Author: Claire Leong Date: 15/03/2023
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Distress tolerance is about managing distress, which is a part of our daily lives and not something we will always be able to avoid.
ACCEPTS is a DBT exercise that helps you think of ways to manage distressing emotions.
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What is an activity that you can do when you’re feeling this emotion? This activity should be something that can distract you from the distressing emotion. For example, playing a game or going for a walk.
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When we’re feeling distressed, we often focus on just how crabby we’re feeling. Let’s try to focus on somebody else instead. For example, doing something nice for someone else. It can even be as simple as talking to someone about them instead of about yourself (e.g. Asking them how they are and finding out more about them, instead of talking about your own feelings and experiences), or writing a letter to someone you care about.
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You have felt this distressing emotion before, but you survived it! Think of a time in the past when you felt this emotion really strongly, but yet you managed to get over it. Think about how resilient and competent you have been. If you’ve overcome that, surely you can overcome this. Remember - you have a 100% success rate of surviving every awful day in your life!
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Think of something you could do that would trigger a strong emotion.