Stress Symptoms In Women - How to reduce the harmful effects?

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Stress Symptoms In Women - How to reduce the harmful effects?

Stress Inoculation Training

This type of therapy uses a blend of cognitive, behavioral and a some humanistic training techniques to target the stressors of the client. This usually is used to help clients better cope with their stress or anxiety after stressful events. This is a three phase process that trains the client to use skills that they already have to better adapt to their current stressors. The first phase is an interview phase that includes psychological testing, client self-monitoring, and a variety of reading materials. This allows the therapist to individually tailor the training process to the client.  Clients learn how to categorize problems into emotion- focused or problem focused, so that they can better treat their negative situations. This phase ultimately prepares the client to eventually confront and reflect upon their current reactions to stressors, before looking at ways to change their reactions and emotions in relation to their stressors. The focus is conceptualization

The client is taught skills that help them cope with their stressors. These skills are then practised in the space of therapy. These skills involve self-regulation, problem solving, interpersonal communication skills, ...

It works to solve current problems and change unhelpful thinking and behavior

The name refers to behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, and therapy based upon a combination of basic behavioral and cognitive principles

Most therapists working with patients dealing with anxiety and depression use a blend of cognitive and behavioral therapy. This technique acknowledges that there may be behaviors that cannot be controlled through rational thought, but rather emerge based on prior conditioning from the environment and other external and/or internal stimuli

It is different from the more traditional, psychoanalytical approach, where therapists look for the unconscious meaning behind the behaviors and then diagnose the patient. Instead, behaviorists believe that disorders, such as depression, have to do with the relationship between a feared stimulus and an avoidance response, resulting in a conditioned fear, much like Ivan Pavlov. Cognitive therapists believed that conscious thoughts could influence a person’s behavior all on its own. Ultimately, the two theories were combined to create what is now known as cognitive behavioral therapy

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy

CBT is "problem focused" (undertaken for specific problems) and "action oriented"                                                         

CBT is effective for a variety of conditions, including mood, anxiety, personality, eating, addiction, dependence, tic, and psychotic disorders

changes in thinking itself.  The goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is not to diagnose a person with a particular disease, but to look at them as a whole and decide what needs to be fixed. The basic steps in a Cognitive-Behavioral Assessment include

Step 1: Identify critical behaviors

Step 2: Determine whether critical behaviors are excesses or deficits

Step 3: Evaluate critical behaviors for frequency, duration, or intensity (obtain a baseline)

Step 4: If excess, attempt to decrease frequency, duration, or intensity of behaviors; if deficits, attempt to increase behaviors.

These steps are based on a system created by Kanfer and Saslow.  After identifying the behaviors that need changing, whether they be in excess or deficit, and treatment has occurred, the psychologist must identify whether or not the intervention succeeded. For example, "If the goal was to decrease the behavior, then there should be a decrease relative to the baseline

Therapists or computer-based programs use CBT techniques to help individuals challenge their patterns and beliefs and replace "errors in thinking such as overgeneralizing, magnifying negatives, minimizing positives and catastrophizing" with "more realistic and effective thoughts, thus decreasing emotional distress and self-defeating behavior."  These errors in thinking are known as cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions can be either a pseudo- discrimination belief or an over-generalization of something.  CBT techniques may also be used to help individuals take a more open, mindful, and aware posture toward them so as to diminish their impact.  

Mainstream CBT helps individuals replace "maladaptive... coping skills, cognitions, emotions and behaviors with more adaptive ones", by challenging an individual's way of thinking and the way that they react to certain habits or behaviors, but there is still controversy about the degree to which these traditional cognitive elements account for the effects seen with CBT over and above the earlier behavioral elements such as exposure and skills training.

Some practitioners promote a form of mindful cognitive therapy which includes a greater emphasis on self-awareness as part of the therapeutic process.

CBT has six phases:

Assessment or psychological assessment;

Reconceptualization;

Skills acquisition;

Skills consolidation and application training;

Generalization and maintenance;

Post-treatment assessment follow-up.

The reconceptualization phase makes up much of the "cognitive" portion of CBT

 (delivering cognitive behavioral therapy)

Use of the term CBT may refer to different interventions, including "self-instructions (distraction, imagery, motivational self-talk), relaxation and/or biofeedback, development of adaptive coping strategies (e.g. minimizing negative or self-defeating thoughts), changing maladaptive beliefs about pain, and goal setting". Treatment is sometimes manualized, with brief, direct, and time-limited treatments for individual psychological disorders that are specific technique-driven. CBT is used in both individual and group settings, and the techniques are often adapted for self-help applications. Some clinicians and researchers are cognitively oriented (cognitive restructuring) while others are more behaviorally oriented ( in vivo exposure therapy). Interventions such as imaginal exposure therapy combine both approaches.

Anxiety disorders

CBT has been shown to be effective in the treatment of adult anxiety disorders. It has also been found in a University of Bath study that teaching CBT in schools is effective in reducing anxiety in children.

A basic concept in some CBT treatments used in anxiety disorders is in vivo exposure. The term refers to the direct confrontation of feared objects, activities, or situations by a patient. For example, a woman with PTSD who fears the location where she was assaulted may be assisted by her therapist in going to that location and directly confronting those fears. Likewise, a person with social anxiety disorder who fears public speaking may be instructed to directly confront those fears by giving a speech. This "two-factor" model is often credited to O. Hobart Mowrer. Through exposure to the stimulus, this harmful conditioning can be "unlearned" (referred to as extinction and habituation). Studies have provided evidence that when examining animals and humans that glucocorticoids may possibly lead to a more successful extinction learning during exposure therapy. For instance, glucocorticoids can prevent aversive learning episodes from being retrieved and heighten reinforcement of memory traces creating a non-fearful reaction in feared situations. A combination of glucocorticoids and exposure therapy may be a better-improved treatment for treating patients with anxiety disorders.

In long-term psychoses, CBT is used to complement medication and is adapted to meet individual needs. Interventions particularly related to these conditions include exploring reality testing, changing delusions and hallucinations, examining factors which precipitate relapse and managing relapses. Several meta-analyses have shown CBT to be effective in schizophrenia, and the American Psychiatric Association includes CBT in its schizophrenia guideline as an evidence-based treatment. There is also some (limited) evidence of effectiveness for CBT in bipolar disorder and severe depression.

Schizophrenia, psychosis and mood disorders

Cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown as an effective treatment for clinical depression. The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guidelines (April 2000) indicated that among, psychotherapeutic approaches, cognitive behavioral therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy had the best-documented efficacy for treatment of major depressive disorder. One etiological theory of depression is Aaron T. Beck's cognitive theory of depression. His theory states that depressed people think the way they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations. According to this theory, depressed people acquire a negative schema of the world in childhood and adolescence as an effect of stressful life events, and the negative schema is activated later in life when the person encounters similar situations.

Beck also described a negative cognitive triad, made up of the negative schemata and cognitive biases of the person, theorizing that depressed individuals make negative evaluations of themselves, the world, and the future. Depressed people, according to this theory, have views such as, "I never do a good job", "It is impossible to have a good day", and "things will never get better." A negative schema helps give rise to the cognitive bias, and the cognitive bias helps fuel the negative schema. This is the negative triad. Beck further proposed that depressed people often have the following cognitive biases: arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, over-generalization, magnification, and minimization. These cognitive biases are quick to make negative, generalized, and personal inferences of the self, thus fueling the negative schema.

For depressive disorders, a stepped-care intervention (watchful waiting, CBT and medication if appropriate) 

CCBT has been found in meta-studies to be cost-effective and often cheaper than usual care,  including for anxiety.  Studies have shown that individuals with social anxiety and depression experienced significant improvement with online CBT-based methods.  

CCBT is also predisposed to, treating mood disorders amongst the many, who may avoid face-to-face therapy from fear of stigma. 

A relatively new avenue of research is the combination of artificial intelligence and CCBT. It has been proposed to use modern technology to create CCBT that simulates face-to-face therapy. This might be achieved in cognitive behaviour therapy for a specific disorder using the comprehensive domain knowledge of CBT.  One area where this has been attempted is the specific domain area of social anxiety in those who stutter.  

Reading self-help materials by a medical professional

Enabling patients to read self-help CBT guides has been shown to be effective by some studies.  

Group educational course

Patient participation in group courses has been shown to be effective.

Types

Brief CBT

Brief cognitive behavioral therapy (BCBT) is a form of CBT which has been developed for situations in which there are time constraints on the therapy sessions. BCBT takes place over a couple of sessions that can last up to 12 accumulated hours by design. This technique was first implemented and developed on soldiers overseas in active duty by David M. Rudd to prevent suicide.

Breakdown of treatment

Orientation

Commitment to treatment

Crisis response and safety planning

Means restriction

Survival kit

Reasons for living card

Model of suicidality

Treatment journal

Lessons learned

Skill focus

Skill development worksheets

Coping cards

Demonstration

Practice

Skill refinement

Relapse prevention

Skill generalization

Skill refinement

Cognitive-emotional behavioral therapy

 

Cognitive emotional behavioral therapy (CEBT) is a form of (CBT) developed initially for individuals with eating disorders but now used with a range of problems including anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anger problems. 

It combines aspects of CBT and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and aims to improve understanding and tolerance of emotions in order to facilitate the therapeutic process. It is frequently used as a 'pretreatment' to prepare and better equip individuals for longer term therapy.

SCBT has been used to challenge addictive behavior, particularly with substances such as tobacco, alcohol and food; and to manage diabetes and subdue stress and anxiety. SCBT has also been used in the field of criminal psychology in the effort to reduce recidivism.

Moral reconation therapy

Moral reconation therapy, a type of CBT used in criminals, slightly decreases the risk of further crime.It is generally implemented in a group format to lower costs, and can be used in correctional or outpatient settings. Groups meet weekly for three to six months.

Structured cognitive behavioral training (SCBT) is a cognitive-based process with core philosophies that draw heavily from CBT. Like CBT, SCBT asserts that behavior is inextricably related to beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. SCBT also builds on core CBT philosophy by incorporating other well-known modalities in the fields of behavioral health and psychology: most notably, Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. SCBT differs from CBT in two distinct ways. Firstly, SCBT is delivered in a highly regimented format. Secondly, SCBT is a predetermined and finite training process that becomes personalized by the input of the participant. SCBT is designed with the intention to bring a participant to a specific result in a specific period of time. 

The third and final phase is the application and following through of the skills learned in the training process. This gives the client opportunities to apply their learned skills to a wide range of stressors. Activities include role-playing, imagery, modeling, etc. In the end, the client will have been trained on a preventative basis to inoculate personal, chronic, and future stressors by breaking down their stressors into problems they will address in long-term, short-term, and intermediate coping goals.

Stress is the body's reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response; 

Stress levels tied to happiness and sense of well-being,

Do women react to stress differently than men? YES!

Women are far more likely than men to say they read to manage stress (57 percent vs. 34 percent for men) 

Men are more likely than women to say they play sports (16 percent vs. 4 percent) and listen to music (52 percent vs. 47 percent) as a way of managing stress. 

Men are also more likely than women to say they do nothing to manage their stress (9 percent vs. 4 percent).

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