Posted by Larry Hoover on January 28, 2007, at 8:11:50
In reply to Re: I'm a lot better these days, but why still DSH?, posted by Deneb on January 27, 2007, at 22:09:03
I collected two posts together, and did some editing:
> I don't think there is anything really wrong with me. I think it's all psychological. I don't think there is any med out there that can help me stop harming myself. I'm already better.
Maybe for now?
> I'm so much better these days, but I'm still doing so poorly!
I want you to focus on this apparent contradiction. It is the dialectic you struggle with.
> I think I have a borderline personality disorder. It's all psychological. Only therapy can save me.
That's insightful. Very insightful.
> I don't know if DBT is for me.
I would ask that you take another look at it. DBT is not just for borderline personality disorder, although it was first used there. It is a technique. A tool. It is used for behaviour modification in a number of psychologically distressing mental health issues.
I snipped (and slightly edited) the following from a descriptive website, employing the DBT technique for an entirely different diagnosis than the one you are worried about. See if these *ideas* aren't what you seek.
"DBT assumes that self-destructive behaviors are maladaptive attempts to avoid or diminish intolerable negative emotions. The focus of DBT is to teach these patients to face, reduce, eliminate, and/or tolerate their painful emotions. The four components of DBT are:
1. Mindfulness training (becoming aware of emotions).
2. Emotional regulation (reducing or eliminating negative emotions).
3. Distress tolerance (learning to tolerate painful emotions).
4. Interpersonal effectiveness (interpersonal skills training).
Patients use “diary cards” to record emotional experiences, behaviors, and the DBT skills they practice. Patients also complete “Behavioral chain analysis” forms where they record sequences of situations, internal reactions, and maladaptive behaviors. Each week, patients discuss this information in the first hour of their group session. In the second hour, patients learn and practice new skills. Each patient also has one individual therapy session per week.
Here are some DBT techniques described by Wiser and Telch:1. Mindfulness training: Learning to fully experience thoughts, emotions, and action urges without attempting to suppress them or judge them, and without experiencing secondary emotions such as guilt or shame.
2. Identifying the antecedents and consequences of emotions.
3. Becoming aware of the bodily responses that accompany negative emotions.
4. Understanding the relationship between cognitions and emotions, and modifying cognitions that evoke negative emotions.
5. Learning adaptive methods of coping with negative emotions: relaxing, taking walks, socializing, taking a warm bath, listening to soothing music.
6. Getting adequate sleep and reducing excessive exercise and the use of drugs and alcohol.
7. Reducing negative emotions, for example by facing rather than avoiding feared situations, and by revealing rather than hiding feelings of shame.
Alert readers may have noticed a conflict between technique #1, experiencing emotions, and technique #7, reducing negative emotions. This conflict is the primary dialectic, from which DBT derives its name."
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:727241
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20070122/msgs/727379.html