If you or someone close to you suffers from depression, you know that it is a very serious and potentially dangerous illness. Fortunately, over the years, the health care community has discovered several different treatment options, which prove effective in giving someone with depression a chance at a more normal life. One of the most proven and effective methods of treating mental health disorders is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT, as it is known, is a treatment for several mental health issues, but has been found to be especially helpful for sufferers of depression.

Depression is an illness that can show itself in a few different ways, ranging from a lingering feeling of sadness and resulting lack of energy, to thoughts of suicide. One surefire sign of this condition is when one starts to lose interest or motivation to engage in activities that they normally enjoy. Another common sign is when someone isolates socially, which can occur in a few different ways: either through an extreme and total withdrawal, a withdrawal that seems to occur cyclically, or one that is more singular and situational - as in an understandable response to a death or divorce.

Cognitive therapy treats your depression by essentially making you your own therapist. It does this first by making you aware of NAT's or Negative Automatic Thoughts. It then proceeds by using its four basic tenets:

1. Challenge negative thoughts: In CBT, awareness is the key. This step teaches you to be aware of when negative thoughts arise. In doing this, it helps you discover whether certain situations trigger moods, or whether the thoughts occur first, and essentially create the negative situation.

2. Challenge core beliefs: During childhood, we form ideas about ourselves which, whether there is any truth to them or not, can be hard to change. This step involves shedding light on, and beginning to modify, long-held negative beliefs about yourself.

3. Behavioral activation: Learning what experiences engender positive thoughts, and how to reinforce and expand these experiences.

4. Behavioral experiments: In this stage you will be experimenting with your positive triggers, to see if improved moods will in fact occur.

As you can see, CBT is largely about creating awareness of your moods, and learning to observe your own triggers and resulting behaviors. If you or someone you care about is suffering from depression, the time to do something about it is now, and CBT is a proven and highly effective method of treatment.