Skills to Survive Crisis Situations
Crisis survival skills help us to t-----te painful events, urges, and emotions when we cannot make things better right away.
tolerate
Goals of reality acceptance skills are to reduce one's suffering and increase their sense of freedom. These are skills for accepting ones life as it is in the moment.
Describe what radical acceptance is not.
Radical acceptance is not approval, compassion, love, passivity or against change. In fact, radical acceptance enables and empowers one to make change!
Clear mind is the synthesis of two extremes. These two extremes are ____ mind and _____ mind.
Addict [mind] and Clean [mind].
Fill in the blank:
When we ____ the mind, we simply let thoughts come and go-noticing them as they come and go but not trying to control of change them.
allow [the mind]
True or False:
Distress tolerance skills are long-term coping strategies to help us manage stressors.
False! Distress tolerance skills are those crisis survival, reality acceptance skills that help us cope in the immediate moment. They are geared to help us survive a crisis and only offer temporary relief. More long-term coping strategies are within the emotion regulation module.
Describe the STOP skill.
Stop
Take a step back
Observe
Proceed Mindfully
True or False:
When practicing radical acceptance, I want to be careful not to accept distortions of the past, judgmental assertions, exaggerations or catastrophes.
True!
We only accept the facts!
Decide if the following is a behavior pattern characteristic of addict mind or clean mind.
Thinking, "I can take pain medicine/diet/engage in addictive behavior if prescribed or advised; I don't need to say anything about my past addiction."
Clean mind
Give examples of ways one might "observe their thoughts".
-as waves coming and going.
-not suppressing thoughts
-not judging thoughts
-acknowledging their presence
-not keeping thoughts around
-not analyzing thoughts
-practicing willingness
-stepping back and observing thoughts as they run in and out of your mind.
True or False:
Distraction is always unhealthy.
False! Distractions can be helpful tools to help us deescalate and get back into our window of tolerance. Distractions are helpful strategies when used in moderation. For example: watching a show or taking a nap for a brief period of time versus binge watching a series or sleeping several days away.
One would use this skill when deciding between two courses of action.
Pros and Cons
1. Start by describing the crisis behavior you are trying to stop.
*I have an urge to turn to alcohol when in crisis.
2. Examine advantages and disadvantages of the behavior.
*Advantage: it's effective! Disadvantage: I could be sliding downhill.... I won't feel OK in the morning..
3. Consider both short term and long term consequences.
*short term: I may not sleep well tonight. long term: I will tell my support group about my slip.
4. Consider pros and cons for each crisis urge separately.
Fill in the blank:
______ ___ _____ is like facing a fork in the road. You can go toward the acceptance road, and away from the road of rejecting reality.
Turning the Mind.
Turning the mind is choosing to accept.
Decide if the following is a behavior pattern characteristic of addict mind or clean mind.
Glamorizing addiction.
Addict mind
Fill in the blank:
When observing my thoughts, it helps to remember that I am not my ______.
Thoughts!
-do not necessarily act on thoughts
-remember times when you've had very different thoughts
-remind self that catastrophic thinking is "emotion mind"
-remember how you think when you are not feeling such intense suffering and pain.
Name a skill you learned in this module that seemed to resonate with you and why.
Varies.
One might use TIP skills to reduce extreme emotion mind fast.
The TIP skill stands for:
T the T of your face with cold water
I exercise
P breathing
P muscle relaxation.
Tip the Temperature
Intense exercise
Paced breathing
Paired muscle relaxation
Fill in the blank:
_______ is the readiness to respond to life's situations wisely, as needed, voluntarily, and without grudge.
The opposite of this is defined as having or showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences or effects.
Willingness
In ____ _____, one is abstinent and vigilant for temptations. One is acutely aware that without skills, intense urges can return at any moment.
Clear Mind
Many people believe that when practicing mindfulness they should suppress thoughts. They believe that the goal of mindfulness practice is to have an empty mind. Is this correct thinking?
No; it is erroneous thinking. The idea of mindfulness is to notice thoughts while neither becoming attached to them nor pushing them away.
True or False:
A strategy you can utilize for adaptive denial of substance use would be to delay the time between the urge/craving and actually engaging in substance use to build your window of tolerance.
True!
Crisis survival skills enable us to return to our "window of tolerance". The remaining crisis survival skills in this section are Distracting using "Wise Mind ACCEPTS", self-soothing, and improving the moment.
Describe one of the above three skills.
varies
Model what Half-Smiling, Willing Hands is.
Varies
In clear mind, one would benefit from replacing addiction reinforcers with abstinent reinforces (community reinforcement).
What are a few examples of abstinence reinforcers?
Search for people to spend time with who aren't addicted, increase the number of enjoyable activities you engage in that do not involve your addiction, etc.
What other "sensations" are we able to practice mindfulness of?
Thoughts, emotions and physical sensations in our bodies
Change isn't easy. What skill from this module can we all apply to deal with change more effectively?
Radical Acceptance!