-- When you feel like you can't do it alone.
-- When you feel trapped, like there's nowhere to turn.
-- When you worry all the time, and never seem to find the answers.
-- When the way you feel is affecting your sleep, your eating habits, your job, your relationships, or your every day life.
-- When it's not getting any better.

Psychologists study human behavior and apply it in a professional setting. They will help you to identify your problem, find ways to cope with the problem, and find ways to change behaviors or habits associated with the problem. Therapy requires teamwork between you and your therapist. You and your psychologist will set goals about what you want to accomplish, how you think you can reach your goal, and what you will consider making progress. For more information on psychotherapy, visit How to Find Help for Life's Problems.

This site will give you information on why people consider the use of psychotherapy, what research shows about its effectiveness, how to find a qualified therapist that will be the best for you, how to gain the most from your therapy, and how to evaluate if your therapy is working, and to what degree.

Treatment Options
There are many different theories that therapists will use in their treatment. Some are described in the paragraphs that follow:

-- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
-- Psychodynamic Therapy
-- Humanist Existential Psychotherapy
-- Client-Centered Therapy
-- Three Types of Behavioral Therapies:
       1. Systematic Desensitization Therapy
       2. Cognitive Therapy
       3. Behavioral Assignments
-- On-Line Self-Help Therapy
-- Integrate Your On-Line and Off-Line Life
-- Going Cold Turkey

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy--
The Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for OCD -- or addictive behaviors -- focus on repeatedly exposing the person to the focus of the obsession and preventing the compulsive response. The repetitive exposure to the content of the obsession is supposed to habituate the person to the obsession so that it does not cause as much anxiety as it did in the past. By preventing the person from engaging in compulsive behavior, the person will also learn, in time, that nothing terrible will happen.
     The repeated exposure, response, and hopeful prevention will take place in a therapistÕs office. First, the therapist may model the behavior he wants his client to practice. Next, the therapist will again model the behavior, and encourage the client to also model the behavior. As the client's anxiety grows, the therapist may use relaxation techniques to calm the client down and control the anxiety.
     Homework may also be assigned. For example, the client may be assigned to check his e-mail only five times a day, whereas he would normally check it 20 times. Later, more complicated tasks may be assigned, such as doing other work on the computer but refraining from checking e-mail.

Psychodynamic Therapy--
Psychodynamic Therapies may also be effective. These therapies focus on "relieving the unconscious conflicts driving psychological symptoms by helping people gain insight into their conflicts, and then find ways of resolving these conflicts within the constraints of reality" (Nolen-Hoeksema 1998). Free association techniques are used to do this since it is difficult to uncover unconscious conflicts.
     The Freudian method of free association is where the person is taught to talk about whatever comes to his or her mind without censoring any thoughts. By doing so, the client may find himself speaking about subjects he did not realize were on his mind. The therapist makes note of recurring themes and how one thought leads to another. The subjects that the client seems most hesitant to speak about are the most important ones, because the most threatening conflicts are the subjects that the mind tries to repress. The therapist tries to fit the pieces of the puzzle together and interpret the conflict. Psychodynamic therapies require frequent therapy sessions over an extended period of time.

Humanist Existential Psychotherapy--
Humanist Existential Psychotherapies help the person to realize the potential that he or she has, to make the client realize his place in the world, and to accomplish self-actualization through self-exploration.

Client-Centered Therapy--
The most common form of humanist existential psychotherapy is Client-Centered Therapy. There are three steps to client-centered therapy. First, the therapist projects genuine interest in the role as a helper, making sure the client knows that his therapist is not an authority figure, but is a real, living, behaving person. Next, the therapist shows a positive regard for the client, regardless of how unattractive, disturbed or difficult the client may be. Lastly, the therapist shows empathy and understanding of the client. The therapist makes sure that the client knows that he not only understands, but also accepts the feelings of the client. Sometimes "encounter groups" are organized to help large numbers of people better understand themselves. The main belief in these groups is that it takes a listening, caring person to aid in self-help and exploration. Many people in the group will share a common problem, in this case, addiction to the Internet.

Behavioral Therapies--
Whereas psychotherapies focus more on events that happened in the past, behavior therapies focus on challenging the behavior in the present day. The techniques can be put into two categories: those that get rid of unwanted behaviors, and those that teach new, desired behaviors.
     One specific behavioral therapy for extinguishing old behaviors is Systematic Desensitization Therapy. Nolen-Hoeksema defines this as "a gradual method for extinguishing anxiety responses to stimuli and the maladaptive behavior that often accompanies this anxiety. The first step is developing a hierarchy of feared stimuli, ranging from things that would cause mild anxiety, all the way to stimuli that would cause high anxiety or even panic. Here is an example of a hierarchy from least to most feared:

       -- Being in an area without access to computers
       -- Thinking you missed an important message
       -- Having someone tell you that you missed an important message
       -- Actually missing an important message

The client is instructed to imagine the feared stimulus. The therapist would then help the client work through the hierarchy using relaxation techniques to control the anxiety. When the most feared stimulus can be imagined without feelings of anxiety, then the next stimulus on the list is tackled. By the end of the systematic desensitization therapy, a person will be able to walk past a computer without the urge to check his e-mail and become overly anxious. He will see that it is not the worst thing in the world to miss a message every so often (Nolen-Hoeksema 1998).
     A reward system is usually used to help develop a new set of behaviors. A reward may be given for exhibiting the behavior desired, and rewards are withheld when the client illustrates undesirable behaviors.
     Another specific behavioral therapy for extinguishing old behaviors is Cognitive Therapy. The main focus of cognitive therapy is to challenge maladaptive interpretations of events or ways of thinking and replacing them with more adaptive ways of thinking. There are three basic techniques in cognitive therapy. The first technique deals with helping the client to identify their irrational thoughts. Often times, people do not recognize these negative thoughts that are in their heads. Therapists encourage clients to pay attention to the thoughts that are associated with their moods or with unwanted behaviors, to write these thoughts down, and to bring these thoughts to the therapy session.
     In the second technique, challenging the irrational thoughts is the main idea. The therapist may ask the client to answer questions such as the following: "What is the evidence for your perspective or interpretation of this situation?"
     Sometimes the client has nothing to back up his or her belief. Other times, the person may have identified pieces of evidence for his or her belief. The therapist may then further press the issue to get more information by asking, "Are there any other ways of looking at the evidence for this situation?" The therapist is encouraging the client to think of alternative perspectives.
     The therapist will also suggest alternative answers. He or she may then ask: "What is the worst that can happen?" or "What would you do if the worst did happen?" The point of this is to get the client to face and cope with his or her worst fears, and recognize that he or she could deal with the worst-case scenario. The therapist will help the client to cope with the worst-case situation (Nolen Hoeksema 1998).
     Behavioral Assignments are used to help the client gather evidence concerning his or her beliefs, to test other views, and to try new methods of coping with tough situations. These assignments are presented to the client as ways of testing hypotheses and gathering information that will be useful regardless of the outcome of the therapy. Those who undergo this type of therapy may still have the same negative thoughts, but learn not to believe that these thoughts are true and can then question their beliefs and thoughts to consider alternative ones.