How CBT helps teenagers depression anxiety sleep problems

Depression, anxiety and sleep problems are common occurrences in teenagers.

If your son or daughter is struggling with depression, anxiety or a sleep problem, you’ll know that it can really interfere with their social life, school work, hobbies and essential family moments. For a teenager, these play a vital role in their development, and if interrupted can be harmful in many ways.

Dr Marie Clarke, a clinical psychologist from Birmingham, explained to us how powerful and effective cognitive behavioural therapy can be in helping teenagers overcome some of the most common psychological problems. Here’s what she had to say:

What is CBT?

CBT stands for cognitive behavioural therapy and is a type of talking therapy to help you manage certain difficulties and obstacles.

CBT typically begins by helping you make sense of your personal problems by considering how you regularly think, feel and behave. It’s a collaborative approach, helping you to explore links between your thoughts, feelings and behaviour to identify patterns and cycles that cause recurrent problems. In addition, CBT aims to reduce the impact these problems have on your day-to-day life and help you to make sense of what triggers them.

Why is it good for teenagers?

CBT is the typical treatment of choice for teenagers with psychological conditions such as depression and anxiety. Research shows that the majority of mental health problems appear in childhood, so catching a condition early and making changes before can prevent it from becoming severe.

The impact of a psychological condition on a young person’s life is significant if it gets in the way of school, friendships and personal development. Teenage years are important for a young person’s development, so CBT can support positive change and minimise any negative impact.

How can CBT help teenagers with anxiety?

CBT can help with social anxiety, fears and phobias, generalised anxiety, OCD, PTSD and panic disorders.

The first thing a therapist does is explore the type of anxiety a teenager is experiencing. The assessment will identify the specific anxiety and apply the correct model of CBT for that disorder.

Then, the therapist will begin developing an individualised programme to help the teenager face their fear gradually and eventually overcome it. This is done by employing new ways of responding to situations and developing strategies to promote positive well-being.

How can CBT help teenagers with depression?

CBT can help address issues that have triggered depression. When someone gets depressed, they normally reduce the range of things they do, withdraw and lose interest in their hobbies. CBT can help in understanding what has changed in their life and improve the teenager's motivation and energy levels. This can be done by increasing the teenager’s balance of activities leading to improvement in pleasure and confidence.

CBT also identifies changes in thinking patterns that develop alongside depression. These types of thinking patterns are usually very unhelpful, but during therapy, we can look for alternative ways of viewing situations and events to counter these negative thinking patterns.

In general, CBT helps change the way you do things, and also the way you think and feel towards certain situations.

How can CBT help with sleep difficulties?

For sleeping difficulties, CBT is seen as the preferred treatment and an alternative to medication.   The treatment will look at the teenager's current sleep hygiene and bedtime routine and may suggest improvements to promote a better night’s sleep. Additionally, we will look at adjusting the thoughts and feelings that are preventing the child from sleeping and/or staying asleep.

The therapy will incorporate relaxation and meditation techniques and provide education on sleeping patterns.

How long does it take to notice changes during CBT?

It’s very common to feel a sense of relief by being understood by someone and making sense of the problems in the first few sessions. The typical length of therapy consists of between 12-16 sessions. During each one, we will track the progress together which allows the teenager to follow and envision the positive change in their life. Additionally, we will have a set of structured goals and time frames so it’ll be clear to see the treatment is on the right track.

If you believe your child would benefit from CBT, visit Dr Marie Clarke’s Top Doctors profile and check her availability.