CBT is a process and yes it really works, how well depends on you. And by you I mean who and what you are.
Personality, attitude, perseverance and ability to understand something that is going to be foreign to you. The mind never rests, just like the heart never stops pumping.You can stop breathing and you can even have your heart skip beats, but if your brain stops working you die. Every function of your body is directed by the mind. Every thought and physical action is controlled by the mind also. The difference is that to replicate cells you only need a few rules as does breathing and heart rate. You have little control over this.
Thoughts and actions are a different storey. You have control of this and memory has control of you. Memory constantly up grades to fit the situation. Which is why you are the way you are today. A situation or a number of them has sent you into memory looking for answers and you have come up with the wrong ones. Actually they are the relevant answers just that what is relevant is not right. Memory doesn't know that unless you tell it so. It (you) can only work with what it knows.
CBT is a process that changes thought patterns so memory finds solutions that are right and relevant at the same time with the emphasis on right or desirable more than relevant. Relevant is the safety factor that keeps you on the straight and narrow. It may not be what you want though. When you are tired relevant has priority over selective thought and you can make the same mistake over and over. This is why you can panic every time a trigger shows up. Your mind thinks panic is relevant because you haven't put into memory that it isn't.
CBT takes time because you have to break cycles and because some of the undesirable thoughts are actually survival skills and they will want to stay.
The program as any thing based on CBT takes you through the steps to do this with coping and relaxation skills thrown in to make functioning easier.
And yes it works in the sense that if you do it, it works.
Davit.
