Dialectical Behavioral Therapy vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical behavioral and cognitive-behavioral treatments offer two different approaches to treating depression and addiction. Let’s take a look at both.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioral therapy was first embraced in the 1960s by therapists as a more effective psycho-social treatment than the Freudian focus on unconscious influences and impact from childhood experiences. Behavioral therapy focuses on a patient’s current distorted thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes.
Far in advance of modern psychotherapy, Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935 implementing the 12-step program of therapy. At each AA meeting, the members recite the following serenity prayer:
“God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
That in a nutshell is mindful behavioral therapy. Addiction therapists like to characterize their work as eradicating “stink’n think’n”. Today, behavioral therapies are often combined with a 12-step program.
Behavioral therapy is essentially mind control. It was originally used to treat depression. But it has become popular for treating many mental health conditions including post-traumatic stress disorder, marital problems, eating disorders, and addiction.
Dialectical Behavioral Treatment
Dialectical behavioral treatment (DBT) is a branch of behavioral therapy. It was developed in the 1980s to deal with suicidal thoughts. But it came to be used for treating substance addiction and borderline personality disorder. The term dialectical expresses a philosophy that seemingly opposite beliefs or behaviors can coexist.
What’s the Difference?
In CBT, patients identify their personal goals and also their perceived obstacles. They are then taught the mindful skills to overcome those obstacles. Mainly, those skills identify and eliminate the “stink’n think’n”.
The same is true for DBT. But DBT employs a much more structured therapy and mind training. Among the principal teaching modules are:
- Core mindfulness skills. Eastern meditation skills serve as the model for patients to be more objectively cognizant of and recognize their thinking of the moment.
- Distress tolerance. This looks a lot like the AA serenity prayer. It teaches that some things are beyond our control and we learn to live with them in peace and without self-blame.
- Interpersonal effectiveness. Patients are taught methods for establishing healthy relationships to deal with conflict.
- Emotion regulation. Patients are taught how to handle emotions and obstacles in order to manage their emotions. They are also taught to avoid situations that trigger harmful emotions.
Efficacy of Behavioral Therapy
Numerous studies have shown that behavioral therapy works. Among them is a manuscript published in July 2012 in PubMed Central (PMC), an archive maintained by the National Institute of Health.
The study, “The Efficacy of Behavioral Therapy: A Review of Meta-analyses” identified 269 meta-analytic studies and reviewed a representative sample of 106 meta-analyses examining behavioral therapy. The consensus conclusion was that CBT showed more efficacy than other compared treatments for many mental health issues including substance addiction, depression, and several other disorders.
Sands Treatment Center
At The Sands Treatment Center, we have many years of experience treating substance addiction as well as other disorders. We employ 12-step programs in combination with behavioral therapies. Contact us to find out more.
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What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Psychotherapy that uses cognitive-behavioral techniques seeks to help people learn new skills for dealing with problematic emotions, actions, and perceptions. Behavioral treatment, cognitive therapy, and combined behavioral and cognitive therapy are all called by this name. Several diseases, including personality, anxiety, mood, eating, substance addiction, and psychotic disorders, have been shown to benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. Psychological orders can be addressed using technique-driven, short, and time-limited therapies when treatment is manualized.
How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Works
The methods are frequently adopted for use in private counseling sessions. Whether a therapist or researcher prefers cognitive or behavioral approaches, or a mix of the two techniques, is entirely up to them. Nowadays, all three methods are in use. Behavioral-cognitive therapy evolved from a fusion of these two approaches. Both treatments have their distinctions, but they both focus on how to reduce symptoms.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been evaluated, and many people now believe it is more successful than psychodynamic therapies and other techniques of treating mental health issues. Mental health issues such as PTSD, OCD, bulimia, severe depression, and the neurological illness chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis are among those conditions that benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy above alternative treatments. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has its origins in several ancient philosophical systems, including Stoicism. Modern CBT may be traced back to the development of behavioral therapy in the 1920s, cognitive therapy in the 1960s, and their subsequent fusion. Mary Cover Jones’s work on helping youngsters overcome their anxieties sparked the first behavioral therapy techniques in the early ’20s.
Early behavioral methods were effective in treating neurotic illnesses. However, this was not the case with depression. Due to the “cognitive revolution,” behavioral treatment was also losing favor. This eventually led to the establishment of cognitive therapy in the 1960s by Aaron T. Beck. Arnold A. Lazarus created the first version of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the late 1950s and early 1970s. Thanks to their work, both cognitive and behavioral treatments were integrated by David M. Clark in the United Kingdom and David H. Barlow in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. As described above, among the several systems that make up cognitive behavioral therapy are rational emotive behavior therapy, multimodal treatment, and cognitive therapy. CBT definition is one of the most challenging tasks to do. The specific therapy procedures vary amongst CBT approaches based on the problem concerns being addressed.
CBT Techniques Typically Revolve Around the Following
- Writing down your thoughts and feelings about significant occurrences in your life in a journal.
- Inquiring into and evaluating assumptions, ideas, and assessments that may be unrealistic or harmful.
- Gradually confronting activities that may have been avoided.
- The process of experimenting with different methods of acting and responding.
- Mindfulness and relaxation exercises are widespread.
Bipolar Disorder
Treatments for illnesses like bipolar disorder generally include mood-stabilizing medicines as well as other treatments. While medication and therapy are used to treat schizophrenia, the value of cognitive-behavioral therapy is widely recognized. The process of integrating cognitive behavioral therapy into a patient’s daily routine generally necessitates patience. However, even when they know when and where their mental processes go astray, it usually takes a lot of concentrated effort to switch to a more rational and adaptive cognitive-affective-behavioral approach or habit.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy May Be Used to Treat a Wide Range of Disorders
- Anxiety conditions (obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia or social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder)
- Anxiety and depression (clinical depression, major depressive disorder, psychiatric symptoms)
- Irritability to sleep (including being more effective than the drug Zopiclone)
- Mental illness that’s beyond normal recovery (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression)
- Adolescents and children (major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, trauma, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms)
- Flushing out (to help them overcome anxiety, avoidance behaviors, and negative thoughts about themselves)
A goal-oriented, methodical approach is used in cognitive behavioral therapy to teach patients new skills for dealing with problematic emotions, actions, and thoughts. A growing body of data shows that cognitive-behavioral therapy is beneficial in treating a wide range of disorders, including OCD, GAD, MDD, and schizophrenia, as well as anxiety and hostile self-perception. This treatment has had great success, making it one of the most critical tools researchers and therapists have today for treating mental illnesses.
CBT Specialists Are Ready to Help
The Sands Treatment Center in Pompano Beach, FL stands ready to help you now.
Call 844-200-2509 or contact us here.
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