Behavioural Therapy

Our society today is filled with potential stressors all caused by our own expectations of life and rising needs. With world shrunk to a global village, information on fingertips, uncertain economy, terrorism, rising cost of living, parental and health care concerns add up to stress which is the main factor for the rise in mental illness. I believe one in every 5 would certainly have some sort of mental illness which disrupts their daily life.
Aristotle rightly said everyone is born with a clean slate. So it’s only in the process of growing up certain traits emerge and this becomes an unwanted and maladaptive behaviour. This can be divided into three parts. Behaviours which are learnt during early stage of childhood like being adamant, throwing

Both the therapies are normally short term treatments and require close personal interaction with the therapist and follow-up medication wherever required. Both the therapies believe in the current condition of the patient as to how he or she is thinking, behaving and communicating today. Both the therapies borrow certain methods from each other in handling the patient as there is no definite set method in the treatment for any particular misbehaviour.
However there are certain contrasting differences between the two methods. Behavioural therapy focuses on using the external environment to influence the internal psychological factor to bring about behavioural changes. While Cognitive therapy focuses on changing the way the patient thinks and perceives a situation. Behavioural Therapy aims to remove the negative emotional feelings through positive reinforcements and exposing the patient to the real life situation. It tries to understand the past of the patient which could have led to this

Behaviours are interconnected. A simple anxiety can lead to pressure leading to anger, fear and depression. Ask any alcoholic 90% of them would state due to emotional disturbance or pressure. It forms a vicious cycle. However having read the course unit I personally feel Cognitive Therapy would be best suited in today’s circumstances. Most of our problems are in the way we think and perceive a situation. So if the thinking process is addressed through rationale thinking it would benefit the patients. Illogical thinking, self blaming problems when resolved will lead to healthier behaviour. As both therapies interchange their methods, a new therapy type emerged combining both the therapies as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy which is widely practised today.
In conclusion, any disorder in our body could be managed but not mental disorders. We are accepted in the society based on how we behave in a normal way and relate to others and environment. It is very important we realise the problems of behavioural disorders and be practical of ourselves and expectations from