Cognitive-behavioral Therapy Applied To Cases Of Suicidal Ideation
Suicidal ideation is one of the warning signs regarding mental health and emotional well-being of people, and its presence implies that the risk of attempting to take one’s life is relatively high.
Luckily, from the world of Psychology, forms of intervention have been developed to help these people. Here we will talk about one of the most effective, cognitive behavioral therapy.
Suicidal ideation is the tendency to think of suicide as a real possibility, or even something clearly desirable and for which one must prepare due to the psychological discomfort suffered.
Of course, suicidal ideation does not have clearly defined limits and is presented on a gray scale, which means that this problem can also be detected in those who believe that they are not seriously considering committing suicide, although on numerous occasions they “fantasize” about suicide. idea.
On the other hand, Suicidal ideation is not in itself a psychological disorder , but a phenomenon that can occur along with a variety of psychopathologies and psychiatric disorders. Although it is common to relate thoughts of suicide with depression and in fact this disorder greatly increases the chances of developing them, the truth is that these can appear together with other mental disorders, some of which are not even part of the mental state disorders. cheer up.
In any case, this is a concept belonging to the clinical field and as such it is not possible to self-diagnose suicidal ideation, since only mental health professionals can evaluate to what extent this psychological phenomenon is present in a specific person, taking into account their characteristics and their life context.
What is cognitive behavioral therapy?
When we talk about cognitive-behavioral therapy we are referring to a set of therapeutic interventions in patients that have a fundamental aspect in common: They are focused on helping people by intervening both in their observable actions and their habits of interaction with the environment. as well as about their way of thinking, feeling and generating and holding beliefs.
This is because those of us who use the cognitive-behavioral intervention model help people under the premise that a synergy must be created between what is done and what is thought, progressing on both fronts so that the change for the better is more easy and self-reinforcing, remaining consistent and constant in the person’s life. That is It is easier to develop healthy and adaptive mental processes if at the same time we develop actions that are in line with that psychological transformation.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy was born from the research of psychologists Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, who, each in their own way, hypothesized that many of people’s psychological problems have to do with the way in which mental schemas of people condition the way they interpret what happens to them and even their own identity. Furthermore, these cognitive schemas predispose people to behave in a way that helps confirm that way of understanding the world.
But in the same way that the mental affects behavior, the same thing happens in reverse: Changing behaviors and situations to which we are exposed helps us think and experience emotions in a different way. Thus, psychological well-being can be favored through this double path, intervening in the ideas and in the habits and exercises to practice to learn to relate to the world in a different way.
How does it apply to people who have suicidal thoughts?
Entire volumes could be written about the use of cognitive behavioral therapy for people with suicidal ideation, and this article is not intended to go into detail.
Furthermore, it is important to make clear that This type of therapeutic intervention is not based on a series of fixed instructions to be applied like someone reading a recipe, but it includes many strategies and techniques and, in addition, the way in which they are put into practice depends on the disorder or problem that the patient presents, the environments and the people to whom they are exposed. , your personality traits and habits, etc.
Taking the above into account, here we will see some of the keys to understanding the role of cognitive-behavioral therapy used for thoughts of suicide, and why it is effective.
1. Helps understand the emotions linked to those thoughts
Thoughts of suicide are almost always linked to a great emotional burden , but not all people who experience them are able to understand exactly what those emotional forces are behind suicidal ideation. The latter leads them to not critically analyze the “radical” and clear solutions that occur to them, such as taking their own life.
Given this, Cognitive-behavioral therapy enhances self-knowledge through exercises and habits They train patients’ skills when it comes to recognizing their own emotions and feelings, as well as their impact on the thoughts that go through their heads and the habits they adopt to deal with the discomfort generated by some of those sensations.
2. Help find new incentive systems
Through cognitive-behavioral therapy, it is easier to find exciting projects and tasks, with the ability to emotionally mobilize the person and lead them to set short and long-term goals regardless of the possibility of suicide. This is due to the two-way structure of the cognitive-behavioral model: on the one hand, it encourages the person to expose themselves to new situations and break habits linked to suicidal ideation, and on the other, they are offered an interpretation of the alternative reality that allows you to be more sensitive to the good things life can offer.
3. It goes hand in hand with a healthier lifestyle
We should never underestimate the way our physical state influences how we feel emotionally. Cognitive-behavioral therapy establishes a series of guidelines so that people with suicidal ideation, many of whom feel very unmotivated at the prospect of doing anything, gradually incorporate healthy habits into their daily lives, starting for the simplest and then progressing to more complex behaviors.
The main areas of action are quality of sleep, good nutrition and maintaining physical activity as much as possible.
4. It allows you to question beliefs that support negative biases
Once you have thought enough about the idea of suicide, it is common for a self-confirmation logic to be generated in that pessimistic way of interpreting life, given that, although it may seem paradoxical, holding beliefs as conflicting as those that support the idea of taking one’s life and at the same time those that show that it is worth living, in a certain sense generates as much or more discomfort such as giving credit only to the first ones.
Thus, a confirmation bias is created: everything that happens to us is interpreted as proof that we were right, which in this case means that suicide is the way out.
For this reason, cognitive-behavioral therapy helps people replace these harmful beliefs with others, and at the same time helps them live experiences that help them demolish that old framework of thought.
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