I need help on DBT homework

OK, so I rang up to try and get coaching skills from therapist today and didn't get a call back. It's out of hours now, so I am ****ed.

I'm really annoyed now.

Anyways, to anyone that has done DBT, or is currently in DBT and has done Distress Tolerance, do you remember or recognise this worksheet, or can you see if you can pull it up from your folder? I don't understand it. We're only doing "Distracting - Wise Mind ACCEPTS" at the moment, and not anything else on that work sheet.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...49644646_n.jpg

Let me know if the picture works. I would really appreciate it if someone could help me.

I haven't done DBT, or I would totally help. I hope someone on here can help. The picture did work, though. Good luck....

I've never seen this sheet before GI, I have done some DBT but either never got that far or they are using a different sheet.

Sorry I hope someone can help you out on this one.

Let me get out my book... I'll respond shortly

OK.. I don't have that specific worksheet, but I understand it.

Are you sure they want you to do the whole thing and not just that first section on Wise Mind Accepts?

It's from the book itself.

Yeah, one of the people who runs the group told us to only do that bit.

give me a second to type this out......... My book is different, but it doesn't matter basically the same thing and I understand the attached worksheet..

hold on.

My understanding: When you are in distress use one of the distractions. Score your feeling before (pre) using the activity then score it after (post) the activity.

For example. I was feeling extremely angry about feeling abandoned. Score 75. I used an activity of working in my garden. Score after 15.

Hope that helps. And my garden is the best medicine for me. I call it my tequila and valium.

Ok.. It's a weekly chart, and you have your days of the week and then you'll see pre/post..

This chart is slightly different because we didn't do 0 - 100.. so think of this way
0 - 20 - Not effective
20 - 40 - somewhere between not effective and somewhat effective
40 - 60 - Somewhat effective
60 - 80 - somewhere between somewhat effective and very effective
80 - 100 - very effective

This is all subjective.. ie.. I ask you on a scale of 1 - 10 how mad are you.. you say 8...

So.. lets say your dog died, and your extremely distraught.. well you're going to probably be somewhere in that 0 - 20 range.. lets say your very very distraught you rate yourself a 7.. So the 7 will go in the "Pre".

Since you're incredibly distraught you decide to do some distress tolerance.. Lets say you choose to do some activities... You decide to go to the gym and run on the treadmill, and then get on the eliptical.. When you're done how distressed are you.. lets say you feel a lot better.. how effective was it.. how distressed are you now.. you feel alot better the skill was helpful and now you rate yourself a 65. that would go in the "post" column... So.. you started out a 7 practiced distress tolerance and now you'd rate yourself a 65. Maybe you do 1 of the skills or maybe you do them all..

Let's say.. you were a 7 and you go to the gym and it didn't really help and now you'd rate yourself a 10.. So now you decide to do contributions... well you'd put 10 in the pre and lets say after contributing you feel great and would rate yourself a 90...

Once all this is done on the back of the paper your going to write what skill you practiced, and how you practiced that skill..

You could practice this skill right now (probably put this in with opposite emotions... You said you're "Really Annoyed" where would you rate yourself.. let's say your a 41... You posted a thread asking for help.. You got help, you're relieved and now you'd rate yourself a 93.

In the past you might self harm.. you did the opposite of that by posting in a thread..

so.. your pre would 41 and post would be 93 or 41/93.. On the back you'd write I practiced the skill of opposite emotions I was distraught with homework wasn't sure what to do.. in the past I'd be self destructive but this time I did the opposite by posting a question asking for help..

That bit I understood, just not the "Activities/Contributions/Emotions/Pushing Away/Thoughts/Sensations" part D:

This is the book that it comes from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Training-Tre...4928465&sr=8-1

Everything I wrote above still applies.. It gives you a visual picture of how effective the skills are..

ok.. I thought you learned wise mind accepts.. give me a moment

ACCEPTS is an acronym for

Activities
Contributing
Comparisons
Emotions
Pushing Away
Thoughts
Sensations

See here for definitions of each..
http://www.dbtselfhelp.com/html/accepts.html

So with that work sheet if you're in distress you'd do one of the following.

Distract with Activities:
Do hobbies, watch a video, go for a walk, play a sport, cook, garden, go fishing, go shopping.

or you might do one of the others..

by doing the worksheet and grading everything you'll have a visual picture of what is effective and what isn't..

I did that exact sheet in DBT.

So it sounds like you are trying to figure out what exactly those things are.

Activities can be basically anything you like to do. Red, write, watch tv, color, etc.

Contributions can be doing things for others, helping others. Like I volunteer at my kids' school and that is contributions.

Emotions you are trying to do something that brings up emotions opposite to what you feel. Like if I feel really sad, I will watch a comedy movie.

Pushing away, you are basically putting your thoughts away for a while. This can become a bad thing if you do it to avoid emotions completely. For me, I imagine putting my problem in a box and closing it. Thoughts are gone for now and I can open the box when I am in a better place emotionally.

Thoughts - do anything that completely occupies your thoughts. Counting, puzzles, etc. I do extreme dot to dots.

Sensations can be a lot of things. For me, I take hot showers or cold showers depending on my mood. If i need to try to stop thoughts in my head, I'll often take a cold shower, kind of a system shock thing without actually causing any damage.

Hope this helps. If you need any other help, feel free to PM me. My dbt group did a LOT of the worksheets straight out of the dbt book.

I just did that page over a 3 week time frame. (We have group on Thursdays and missed a week because of Thanksgiving). The way cbox explained it is great. I can't believe that you don't have your group t's numbers for afterhours coaching calls. That just doesn't seem right to me. I have my t's office and cell number plus all the other ts that do DBT. I am supposed to call my t first then call the group leaders then call the other ts. I have only had to call my t. We are working straight out of the same book, so if you have any other questions I can try and answer them too. Good luck with your homework.

Thanks very much! This is exactly what I was after!

You're most welcome. Feel free to post or pm if you have any other questions!