Depression and anxiety are the two mental illnesses that a lot of people in the 21st century go through. Following some of the below mentioned tips of cognitive behavioural therapy self help program will help people to a great extent.

Unraveling the cognitive distortions

A person gets clouded with a number of cognitive distortions in the depressed state and the entire goal for the cognitive behavioral therapy self help program is to eliminate the cognitive distortions. In order to achieve the set goal you first have to identify the cognitive distortions that you have and then start working on them. It basically involves challenging our own harmful thoughts in order to come out of it.

Interoceptive exposure

As the name suggests, the technique makes use of introspection through the exposure to the fearful things. This technique is directed especially towards the anxiety as well as the panic attacks that most depressed individuals experience. This technique functions by exposing the depressed individual towards the fearful sensations of the body and then eliciting the response of the body. It then focuses on activation of any kind of helpful sensation and then maintenance of the sensation to relieve the patient.

Journaling

Maintaining a journal is a great way of letting go of everything that is getting hold of you. Jotting down your bad experiences, moods, expressions and writing about the good things that you want in life will not only eliminate all the negativity but will also help in upliftment of the patient’s mood.

Cognitive restructuring

This technique will work only when you know about the negative or the distorted views that you have on the world. In this technique you will get to know the root cause of the distortions that you possess in your mind. Once you know that a certain psychological thought is harmful for your mental health you can challenge it and drive it away.

Exposure and response prevention

For all the people that suffer from the very common OCD or the obsessive compulsive disorder, this technique works wonders. This includes exposure of the person to that very specific thing that elicits the obsessive compulsive behaviour in the person and then refraining from doing the things that the person usually does during the time. This technique can be combined with journaling for better results.

Relaxed breathing

This one technique is not very specific to just the cognitive behavioural therapy but is a good way to ensure mindfulness. Relaxed breathing is a good way of ensuring proper blood flowing in the body. Relaxed breathing will help you distract your mind from all disturbances that are present in your life.

Progressive muscle relaxation

PMR is the technique of mindfulness, that functions by helping you relax one of your muscle at a time until every part of your body is relaxed. This can be achieved by making use of either the audio guidances or the youtube videos.

Play the script until the end

This technique is useful for all those that have fear or anxiety. This technique makes use of experimentation, which functions by making the person imagine the worst scenarios of the cases that tend to cause fear and crippling in the patients. This helps the patients recognize that even if the worst of cases happen it will not cause as much of harm as the patient thinks it will.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a tried and tested method to solve issues related to anxiety, fear and depression. Following some of the above mentioned tips can work work wonders for people going through any mental illness.