If you or a loved one is dealing with schizophrenia, it can be difficult to try and wade through all of the different types of therapy recommended to you. You may find yourself unable to keep them all straight, and you might not fully understand what each of them entails.
Let’s take a look at the most common and proven therapies being used to treat schizophrenia.
Psychotherapies: Talk Therapy
Individual Psychotherapy
Individual psychotherapy sessions can be useful for a patient trying to deal with and better understand his own thoughts and behaviors, which may be erratic and unorganized.
Psychotherapists or psychiatrists practicing psychotherapy can help individuals sort through their schizophrenia diagnoses, allowing them to better understand the disorder and how it affects them. Psychotherapy can help schizophrenic patients differentiate between the real and the unreal and can help them navigate their day-to-day lives.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)
It’s common for people with schizophrenia to hear voices or to experience hallucinations or delusions.
CBT can help these individuals change their ways of thinking and patterns of behavior. Therapists will not only help the individual to understand the triggers of their psychotic experiences, but they can also teach them methods of reducing or even stopping them altogether.
Cognitive Enhancement Therapy (CET)
CET is also known as cognitive remediation, and it can teach people to recognize the social cues that their schizophrenia might otherwise cause them to miss.
CET can also increase patients’ attention, memory, and organization of their thoughts and behaviors. This type of psychotherapy uses a combination of computer-based brain training and group sessions.
Psychosocial Therapies: Community Therapy
Group Therapy
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offers a free Peer-to-Peer program, one of several ways to improve social skills in people dealing with schizophrenia. These programs can give individuals a sense of community, which is crucial to their recovery journey.
Family Therapy
If families understand the implications of schizophrenia diagnosis, they can better help their loved ones who are coping with schizophrenia.
Family therapy is an important component of schizophrenia treatment. If schizophrenic patients feel supported and encouraged by those closest to them, they will be better able to regain a sense of normalcy.
Rehabilitation Therapy
Since schizophrenia often appears during adolescence, getting an education, getting a job, learning to solve common problems, and understanding how to manage money can be incredibly difficult. Rehabilitation therapy can help combat these issues.
Other Therapies
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
ECT is sometimes used to treat schizophrenia among other mental illnesses. ECT is a fast and effective method of symptom relief for people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.
Doctors can use ECT to relieve delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, and catatonia, a syndrome which causes a person’s body to become rigid and immovable.
For more information on these and other therapies, reach out to us. We’re here to support you in your fight against mental illness.