For many people, major changes or losses in life can lead to worsening mood and feelings of anxiety. Even when depression and anxiety seem to come out of the blue, they can lead to symptoms of withdrawing from others and trouble engaging with tasks that might have brought pleasure or accomplishment in the past.
While these symptoms can be frustrating, they also can cause further depression. Inactivity leads to lower mood and more inactivity, which can spiral into a deeper, more severe depression.
Behavioral activation is a targeted psychotherapy (talk therapy) that can combat this vicious cycle and encourage more engagement in life, bringing relief to those with depression and other mood disorders.
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, is home to several mental health experts who are specially trained in behavioral activation. They can help treat your mental health condition and improve your outlook on life.
What is behavioral activation?
Behavioral activation is a short-term psychotherapy treatment for depression and other mood disorders. It’s a targeted form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that focuses on the relationship between mood and behavior to counter negative feelings of withdrawal and avoidance that often accompany mood disorders.
It’s a form of talk therapy where you’ll meet regularly with a certified mental health professional, who will help you to learn to use tools to identify unhelpful patterns and modify them to increase engagement with activities that align with your values. Behavioral activation can be done individually or in a group treatment setting, and there can be great benefits to undergoing this type of therapy in a group, alongside other people.
This therapy can be used with or without other interventions, such as other forms of psychotherapy or medications. In fact, research has shown that behavioral activation is as effective as antidepressants in treating depression.
How behavioral activation works
You’ll have weekly sessions with a mental health provider for two to six months, depending on your needs and goals.
The first session or two will be used to go over your medical history, explain the process and begin monitoring activities. Activity monitoring involves writing down all your activities for the week and rating your mood for each one. Treatment also involves identifying values that are important to you, which could include education, family, friends, intimacy, or entertainment and activities connected with those values.
Then at each subsequent session and under the guidance and coaching of your therapist, you’ll choose a few activities and create a plan to complete them even if the motivation or anticipated pleasure is not there. These activities can be as simple as eating a snack before teaching a class or more complicated, such as scheduling and attending a meeting you’ve been avoiding. These tasks become “homework” and are discussed at the next meeting.
Is behavioral activation the same as cognitive behavioral therapy?
Behavioral activation is a specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT helps you identify and modify negative and inaccurate thoughts that contribute to low moods and behavior patterns that maintain depression.
Behavioral activation looks more closely at your patterns of engaging with others and your environment, and it helps you reverse patterns of avoidance and withdrawal and create the conditions for your mood to improve.
What are the goals of behavioral activation?
The main goal of behavioral activation is to get you back to living your life and engaging in activities that help you live a full life or that bring you pleasure. In overcoming avoidance or loss of interest in the world around you, our hope is that your depression symptoms improve.
Research has also shown that people who have success with behavioral activation have less chance of relapse or of symptoms recurring.