CBT software?!

I am occasionally taken a back by some of the newest software developments. For example most recently, I was listening to Radio 4, which i always do at home, and they were discussing the Governments most recent initiative to push Cognative Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as a Therapy for treating mental illnesses such as depression and bullemia. This has been in reaction to critisism about the reliance on drugs to deal with these problems.

What really rather suprised me was that a computer program based on CBT has been made and is being trialled. I was initally very sceptical however, a representative from MIND spoke about the scheme and said it was proving very successful. Part of the reason for this was the fact that patients are in direct control of their treatment and this empowers them.

Personally however, I don't think I'd like recieving treatment for a mental disorder via a computer program. Having suffered from anorexia in the past and recieved a good amount of therapy in a specialist ED clinic I can't imagine i would have made the same progress had my therapy been passed on through a rather impersonal computer program.

Nonetheless, evidently the computer approach can be effective for some people suffering from mental illness. My only concern would be that the powers that be ay get it into their heads that they can 'cure' people on mass with a CBT computer program, which is of course, due to the accute variations in mental illness and the fact that CBT is not 100% successful as a means of treatment, never going to be the case (even if it is a very cheap option!).