It stands for cognitive behavioral therapy. It teaches you ways to react/cope with your feelings. Some people use it for pain management
To me it's a fancy term for "mind over matter"; age-old advice, but in many cases totally inappropriate. You can't "think" your way out of major depression for example. But in terms of learning tools and coping strategies it can sometimes be extremely helpful, especially if you want to avoid medication, or is very helpful as an adjunct to medication.
Most, I dare say all, psycho-active meds do nothing to cure the problem, only treat the symptoms, and often involve increasing tolerance and resulting ineffectiveness over time. Witness the TV commercial: "If your anti-depressant doesn't seem to be working anymore, try adding a second one! Ask your doctor about Abilify."
In my SGOTI opinion meds are appropriate in only these scenarios: to help get through a temporary crisis, or one-time doses for infrequent use, and in severe psychosis or other disorder where normal functioning is impossible without them, or you have a physical disorder being treated with psychoactive drugs. Lifelong reliance in the latter cases needs to be very carefully managed. In the first two cases, short term or occasional use will avoid the tolerance issue. Other than that, IMHO, these meds do more harm than good, therefore CBT is the only professional alternative.
I might suggest non-professional alternatives, such as online support groups, self help books, and journaling. Or talking to the bartender...
We are a long way from having a good understanding of and a fix for, the causes of psychological disorders. In the meantime, we have to be on guard for a growing $$industry increasingly redefining what used to be considered normal if imperfect states of being, as abnormal to the point of disease. (It's not just being shy anymore, it's "social anxiety disorder" emphasis on
disorder.)
We've been over the subject of this lowering the bar for disorder in other threads. There's one where the OP wanted to get talk therapy to resolve feelings about his childhood - something probably 100% of us could use help with - but unless you're a victim of severe and sustained abuse, you likely do not have a "disorder" because mommy and daddy got divorced. But you might benefit from some help sorting your feelings. And the last thing you need is that sort of thing hurting your FAA medical.
