DBT - Distress Tolerance - Part 3

In my two previous posts on distress tolerance (here and here), I talked about ways to cope with uncomfortably past or present situations. Practicing distress tolerance skills is helpful for anyone who wishes to stay mentally healthy.

Think of a situation where you’ve been distressed. Maybe it’s an argument with a friend or family member. Maybe it’s a poor performance review or a disagreement with a supervisor or coworker. If you’re like me, your first inclination to deal with the problem isn’t always the most helpful. As someone who deals with anxiety, my usual go-to is worry and rumination. You’d think that I would learn by now that neither one of those things makes me feel good, not to mention that they don’t do anything to solve the problem.

In DBT, one aspect of distress tolerance is distracting oneself from worries. The acronym the distress tolerance skill of distracting is: ACCEPTS. I won’t go into a lot of details here (the DBT Self Help website has an article dealing with ACCEPTS here , but the acronym stands for: activities, contributing, comparisons, emotions, pushing away, thoughts, and sensations.

I haven’t used all of the strategies and have used some with only limited success, so I’ll share the two that have been most helpful for me.

Activities are a big one for me, and they’re easy to implement. Running is often helpful as I can concentrate on the physical exertion, but the drawback is that my mind is usually free to think about whatever it is I’m dealing with. Reading and listening to audiobooks are great ways to take my mind off of things that are worrying me. And sometimes I listen to audiobooks or podcasts while I exercise for the double bonus of exercising and distracting myself from my worries.

Watching TV shows, movies, or sports are also ways I distract myself from worries. Sometimes, when I’m feeling hypomanic, it’s hard to concentrate on reading, so watching something is an easier way to distract myself.

Contributing is another way I used to distract myself from worries. It’s easy to let stressful life situations give me a “woe is me” attitude, so contributing is a great way to help others and not worry about your own problems. I recommend scheduling some sort of volunteering so you don’t have to think about contributing when you’re feeling stressed out. Giving to a charitable organization is another way to contribute.

Distress tolerance skills are useful to have in your tool belt, but remember that they are not a solution to all your problems. They may, however, help you gain perspective and realize that some difficult situations can be ignored, or bring you to a place where you’re more emotionally stable to deal with a problem.

If you’re interested in learning more about DBT techniques, I recommend the website, DBT Self Help.

Be well.