But how does CBT help in functionality due to effect of negative symptoms? And what about cognitive
Totally agree with this.
I had one OT that gave me goals that were really unrealistic, and then she would get upset that I wasnt engaging with the therapy and scold me. It didn’t make for a good relationship and when I did do stuff it wasnt cause I wanted to it was because I didn’t want her to flame me.
Also make sure you actually try it out and give it a go. Some people seem to create problems by internally doubting it and not actually participating with the therapy. Then crying “what a load of crap”. If you say your doubts to a therapist, they will reason with you and persuade you to do it. But privately deciding its dumb won’t help you engage with it.
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It helps by teaching you how thinking works, how the mind works, you then learn how to recognize and change your thoughts and behaviours. When you think a certain way the neuropathways in your brain change, the more you think that way the stronger those pathways become.
If you’re constantly thinking in a negative way those pathways in your brain will get stronger, you’ll continue to think negatively and thus feel bad. If you can recognize the negative thoughts when they happen and change them to a positive, yet realistic thoughts, you’ll start to feel better. So for example if you’re negative thought is “My cognition is slow and I can’t think”, write it down, then beneath it write something positive like “Cognitive problems are common in schizophrenia but it’s a scientific fact that the brain can change and improve, it just takes practice and time”. At first it may be hard to think of positive things or to change your thinking, I struggled with it, but practice makes perfect.Cognition is just thinking, if you are not thinking right your cognition will be poor, I use to have that problem, but I practised. I read a lot about psychology, tried to learn new things, I taught myself how to program which took quite a while, I took time to think things through and wrote down my thoughts, then rewrote them until they made sense, by doing that my cognition improved, I can now articulate things without having to write them down, then think them over and rewrite them over and over again until they make sense. My thinking and cognition slowly improved. I’m now generally a happy positive thoughtful person. I use to be depressed, sometimes angry and miserable, I had trouble thinking and putting my thoughts into words, I am doing so much better now…
I found this definition of negative symptoms on the Internet: "Negative symptoms are so called because they describe thoughts or behaviour that the person used to have before they became ill but now no longer have or have to a lesser extent and so have been lost or taken away from their psyche. It describes normal aspects of the person’s behaviour "
Negative symptoms, your thoughts and behaviours, are a result of how your brain is wired. As you change your thoughts you change the wiring of your brain and you improve, but it is a slow process. It took me months of practice to start thinking differently and years to really have it become habitual.
If you’re expecting a therapist to instantly make everything better just by hearing the therapist say something it doesn’t really work like that. It takes time and practice to form new neuropathways and change old ones in your brain and to strengthen them.
Learning CBT is like anything else, some people pick it up quickly, while others have to study and practice it before they full grasp it and get a benefit out of it.
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