Understand
Distress Tolerance
Bad things happen to all of us at some point or another. And sometimes it even feels like a lot of hard things are happening back to back or all at once. Life is full of both positive and challenging experiences. Distress tolerance focuses on how to change your response to difficult situations through acceptance, distraction, and/or tolerance. These skills allow us to survive crises without making things worse. They also help us tolerate a painful moment when we cannot change the situation right away.
The goal of the distress tolerance skills is to get through the difficult moment without making it worse, not necessarily to change the emotion or the situation.
** Linehan, M.M. (2015). DBT skills training manual (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
The goal of the distress tolerance skills is to get through the difficult moment without making it worse, not necessarily to change the emotion or the situation.
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