Thanks for asking and sharing your experience!!

I should have taken a dbt skills class or program when I was in my teens. Overwhelming emotions made me constantly suicidal in my late teens, the emotional pain was so bad that it felt physical. Unfortunately, that was during a period in my life when the hospital and program I was a part of had a bit of a snobby attitude towards dbt. My old t said it himself, that at the time psychodynamic therapy was seen as the gold standard, and dbt seen as therapy for the “intellectually challenged”. Which is crap of course, discouraging people like me from exploring the option.

In my thirties a work friend told me about dbt again but in a positive light. This lady was sharp and funny, well-educated. I had a second look at it but for years, still didn’t explore it.

Both psychodynamic and cbt therapy have worked well over the years and I find them complimentary. Current t has a 10 week dbt skills course he wanted me to try. And I did. But this first group was all young men except me and some of the antics made me uncomfortable so I dropped out. (Locker room humor until I entered the room, all goes silent that kind of thing).

Recently t is trying smaller more intimate groups of people he thinks will get along.
I’m in week two so far so good.

These days I need the skills to stop worrying about potential future outcomes and automatic poor self talk.

I do struggle with jealousy because my t runs the group but he is great at making me feel like I belong there.

Dbt can be deceptively simple or seem that way. I struggle with what does radical acceptance look like for me? I always confused the term with giving up. I also struggle with the coping mechanisms not in everyday struggles but the bigger crisis. Sometimes it feels like a thimble of water on a fire.