DBT interventions for depression can help you cope even at your lowest points
One of the major symptoms of depression is emotional distress. Feelings of sorrow, hopelessness, emptiness, and even self-harm and suicidal ideation are common with depression. Negative self-beliefs get amplified, and when you pair that with depression’s ability to sap your energy and motivation, it can be even harder to feel good about yourself.
Depression can also amplify your emotions and weaken your ability to cope with difficult situations. Everyday experiences like making a mistake at work, or a tense conversation with a spouse, can hit even harder with depression, escalating your distress, and truly difficult experiences like loss can feel almost intolerable.
With the distress that comes from depression, you have a choice. You can turn to unhealthy coping like isolation, substance use, self-harm, emotional outbursts, shutting down, impulsivity, etc., or you can turn to a structure that supports you through the distress, like dialectical behavior therapy with Suffolk DBT.
Why does distress tolerance help with depression?
they can take time. Before you’re able to use them regularly to combat depression, you’ll still experience a lot of distress.
Making it through that distress without leaning on unhealthy, unhelpful coping mechanisms can be a solid starting point for healing from depression. DBT distress tolerance skills help you use your mind and body in the moment to make the deep distress of depression easier to get through.
How can the ACCEPTS DBT skill help you?
When depression is adding or amplifying distress in your life, the ACCEPTS DBT skill can help distract you from that deep distress, making the moment more tolerable. You can use one, a few, or all of these options, in any order you like.
You may find that Activities help you more during the day, but Sensations helps more when depression keeps you up at night, or that Comparisons followed by Thoughts helps you ease your way out of the deep distress of depression. Try out some different options in moments of distress, to see what helps you the most.
However you choose to apply the skill, here’s a guide on how to use the ACCEPTS DBT skill for distress tolerance, and why each component helps with depression:
Activities
The goal with Activities is to focus your attention and energy on doing something, to help you make it through distress without focusing too much on it. The goal isn’t to accomplish anything specific, just to give your mind something else to pay attention to in the moment.
Get some exercise (known to help with depression all on its own), get out of the house, and get together with friends. Tackle some chores, build or create something, play a game, listen to music, read a book. Cook a meal, go out to eat, try a new food. Pick an activity you might enjoy, even if depression is trying to convince you you won’t enjoy it, and put all your attention into the activity.
Contributions
Find some contribution you can make to the lives of others. This can be something as big as fundraising, or as signing on to volunteer for a cause you believe in, or something as small as checking in with a friend to see how they are. Donate, do something kind or thoughtful, or post something encouraging online. Focus your attention and energy on things that add meaning to your life through your contributions to the world.
Having purpose and creating meaning in your life has been shown to help lift the weight of depression. It makes it easier to ignore thoughts of worthlessness or emptiness, and gives you something to focus on and look forward to.
Comparisons
Compare the present moment to other times in your life, or the lives of others. Focus on times where things were different, reminding yourself that you haven’t always felt this way, and you won’t always feel this way. Consider how many people are likely suffering right now, and recognize that you aren’t alone in how you feel right now; you aren’t alone in your distress.
You can use these comparisons to also remind yourself of things you do still enjoy or appreciate; compare what is distressing you now to the things that you actually like in your life, creating a gratitude exercise for yourself. Even in the most distressing moments, there’s something worth appreciating in life.
Emotions
Seek out emotional experiences to expand the feelings you’re feeling in the moment beyond distress. Listen to meaningful music or podcasts that make you laugh. Watch a comedy, a horror, a tear-jerker, or any favorite movie or show that makes you feel something deeply. Read books or comics you know will bring on feelings, watch inspirational or hopecore videos online, or ask friends or family to share meaningful stories with you. Think of things that make you happy.
Push Away
Push the difficult thoughts away from you. You can literally envision yourself shoving the thoughts out of your head, or boxing them up and locking them away. Notice when the thoughts won’t quiet down, and step back from them, thinking of them like a play happening in your mind. Let your mental self walk out of the theater, refusing to listen to the thoughts right now.
This is best used as a short-term solution to help you get through a dark time, so you can make use of other coping skills more easily without distress overwhelming you entirely.
Thoughts
Boring, routine thoughts can help you reduce distress by keeping your mind busy, without letting it latch on to anything emotional. Counting to 100, spelling simple words, saying the names of colors you see out the window, counting the number of breaths you take, counting cars that pass by, doing word or number puzzles, writing lists of characters in a show, anything that requires your attention but isn’t particularly interesting or emotional, can help reduce your distress.
Sensations
Use physical sensations to pull your attention away from distress. Eat interesting foods, or smell interesting fragrances that catch your attention. Look for temperature changes, like a warm beverage, heading outside into heat or cold, or feeling the sensation of ice held in your hand; cold in particular is well known to help your nervous system re-regulate, reducing distress in the moment. Look for different textures to touch, play with a fidget toy, or squeeze a stress ball. Listen to loud music, soothing nature sounds, or binaural beats.
Suffolk DBT helps people learn the DBT distress tolerance skills that can make depression easier to handle
Depression can hit hard, removing enjoyment and motivation and bringing about dark thoughts and difficult moods. DBT interventions for depression, like the ACCEPTS distress tolerance skill, can help make it easier to handle the deep distress that depression causes, especially when combined with mindfulness, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
The empathetic therapists at Suffolk DBT provide DBT in Manhattan, Long Island, and across New York with online therapy. If you are struggling with depression, contact us for a complimentary screening call today. We are ready to help you get started on managing your symptoms, so you can create a life worth living!