentional choices about their behavior.
To learn more about the benefits of CBT, I invite you to read the blog post on the topic of CBT benefits.
What Difficulties Can CBT Help With?
CBT is used for a wide range of emotional, psychological, and behavioral difficulties in clients with different backgrounds, life circumstances, and individual differences. Below are some of the most common conditions and challenges it is used to treat.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders involve excessive fear, worry, or nervousness that interferes with daily functioning. CBT is often the first-line treatment because it targets both the thinking patterns and avoidance behaviors that keep anxiety going. CBT is used for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic disorders, Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), and specific phobias.
GAD, or generalized anxiety disorder, is an anxiety disorder in which the person experiences excessive and chronic worry about different aspects of life, even if there isn’t a reason for concern. People with GAD often experience restlessness, insomnia, fatigue, muscle tension, and panic attacks. CBT uses cognitive restructuring to help clients identify and challenge their worrying thoughts and hypervigilance. Then, it also uses exposure to the worrying scenarios to lower the fear around the uncertainty of outcomes. CBT, in the end, also offers clients different relaxation and mindfulness exercises they can use to reduce their physical tension and restlessness and increase their connection and presence in the present moment.
Panic disorder is another type of anxiety disorder where the person experiences sudden episodes of intense fear (i.e., panic attacks) that are often accompanied by overwhelming physical sensations and symptoms like hyperventilation, dizziness, racing heart, and trembling. The fear of experiencing unpleasant panic attacks creates a vicious circle of anxiety for people with a panic disorder. To help manage symptoms, CBT helps clients by desensitizing them to feared sensations and symptoms. This approach closely aligns with EMDR modalities, so these two psychotherapies work great together to bring a lasting positive impact on mental health. Similarly to desensitization to fearful sensations, CBT and EMDR do cognitive work in people with panic disorder, equipping them to challenge and reframe catastrophic beliefs and their low self-confidence and avoidance-prone behavior.
Social anxiety, one of the most common anxiety disorders, is an intense fear of being embarrassed, judged, or rejected in social situations or when needing to perform in front of others. People with social anxiety tend to avoid social situations and interactions, and often have difficulties in their work or school performance. When working with social anxiety, CBT therapists help clients do cognitive restructuring and engage slowly and effectively in exposure therapy. By doing behavioral experiments, the client has the opportunity to test some of their catastrophic beliefs in real-life situations and collect feedback. This, in turn, helps them notice their distorted beliefs and increase their confidence to be spontaneous in social interactions.
Phobias are intense and irrational fears of particular objects or situations (like spiders, flying, needles, heights, etc). People often go to great lengths to avoid the feared stimulus and repeatedly experience disruptions in their everyday lives. The CBT approach for phobias includes exposure therapy, where the client is slowly and safely exposed to the source of their fear, gradually lowering the fear response.
Depression
Depression is one of the most frequently diagnosed mental health disorders. It includes low energy, loss of interest in life, disturbances in sleeping and eating habits, and a pervasive negative thinking about oneself, their future, and the world around them.
CBT helps manage depressive symptoms through behavioral activation, i.e., prompting clients to engage in enjoyable and meaningful activities even when they lack motivation to do so. This is done with small steps and small “wins” that help clients increase their mood over time. Behavioral activation is also helped by CBT cognitive restructuring, where self-critical or hopeless thoughts are challenged and reframed, and CBT problem-solving, where clients learn how to manage and cope with stressors and triggers more effectively.
By interrupting the negative feedback loop of inactivity, negative thinking, and low mood, CBT provides a structured pathway out of depression.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
PTSD can develop after a traumatic event and includes symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbing, and hypervigilance. People with PTSD often avoid reminders of the trauma, which prevents healing and keeps them stuck in a loop of avoidance and flashbacks.
CBT helps people with PTSD process their memories and confront avoided places or situations that may act as triggers. Furthermore, CBT also helps them do cognitive processing, where they can address unhealthy beliefs that came as a result of the traumatic experience. In the end, CBT also tackled emotions, helping people with PTSD reduce their fear, shame, avoidance, and helplessness by increasing their sense of control and safety.
To learn more about lowering symptoms of PTSD, I kindly recommend this blog post, which extensively explains the symptoms and causes of PTSD, as well as some of the most effective treatments for it.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD is a mental health disorder that involves distressing obsessions (intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (repetitive behaviors or mental rituals) aimed at reducing anxiety. Common themes include contamination, harm, symmetry, and morality.
The Cognitive Behavioral approach to OCD is the Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) modality. As the Perelman School of Medicine explains, response prevention (also called ritual prevention) helps clients sever two connections - one is the connection between distress and certain triggering thoughts or situations, while the second is between the obsessive thoughts and the compulsive behavior. This method works twofold, on one side helping clients lower their distress reaction, and on the other, helping them resist compulsive behavior once any distressing thoughts or situations occur. Cognitive interventions, on the other hand, help clients recognize, address, and improve any feelings of guilt, responsibility, or perfectionism that are often accompanying the OCD symptoms.
Eating Disorders
Eating disorders like Anorexia, Bulimia, or Binge Eating Disorder can also be addressed and cured with CBT. They often involve a complex set of unhealthy eating behaviors and habits, negative body image, and distressing beliefs about good, self-worth, self-image, and control.
CBT for eating disorders includes some specialized models. CBT-E, for example, focuses on challenging the beliefs and the increased focus on weight and physical body shape, while it also helps clients identify their triggering thoughts and emotions, any perfectionism, or existing low self-esteem that worsens the symptoms. CBT helps individuals develop a healthier relationship with food and their body, and learn to meet emotional needs without relying on eating behaviors.
Insomnia
Chronic insomnia involves difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early. It is often driven by anxiety about sleep itself or unhelpful sleep habits, making it a mental health condition that can significantly interfere with everyday life.
As the Stanford Medicine website underlines, there is a special form of CBT that aims to help with insomnia, called CBT-I. It includes stimulus control and sleep restriction therapy, which aim to control before-bed habits. CBT-I also includes cognitive techniques and relaxation training, which help clients pinpoint and restructure their sleep-related worries and lower the hyperarousal that is part of the difficulty. CBT-I has been shown to cause long-lasting effects on insomnia and is more effective than sleeping medication.
Health Anxiety and Chronic Pain
People with health anxiety (also called hypochondria) may become preoccupied with fears of illness, misinterpret normal body sensations, or seek excessive reassurance. Others living with chronic conditions may struggle with frustration, depression, or fear.
CBT can help in both of those cases. For people with health anxiety, it helps them reinterpret their bodily sensations more realistically and reduce the need for check-ups, medical visits, and reassurance-seeking from doctors. For people living with chronic pain, CBT can help them accept their conditions and develop healthy coping strategies for their symptoms. For both of these groups, CBT also offers mindfulness and relaxation techniques that can build their emotional resiliency and coping strategies.
Anger, Stress, and Relationship Difficulties
Even outside of diagnosed disorders, CBT can support personal development in everyday life for people who feel like they want to grow, develop, and lead more conscious lives aligned with their values and needs. Even without a formal diagnosis, CBT can help with general life challenges like anger management, stress management, or relationship issues.
For anger management, CBT teaches clients to recognize their triggers and triggering thoughts, and find more controlled, constructive, and calmer responses to triggering situations.
For stress, CBT can help clients reframe their thoughts, learn relaxation techniques, manage their time and efforts effectively, and increase their emotional resilience and stress response.
Relationship difficulties, on the other hand, can be solved through new communication patterns, reframed and clear needs and boundaries, effective communication, and a change of unhelpful beliefs.
Final Thoughts
From anxiety and depression to trauma, insomnia, and chronic pain, CBT offers practical strategies for understanding what’s going wrong—and how to change it. But CBT isn’t just for people in crisis. Many use CBT principles in everyday life to manage stress, navigate relationships, or simply become more aware of their thought patterns.
Whether you’re dealing with a specific issue or want to improve your mental fitness, CBT provides a structured path forward. It doesn’t promise instant change, but it does offer a proven process—step by step—for creating a healthier, more intentional life. So, feel free to reach out and schedule your introductory session. You will get the chance to explain your difficulties, ask all your questions, and get a direct response from our therapists. At EMDR Nashville, we have a team of dedicated professionals who will make a personalized treatment plan with psychotherapeutic modalities that would work best for you and your individual circumstances.
References
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. (n.d.). Understanding CBT for OCD. Understanding CBT for OCD | Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. https://www.med.upenn.edu/ctsa/forms_ocd_cbt.html#rp
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. Stanford Medicine Health Care. (n.d.). https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-treatments/c/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-insomnia/procedures.html