What is easier - to suffer or to learn? It's not the same for everybody. It is no secret to many that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) effectively copes with many problems - neurotic conditions of people - anxiety and depressive disorders, panic attacks, VSD, OCD, IBS, problems of addictive behavior - alcoholism, drug addiction, tobacco smoking, gambling, eating disorders, and even helps get rid of some mental disorders and physical illnesses. However, CBT has one problem that reduces its effectiveness and even makes it impossible to use. The fact is that CBT is explicitly a learning therapy. Its ultimate goal is to teach a person to independently cope with his psychological problems, and not just solve the current problem. CBT is not suitable for those who have low learning abilities or who do not want to learn or do not like to learn or have not learned to learn. Objectively, it should be recognized that people have different learning abilities. One, as they say, grasps everything on the fly, while the other needs great effort in order to remember, understand and understand something. Low learning abilities may be due, among other things, to the neurophysiology of the brain. But along with this, there are not rare cases when, having potentially good learning abilities, a decrease in learning abilities can occur for psychological reasons. Most often this happens in childhood or adolescence. Let me give you one example from practice. A forty-year-old man sought help for tobacco addiction. The release course required daily written homework. At the second meeting, the man admitted that he could not complete his homework. To the question - why? – answered – I haven’t held a pen in my hands since graduating from school. For twenty-three years of my life, I practically wrote nothing anywhere, with rare exceptions - when filling out documents - I filled out forms and signed. And he told his story. I quote it below. “My class teacher at school was a teacher of Russian language and literature. When she became our class teacher in the fifth grade, she immediately said that she would not allow anyone from her sponsored class to know Russian poorly and would try to do everything to prevent this from happening. And she did. I have always had problems with the Russian language. I just couldn't stand him. But the teacher tried to “help” me and did everything for this. But I was the slowest student in the class. That’s why she called me to the board more often than others and forced me to write texts. And if I was wrong, she would hit my hands with a pointer. It hurt. Called me names. And this went on for six years. When I left school I had such an aversion to writing anything with my own hand that I actually still don’t write anything.” Completing the first homework in a course of cognitive therapy shows a person’s ability to learn and his desire to learn and acquire new skills. And if a person has problems doing homework, CBT has appropriate techniques for working with this problem. But the vast majority of people are still capable of learning. Many people study throughout their lives. Studying is work. But many have long understood the benefits that acquiring new knowledge, skills and abilities gives a person. This is probably the most important thing for a modern person. Because thanks to our skills, knowledge and abilities, we become useful to other people and move towards success. We can say that people suffer from problems, but solving a problem by acquiring new knowledge and skills is also work. Sometimes it’s not easy. This leads to people abandoning CBT when they realize that they will not just have to go to a psychologist, but constantly work both in sessions and on their own, doing homework. But to be honest - CBT is not “manna from heaven”!