What DBT skills do you know and use?

*bump* I think this thread can be a great topic to discuss and see what is working well for some people!

i downloaded some dbt workbooks but tbh it's literally NOTHING without a therapist. you can help yourself a little bit but it just doesn't have that quality like it does when you do it with therapist.

we don't have dbt here. i never officially tried it, i just looked through that workbook and some of that things stayed in my head so i used them sometimes, it was helpful to be honest but healing on that way isn't my goal.

i want to heal through expressing myself, not through being rational :)

A ton!!! opposite action and TIPP are my favorites

Radical acceptance has been a big one for me. I used to hate that one but with 4 years of practice it has been the skill that has saved me.

I also like the accumulate positives skill because it gives you an excuse to do positive things for yourself

Then there is Alternate Rebellion and who doesn't love a little harmless rebellion every now and then? Who said skills and recovery had to be boring!

I have found the positive journal to be a life changer. 3 positive thoughts everyday on paper and within a week I started seeing positive over negative. I've now been doing the journal 2 years

Jennifer

I'm honestly having a little trouble with this one. I'm on the waiting list for a therapist and DBT programs (Canada, woo!) so my psychiatrist recommended a DBT workbook that she has seen success with in the past.

I've been working through it and have been able to relate to the situations in the book and understand what it is asking of me, but I just haven't been finding the skills overly effective.

I can't remember the actual name of it, but whatever the skill is that you literally just distract yourself with other things until you're not distressed anymore. You overwhelm yourself with something that you have premeditated to do for when you are distressed and hope that it makes your feelings of stress go away. You distract yourself until the problem goes away. I personally think it's a little counter productive but I have always been a little argumentative when it comes to treatment and that's probably why I'm so messed up

DBT is slowly changing my life. There are some great resources on the internet but a therapist is key. The TIPP skill, opposite and action, and radical acceptance have all been extremely helpful. :)