How does CBT work?
Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to teach ways to approach thoughts differently and change one’s mentality so that when these thoughts come, you don’t have to submit to them and let yourself believe your negative thoughts.
CBT is done to identify the thoughts that cause your emotional distress and allows you to behave in negative ways.
For example, the thought or belief that others are judging you, which causes you to act shy and avoid others all contributes to social anxiety. Making you lose the opportunities to form social relationships, benefits from social support [4], and affects your social life.
Once you learn to identify these thoughts, you can proceed to challenge them by generating alternative explanations and seeking evidence for them. These approaches then lead to more realistic or balanced thoughts, less emotional distress, and more appropriate behaviors.
It may also help to look at thoughts more objectively. This can help relieve the experience of difficult negative emotions since emotions and thoughts are shown to be linked and influence each other.
Cognitive behavioral therapy is mostly short-term and directly focused on eliminating or managing specific problems. For it to be effective, both you and your therapist have to put in the work.