When emotions are this high...this is when "why" doesn't get me anywhere. THIS is where DBT came in and "saved the day" for me.

DBT definitely doesn't have all the answers, but if you don't already have habitual soothing and mindfulness techniques that you do, I think you should ask your therapist to help you work with that. In my opinion, if therapists are asking us to do trauma work, they had better have done a lot of coping skills with us first.

So.....when you are this way--sad, worried, mad, regretful, victimized, overwhelmed....then: what is it that your therapist would want you to do to help yourself?

Mine would tell me:
1) do mindful breathing.
2) after I have my breath under control, do a chain analysis
3) do mindful breathing--cause I'll be breathing as fast as a rabbit's heartbeat after working on the chain analysis
4) remember that it only lasts a short while, maybe only a couple of hours, usually gone by morning
5) get ice cubes and wrap them in a thin towel and wrap them around my hands (I twist my hands when I am anxious, and this cools me down and makes me want to move my hands more slowly....doesn't feed the bad energy)
6) if that makes me shiver, get a warm wash cloth and lay it across my eyes or hold it there.
7) breathe......lots of breathing, less thinking
8) tell myself the bipolar joke--"You don't like being bipolar? Just wait!"

Hang in there! Breathe!