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Elysium · Apr 04, 2009, 06:30 PM

LONG POSTING.....

Hey there!!

I went through 8 months of DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) which helped me a lot to learn about my BPD symptoms and taught interventions I could do for myself when I was feeling like I wanted to act out on someone or SI. The most difficult part of the DBT was learning to incorporate it into daily life, but I wanted to share some tips for you.

Give them a try if you like.

1) OPPOSITE TO EMOTION: This is just a method of helping pull you out of an emotion that you feel you may be stuck in, or getting sucked into, and you know you need to pull yourself back out of it. It sounds simple, but can be challenging. Basically, when you begin to feel angry, hurt, or like you want to SI, force yourself to do something that is opposite to whatever emotion(s) you are experiencing. (I.E. You are getting angry and want to SI...Go put on a funny movie, or put on some dance music and start dancing, read a light-hearted book, call a friend and have a healthy gossip session, have sex...(hee hee))

2) SMILE: Believe it or not, this does help. There have been studies done that show if you force yourself to smile when you are feeling poorly, it actually does begin to release chemicals in the brain that can help to offset those negative emotions. This takes practice if you want to increase your brains reactivity time. Practice during your day....just whenever your washing dishes, doing laundry, etc...force a smile and hold it there. The more you do it, the faster your brains response will become.

3) Quick tips for SI or harming others that seems imminent...
- GRAB AN ICE CUBE: Pull an ice cube out of the freezer and hold it
tightly in your hand. It will get EXTREMEMLY cold to the point it will
become painful. This external pain can help to offset the internal
anguish. Once the ice cube's melted, usually the intensity of the urge
to SI has passed or decreased enough that it is more tolerable and you
can move on to one of the other things like smiling, opposite to
emotion....not to mention you have not caused any tissue damage
to yourself, or damaged others.

- BUBBLE WRAP: I just discovered this one about a week ago. I felt like
cutting myself and all I had was a small sheet of bubble wrap. I grabbed
it and just started popping away aggressively. It took me about 5
minutes to finish popping all of them, but when I was done I felt better
and my urge had passed and I was able to do some self soothing.

- SNAP A RUBBERBAND: Tried this one too...it works, you just have to
keep snapping it for a minute if your urge lasts. Place the band around
your wrist and snap away.

SELF SOOTHING ACTIVITIES: For the less intense moments. Snuggle with a cat or dog, or a person if you are comfortable with that. Take a bubble bath and place some candles around you and try listening to some soothing music. Ask for a massage...if this would make you feel better. Go out and get your hair washed at a hair stylists. Treat yourself to a goody. Wear your pajamas all day.

***Another thing I learned in the DBT is that anger is often a secondary emotion. Meaning that it often follows closely behind other emotions such as fear, pain, disgust. It steps in to take over for those emotions so the self doesn't have to feel those other emotions. Very rarely is anger a primary emotion, so when you do feel anger or rage, do your best to take a moment and communicate with yourself to discover what you are actually feeling. You might find out you're really not angry, but you are in external or internal pain, or that you are disgusted with someone elses behavior. Once you can identify the true emotion, you can begin to respond to that emotion instead of react to the anger.

I know this was long, but it has helped me a lot so I thought I would share!!

Take care.