How is cognitive therapy different from simply telling people to cheer up?
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A lot of cognitive therapy is guiding people and teaching them how to reframe their own mental responses to things and how to approach to them. Their lives will largely be the same, but it’s their response and mental framing that can make a huge difference in how they live their lives, how they individually cope and overcome their issues, and how they start enacting changes to their lives where they can.
The comparison you’re presenting is like asking what the difference is between teaching someone math, and telling them specific solutions to math problems they don’t understand. If people knew how to cheer up, they likely would, but cheering up is the end product that comes from understanding how to get there and handle the challenges and roadblocks of their lives, and thrive where their current mentality and ingrained behaviors instead lead to failure and spiraling self-destruction or negativity.
EDIT: for clarity, I’m not saying cognitive therapy is a cure-all. Not all mental issues or misery/depression is just a matter of reframing how you think about life to “fix it”.
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