Last Updated on 7th September 2022 by Caroline Haye
CBT and vitiligo
I have been reading up on the subject of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for skin conditions just recently. In fact, what prompted me to do this was some interesting feedback I received on my other post about talking therapies (Treating Vitiligo Is Not Just About Skin). This came from a reader (thanks, Erin) who has found that CBT has helped her significantly. She says “…I have felt much better about my continually spreading vitiligo since doing cognitive behaviour therapy. I would highly recommend this to any vitiligo patient. A great resource is also Skin Deep written by Grossbart. Very very insightful …” (You can download a free copy of this book Skin Deep: A Mind/Body Program for Healthy Skin by Ted A. Grossbart, Ph.D. and Carl Sherman, Ph.D. here.)
CBT gave me a sense of perspective
Another vitiligo sufferer in the UK who has used this therapy to her benefit is Maxine Whitton. (Maxine is a former President of The Vitiligo Society and a tireless advocate for people with the condition.) She underwent nine months of CBT and believes it should be an integral part of any treatment protocol for people with skin disease. She says: “I was told to look in the mirror without wearing make-up and tell myself that although I had vitiligo, it was only a part of me and that I wasn’t hideous. It gave me a sense of perspective and taught me to accept my appearance…”
So what exactly is CBT? It is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave.
Of course, it cannot magically remove your problems (or, in this case, take away your vitiligo). But it can help you deal with them in a more positive way. It is based around the idea that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are all interdependent… And that negative thoughts and emotions can trap you in a vicious cycle.
How Cognitive Behavioural Therapy works
CBT aims to help you halt this cycle by breaking down the problems that overwhelm you into smaller parts and showing you how to change these negative patterns to improve the way you feel.
A major difference between CBT and some better-known talking treatments is that it deals with your current problems rather than delving into issues from your past. It looks for practical ways to improve your state of mind that can then be practised on a daily basis to make you feel better.
If you live in the UK you may be able to get your GP to refer you for CBT on the NHS. If not, the cost of private therapy sessions varies, but it is usually £40-£100 per session. You will usually have a session with a therapist once a week or once every two weeks. The course of treatment will usually last for between 5 and 20 sessions, with each session lasting 30-60 minutes.
Research into how CBT can help vitiligo sufferers feel more positive about their skin is encouraging. (See this list of search results and this paper in particular.)
I generally only recommend products and therapies that I have tried myself and found to work. But, whilst I have never used any kind of talking therapy, there are increasing numbers of success stories to recommend it as a treatment. So much so, that if it had existed when my vitiligo was at its worst, I feel sure I would have tried it. It seems to me that one of the most distressing features of vitiligo is how isolating it can be… Especially if you don’t have anyone in your family to talk to about it. Support groups and forums go a long way toward addressing this problem. But the one-to-one therapy that CBT offers is obviously designed to deliver more personalised benefits. And, from what I hear, it seems to give the individual greater control over how they feel about their condition.
