What I really like about DBT is that even the skills that I did know & use, it reinforced that what I was doing worked....Validated what I was doing.....other skills I had the concept of but I didn't have them put together in a logical sort of way....I was winging it.

Distraction skills I always pick & choose what works for me & I have other distractions that aren't even part of their presentation that are part of my life.....that's the good thing about DBT is that it doesn't limit the application......gives the overview of what is needing to be accomplished & it's up to us to implement what works individually.

I was a high IQ, high functioning career computer engineer for 15 years so anything that would have come across as putting down my intelligence, I would have reacted to VERY NEGATIVELY.

The thing with DBT skills is that they are skills that EVERYONE uses even without mental illnesses because many I was using just to cope with the stress level of my career before I ever had to deal with anxiety or depression.......but I now realize just how dysfuyctional my parents were when I was growing up & they never provided the knowledge of any skills....they were just things I had to figure out that worked for me long before any mental illness hit me (it was situational).....the interpersonal effectiveness skills were ones that I had actually put into practice just functioning in my career.......DBT skills are just logical, common sense ways of handling situations that we all experience in life with or without mental illness dealings......they are actually skills IMO that everyone should be taught by their parents or if not....in school in order to learn how to deal with real life situations.

As for high pain dealings....I have continuous migraine pain (it doesn't come & go) & there is nothing that controls it other than medication & there is nothing that lessens it either....but DBT isn't meant to control pain.....however there are times when I do distract myself that I can tolerate the migraine pain now that the pain is more controlled by medication....but it if wasn't already at the lower level.....there would be NOTHING to control it.