Generalized Anxiety Disorder
People with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) often feel excessive worry and anxiety but are unable to attribute their feelings to a specific cause.
Generalized anxiety disorder is also associated with physical symptoms (e.g., headaches, fatigue, muscle tension, lightheadedness, nausea, etc.) and difficulties sleeping.
In addition, they tend to exhibit constant worry about everyday concerns (e.g., work, bills, friends). Individuals with GAD describe themselves as worrying all of the time, having difficulty relaxing and feeling on edge.
Social Anxiety Disorder
People with social anxiety disorder feel discomfort or fear when anticipating or engaging in social situations in which they may be evaluated or judged by others. Due to the overwhelming nature of the anxiety, individuals with social anxiety will often avoid interacting with others and engaging in activities where they may be the center of attention and potentially embarrass themselves.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Is an anxiety disorder in which people experience intrusive thoughts that cause them to feel severe anxiety and discomfort. In addition, many individuals with OCD attempt to alleviate this anxiety by engaging in compulsions or behavioral rituals, which they feel compelled to perform (e.g., excessive hand washing, checking things repeatedly, doing things a specific number of times, etc.).
These rituals often reduce the individual's anxiety temporarily but do not make the person feel more comfortable in the long-term.
Therefore, individuals with OCD often become involved in a vicious cycle in which their intrusive thoughts keep on returning; they continue engaging in the ritualistic behavior in order to alleviate their anxiety, but it never works.
Panic Disorder
Is an anxiety disorder in which individuals experience recurrent panic attacks. A panic attack is an episode in which a person experiences an intense feeling of anxiety along with one or many of the following symptoms: rapid heartbeat, sweating, dizziness, trembling, fear of losing control or going crazy, chest pain, nausea, etc.
Once people experience panic attacks, they very often begin to worry about the prospect of experiencing another panic attack and therefore begin to change their behavior in an attempt to avoid it.
Some individuals with panic disorder will develop agoraphobia: a fear and avoidance of public spaces due to the potential difficulty of escaping that space in the event of a panic attack.
Depression
People with depression experience feelings of sadness and low mood for the majority of the day. They are unable to experience pleasure in activities that they used to enjoy and often have low self-esteem, changes in sleeping and feelings of guilt and hopelessness.
Anger Management
Some individuals experience recurrent feelings of anger that often manifest in physically and/or verbally aggressive behaviors. These behaviors can then negatively impact their relationships with others and/or effect their work or school performance. CBT can help these individuals change the ways in which they perceive others' behaviors so that their feelings of anger will become less extreme and will be less likely to result in aggression.
Behavioral Difficulties
Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and Conduct Disorder often engage in behaviors that are disruptive and interfere with their ability to succeed at home and at school. Children with these difficulties can benefit from therapy that focuses on helping them manage their behaviors and stimulate consequential thinking. In addition, the therapist will often work with parents to assist them in developing appropriate reinforcement plans for their children as well as guiding them in beneficial responses to their children, which will reduce disruptive behaviors.
Social Skills Deficits
Children and adults who have difficulty interacting with others in an appropriate manner, negatively affect their experiences at home, school, and work. For example, individuals may have difficulty making and maintaining eye contact, initiating and sustaining conversations, and behaving in an assertive (rather than confrontational) manner.
Relationship Difficulties
Parents and children, families, and couples often have difficulty getting along with one another. They may experience frequent arguments, difficulty communicating, and feelings of frustration with one another.
CBT can help these individuals learn to communicate more effectively so that all members of the family/couple can feel heard and understood.
In addition, CBT can address the irrational thought patterns that may be responsible for hostile interactions and/or frequent misunderstandings. Finally, CBT can help parents learns how to effectively manage their children's behaviors without yelling, fighting, and threatening.