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  3. Module 2. Distress Tolerance: (Discussion #1) Overview

Module 2. Distress Tolerance: (Discussion #1) Overview
QuietMagic December 14th, 2021
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DBTuesday is a series of posts where we explore skills and concepts from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). See this post for general info about DBT.

The next several posts will focus on distress tolerance, which is the second module of DBT skills training.

What is distress tolerance

Distress tolerance is being able to manage emotional distress.

Distress tolerance can help if you’re in an emotional crisis and feeling really awful:

  • It involves using certain techniques in the moment for coping with those feelings
  • This makes it possible to reduce other impulsive actions or risky ways of coping


Distress tolerance skills

There are many different lists of distress tolerance skills. The list we’ll be following for upcoming posts comes from the site DBT Tools:

  • ACCEPTS: distracting from difficult feelings
  • TIPP: directly altering your body to reduce overwhelming feelings
  • Self-soothing: doing things that feel comforting and enjoyable
  • IMPROVE: doing things that make the moment feel better
  • Pros/Cons: considering the positive and negative effects of crisis behaviors
  • Problem Solving: coming up with a plan for changing things within our control
  • Radical Acceptance: acknowledging the reality of things that aren’t in our control and can’t be changed

Several of these are acronyms where each letter is a different skill.

Reflection

Which of these skills are you most interested in learning more about?


Sources:

https://www.verywellmind.com/distress-tolerance-2797294

https://dbt.tools/distress_tolerance/index.php



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DrivenKoalas December 14th, 2021
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@QuietMagic

Great Post Magic, I would love to learn about the following more.

  • TIPP: directly altering your body to reduce overwhelming feelings
QuietMagic OP December 14th, 2021
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@DrivenKoalas

Thanks! I'm actually also really looking forward to learning more about TIPP once I get around to researching it. 😊

If I just step back and think about it, it's pretty miraculous that just by doing certain basic actions, I can manipulate all kinds of physiological processes that act as the basis for emotions.

QuietMagic OP December 14th, 2021
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@DrivenKoalas @Jish07541

Here's something I was able to find that gives a quick summary of the TIPP skills.

There's probably more information out there in terms of research or an explanation of how/why these actions actually help, but I haven't done a deep dive into all of that yet.

Screen-Shot-2021-01-06-at-3.21.17-PM.png

DrivenKoalas December 15th, 2021
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@QuietMagic

Thank you for sharing this. I appreciate it :)

Jish07541 December 14th, 2021
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@QuietMagic

Jish07541 December 14th, 2021
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@QuietMagic

Great Post Magic. I really would love to learn more about Radical Acceptance. Any tips? Because accepting there are things I can't control has been difficult for me many times

Jish07541 December 14th, 2021
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@QuietMagic

And TIPP as well

QuietMagic OP December 14th, 2021
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@Jish07541

Glad you liked it. 😊 I haven't researched radical acceptance too deeply yet, but just from skimming through a couple articles this is what I'm understanding so far:

  • It doesn't involve trying to force yourself to feel differently or like something that you dislike.
  • It just involves being objective about what's there and acknowledging the reality/fact of certain things like, "Okay this thing happened" or "Okay I am feeling this way right now".
  • As far as how that would help, I imagine it avoids a situation where you're repeatedly trying and failing to make something happen that might be impossible and getting increasingly frustrated/worried.
  • It's related to mindfulness, which also involves trying to look at what's happening in reality and the idea that sometimes thoughts/language can carry us pretty far away from what's there and cause some suffering.

A personal association I'm getting with it is like if I'm trying to solve a problem and I'm just objectively/brutally/ruthlessly considering what the facts of the situation are and using that information to figure out how to proceed. Like, "This thing I want isn't there, which is really unfortunate, but that's just how it is. Let's figure out the next steps or the best action based on that."

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-radical-acceptance-5120614

https://psychcentral.com/blog/cultivating-contentment/2020/02/16-ways-to-practice-radical-acceptance

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