DBT06. Distracts with ACCEPTS

Theme Song: Watch “O-o-h Child”” video.

MINDFULNESS “ALL THE WORLDS A STAGE” EXERCISE

To give words to the unspoken

Step 1: Imagine a stage.

Let at least 15 seconds pass before moving on to the next step.

Step 2: Onto that stage let a scene appear from your past. One in which you felt that the reality that being acted out by others on the surface was very different from what was being felt on the inside. A time when you felt the outside and inside where out of synch.

Let at least 15 seconds pass before moving on to the next step.

Step 3: Try to remember how that made you feel?

Let at least 15 seconds pass before moving on to the next step.

Step 4: Look at the characters in your scene. Look at their faces and body posture and listen to what they are saying.

Let at least 15 seconds pass before moving on to the next step.

Step 5: In response to the scene, there is a small voice inside of you trying to speak. Listen to the voice and pay attention to what it is saying, whether or not it makes any sense.

Let at least 15 seconds pass before moving on to the next step.

Step 6: Listen to the voice as it comes to you, without trying to make it sound good or intelligent or correct.

Let at least 15 seconds pass before moving on to the next step.

Discuss: What was your experience like? What did you notice? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Review your commitments from the “STOP” session:

·      Use the “STOP Skill Practice Worksheet” when you need to face and accept distress head on.

·      Complete the Weekly DBT Diary.

·      Come prepared to the next session to share your experience using DBT skills

1. A crisis is a short-term situation you want to resolve right now, but can’t. Maybe the only solutions you can think of will make it even worse. DBT’s crisis survival skills help us cope with overwhelming emotions or intolerable situations. They aren’t supposed to solve our problems, but they will help us survive painful emotions and not act on our urges.

2. When your emotional pain or upset becomes so great that you are in danger of being overwhelmed by it, it may be more effective to distract yourself from the feelings in the moment instead of fully experiencing them. DBT’s Distracts with ACCEPTS Skills can help reduce distress in the moment by reducing contact with things that cause painful emotions. You can

also use distraction when you have a problem that can’t be solved immediately and the urgency to solve the problem right now is making it very difficult to focus on anything except the crisis. 

Watch: “Casablanca” video.

3. The purpose these skills is not to make Humphrey Bogart’s “Rick “character in “Casablanca” feel good saying goodbye to Ilsa. The point is to help him feel less bad so that he doesn’t make the situation worse. For Rick distracting from painful emotion meant turning his attention to something else. There are seven sets of ACCEPT distracting skills. The sentence “Wise mind ACCEPTS” is a useful way to remember these skills. Write down if Rick used any of them and how he used them. To help with your review a copy of the “Casablanca” script is included with this session.

A. Engaging in Activities that are neutral or opposite to negative emotions and crisis behaviors can work to reduce impulsive urges and distress in a number of ways. Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, colored markers and paper or magazines can distract attention and fill short-term memory with non-crisis-oriented thoughts, images, and sensations. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. Contributing to somebody else’s well-being refocuses attention from oneself to others and what one can do for them. Participating fully in the experience of helping someone else can make people completely forget their own problems for a while. For some individuals, contributing also increases a sense of meaning in life, thereby improving the moment. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

C. Making Comparisons also refocuses attention from oneself to others, but in a different way. In this case, the situations of others—those coping in the same way or less well, or the less fortunate in general—are used to recast one’s own situation in a more positive light.

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E. Generating different Emotions distracts from the current situation and negative emotion. This strategy interferes with the current mood state. This technique requires first figuring out the current emotion, so that activities for generating an opposite emotion different one can be sought. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

P. Pushing Away from a painful situation can be done by leaving it physically or by blocking it from one’s mind. Leaving the situation decreases contact with its emotional cues. Blocking is a somewhat conscious effort to inhibit thoughts, images, and urges associated with negative emotions. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

T. Distracting with other Thoughts. Focusing on one thought and repeating it, like singing a song in your head, fills short-term memory, so that thoughts activated by the negative emotion do not continue to reactivate the emotion. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

S. Intense, different Sensations can focus attention on something other than the emotional distress, its source, or its crisis urges. Holding ice cubes, tasting Tabasco sauce, lemon wedges, intensely sour candy, or putting on headphones and listening to fast, upbeat music. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Watch: “Guardians of the Galaxy” video.

DRIVE ME TO DISTRACTION ACTIVITY

Chris Pratt’s “Star-Lord” character dance off distraction in “Guardians of the Galaxy” may not work all the time. You have to figure out which distractions skills might be effective for you at that particular time.

Step 1: Are there ACCEPTS skills you can access at home, school or work that in 5 to 10 minutes distract you?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Step 2: What ACCEPTS skills may need a longer period of time to distract you?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Step 3: Do you sometimes need to use several different ACCEPTS skills in sequence over several hours or a day to help reduce distress?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Discuss: Share what you wrote with the group.

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Watch: “Wise Mind ACCEPTS End Credits” video.

As we roll the Wise Mind ACCEPTS – DBT Skill end credits think about what is the most important thing you learned in this session and what will you do differently because of what you learned. Write your thoughts below.

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Session Commitments

Practice the Distract with ACCEPTS skill using the accompanying worksheet. 

Complete the Weekly DBT Diary.

Come prepared to the next session to share your experience using DBT skills.