Coping Skills
What coping skill is with you at all times?
Deep breathing
You can block out negative feelings and only experience positive feelings if you try hard enough
False! When you shut down your ability to feel negative feelings (e.g., shame, sadness, loneliness) you also shut down your ability to feel positive feelings (e.g., connection, love, gratitude)
What does DBT stand for?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Movement that comes from a place of self-care and with the intention to feel good
Recovery is a linear process. True or false?
False? Recovery is more like a scatter plot. It can sometimes depend on the day!
What coping skills can you use at home?
Anger is easier to experience then sadness
True! Think about the anger iceberg.
What is Acting Opposite?
A DBT skill that can be used for changing painful emotions. The idea behind it is to settle into an action that is helpful instead of harmful. For example, if you are angry and feel like yelling, acting opposite would be walking away and not yelling.
How does gentle movement play a role in self-control?
It doesn't! Gentle movement is about self-care and not controlling our situations.
ED is mostly about controlling food.
False! ED is a combination of struggles with mental health, social health, physical health, and control.
What coping skills can you use in the classroom?
Deep breathing, 3-2-1 grounding technique, fidget, lotion or lip balm, mints
If I feel something, it must be true
False! Sometimes our emotions are lying to us. For example, feeling worthless or lonely at our birthday celebration with friends and loved ones.
What does wise mind mean?
It is a balance between rational mind and emotional mind. It means using both sides of our brain to make grounded decisions not based solely on emotions or logic.
False! Part of gentle movement is listening to your body. If you don't feel like moving, it's likely you need to rest.
Eating disorders are serious medical and psychological illnesses.
What coping skills can you use when having thoughts of lapse/relapse?
Thinking about the costs of engaging in ED/self-harm behavior, reaching out to support person and tell them you are thinking of lapse, writing out list of things you are grateful of, writing out list of recent accomplishments in recovery, write out what life will look like without ED/self-harm
Emotions can't be controlled
Emotions can be powerful, but you're powerful too! You may not be able to totally change an emotion, but you can respond in ways that ease or distract what your feeling.
Radical Acceptance is only possible when you are happy with the outcome of a situation. True or false?
False! Radical acceptance encourages us to accept the facts of reality without responding by throwing a tantrum or being willful.
You don't have to communicate gentle movement to your providers if you feel like you are engaging in recovery and following your meal plan. True or false?
False! You should always include treatment team (therapist and RD) in discussions about engaging in gentle movement. By communicating with them, you can create a list of ways to stay accountable for ED recovery while engaging in activities that bring you joy.
Recovery is possible without supports. Determination is everything!
False! ED recovery is based on the three-prong approach. Medical monitoring, mental health counseling, and nutrition counseling. We all need support to move mountains!
What can you do when no coping skills seem to work?
Keep trying! Coping skills take practice.
What are the two true human emotions?
According to psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, all emotions stem from experiencing love and fear. From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt.
What does ACCEPTS DBT skill stand for?
Activities
Contributing
Comparisons
Emotions
Pushing Away
Thoughts
Sensations
Compensation for what we're eating, body manipulation, pushing our limits despite illness, fatigue, injury, feelings of guilt for not engaging in movement
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses.
This is why recovery is so essential! With anxiety and depression, we can still engage in life. Without food and nutrition, our body shuts down. We are living, breathing, eating creatures. Our body needs food like a car needs gas. Without it, we are unable to sustain.