Distract/Self-Soothe/Improve Skills
What is the distraction acronym?
ACCEPTS
What is Radical Acceptance?
1. Radical means all the way, complete and total.
2. It is accepting in your mind, your heart, and your body.
3. It’s when you have awareness that reality is not the way you want it, you stop fighting reality, and let go of bitterness.
True or False: You should use a crisis survival skill when feeling low to medium intensity emotions.
False. crisis survival skills should be used when emotions are intense, at least a 7/10.
TRUE/FALSE: Distress tolerance skills should be used in all situation and for solving all problems.
FALSE - Distress tolerance skills will be most effective when they are reserved for a true crisis situation.
What are the three states of mind? Describe them.
Reasonable Mind, Wise Mind, & Emotion Mind
When in reasonable mind, you are ruled by facts, reason, logic, and pragmatics. Values and feelings are not important
When in emotion mind, you are ruled by your moods, feelings, and urges to do or say things. Facts, reason, and logic are not important.
Wise mind is seeing the value of both reason and emotion, finding a middle path, acting from an intuitive, wise place that is within us all.
What is Turning the Mind?
Making a conscious decision to accept over and over
True or false. The goal of crisis survival skills is to make you feel better and solve problems caused by our emotions.
False. The goal is to tolerate intense/distressing emotions w/o making our situation worse. A side effect might be that we feel better. Emotion regulation skills help us solve our problems (or change the way we feel about them).
Who is the creator of DBT?
Marsha Lineman
What are the four modules of DBT?
Mindfulness
Distress Tolerance
Emotion Regulation
Interpersonal Effectiveness
At one point, on a scale from 0-10, should we be attempting to utilize Distract, Self-soothe, or IMPROVE?
When we are still in emotion mind but no longer in crisis. Typically a 6/10 or below.
RADICAL ACCEPTANCE IS NOT:
Approval, compassion, love, passivity, or against change.
What does the STOP acronym stand for? (Verbatim or summary okay)
Stop, Take a step back, Observe, Proceed Mindfully
What is Mindfulness?
Being present in the moment, without judgment/rejecting the moment, and without attachment to the moment.
The first module for DBT.
The word Heather says most during group.
Rejecting reality doesn't change it and acknowledgement/acceptance is necessary if we want change.
Pain can't be avoided, and when we try, it creates suffering.
if we don't we're stuck where we've been, with all the painful emotions associated with it.
Provide the definition and give one example of Opposite Emotion
Acting opposite to our current emotional state/urge.
Example:
Take a walk around the block when feeling tired. or Listen to a heavy metal song when feeling sad.
Draw a DBT-style Pros and Cons list
Should have 4 boxes: pros of ___ /resisting urge, etc., cons of ___ /resisting urge, etc., pros of ___ /giving in to urge, etc., cons of ___ /giving in to urge, etc.,
Give an example of two TIPP skills and how you use them.
Temperature
Intense Exercise
Paced Breathing
Paired Muscle Relaxation
Why do we practice mindfulness at the beginning of each group?
To strengthen our mindfulness muscle, the more often we practice, the easier it gets.
To experience different types of mindfulness skills.
To gain a better understanding of what types of mindfulness works best for us.
To normalize that sometimes, it's difficult to be mindful, and that's okay!
Mindfulness is a foundational DBT skill- we are unlikely to be able to use the most effective skills or any skills at all if we aren't aware of how we are feeling.
What are the two categories of distress tolerance skills, and when should we use them?
Crisis Survival Skills: to help tolerate painful events, urges, and emotions when you cannot make things better right away.
Reality Acceptance Skills: When you cannot keep painful events and emotions from coming your way and skills to use when you have to live a life that is not the life you want.
Describe willingness and willfulness.
** BONUS**
What is the relationship between the two?
Willingness means accepting/acknowledging things for what they are, listening and acting from Wise Mind, and doing what is needed
Willfulness refusing to tolerate the moment, giving up, doing the opposite of what is needed, trying to stay in control and fix everything.
**Be aware of willfulness and replace willfulness with willingness.**
When we utilize the "T" in TIPP- temperature, what natural biological phenomenon are we taking advantage of?
The mammalian-dive-reflex.
Submerging our faces in water (or an alternative), holding our breath, and lowering our head, causes our heart to slow down, blood flow to nonessential organs to reduce, and blood flow to be redirected to the brain and heart.
What is the mechanism of action for half-smiling and willing hands?
The mind-body connection.
our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or negatively affect our biological functioning
AND
what we do with our physical body (e.g., our posture) can impact our mental state (again positively or negatively)
When using the skills, what should you be careful not to do?
Invalidate yourself and your feelings!