CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Our son is starting this therapy this week.
Here's how it was explained to us:
Suppose you have voices endlessly shouting TURN AROUND!
And you don't want to turn around, but the voices are yelling this so loudly
that it must be true. And so you feel silly, but you turn around....all day long!
The CBT treatment for this person might be listening to a tape of
this person's voice describing in detail the fears
of what might happen if they don't turn around.
This person would listen to this tape many times for many days
and after awhile the voices yelling 'turn around'
might start to blend into the background.
The voices would get weaker and weaker.
Weak enough to finally ignore.
Our psychologist put it this way:
The normal response to an intrusive thought is to push it away.
Instead, with CBT you would grab hold of it like grabbing a large balloon.
You would wrestle with the balloon (intrusive thought)
and as it loses air, it would start to shrink in your arms...
and finally become almost nothing.
***
Our 5 minute break is a stunning video called
It's Time by Imagine Dragons. It's an allegory.
The sun finally shines in this wasteland...but at a heavy price.
Allegorically, sometimes a part of us must die (like intrusive thoughts)
in order for us to live.
This is the start of our CBT journey. I'll keep you posted.
Here's one of my photos taken at an art museum
with my younger son.
n...Y!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by! Have a super-duper day!