Is dialectical behavior therapy effective for ptsd?

[cinann]

Hello, I am newly diagnosed with ptsd was partially hospitalized a month ago. I am currently engaged in a dialectical behavior therapy program, but I am quickly becoming discouraged. I feel that the skills I am learning are just common sense for me, and do not address the real issues I am having. I do not feel safe expressing my intense emotions without being accused of not effectively applying skills. Has anyone had success with DBT? If not, what else would you suggest?

Thank you!

 

[Abstract]

Hi,
Others may have different thoughts on this but for me: DBT is an excellent way of dealing with emotion regulation and self management issues. Taking care of myself, dealing with my relationships with others, staying present, dealing with intense emotional distress etc. It didn't teach me about trauma, specific skills to manage other PTSD symptoms, or trauma processing. I would imagine it is possible to find a t who would deal with all these things of course.

Do you have the following difficulties: problems self soothing and self compassion, overwhelm, difficulties with your relationships with others and yourself, difficulties managing intense emotional states healthily, staying aware of yourself and your environment in a non judgmental way? If not then you may already be ready to do trauma processing. If you don't have enough of these skills and do trauma work you can end up in trouble. Have you been given the basics like grounding skills etc when in hospital?

 

[EveHarrington]

I think it takes many different kinds of therapies in order to manage ptsd. Well, that’s been my experience anyway. I take what works for me from each modality, and leave the rest. DBT is good stuff, but it’s presentation drove me nuts. Acronyms aren’t supposed to use letters in the middle! Blasphemy! LOL.

I will say that it was extremely difficult for me to try and regulate my system with skills before I started taking medication. Override biology? Pretty impossible! Now that I’m on medication, I’m able to put the skills to use.

 

[Suzetig]

As others have said DBzt skills can really help with emotional regulation - expressing those strong emotions is one thing, putting it all away again at the end of a session is quite another. I also wonder if other people see something in your emotional expression that you simply don’t.

To give an example, I had to go for some medical tests, which I thought I was ok with right up until the nurse asked me if I needed some water and space to gather myself. Apparently I had had a look of utter panic on my face the whole time and kept flinching every time she touched me. I was so dissociates I had no idea - I thought I was being calm and collected!

It may be that you’re giving away signs of becoming overwhelmed which is exactly what DBT is designed to help with. Common sense, yes, but hard to connect to your common sense when you’re in fight or flight. It’s nit designed to help you process trauma, but go support you doing that by helping you cope with those strong emotions.

 

[Friday]

DBT is the gold standard for BPD, and incrediably useful for those with Borderline tendencies, which includes a very wide swath of people with PTSD.

My issues are largely on the opposite side of that spectrum, which doesn’t make it useful for me; and I have another disorder, whose best practices are either the opposite of what DBT teaches, or are covered and used in far more in depth. So it’s not only a bad fit for me, but would make me much worse.

Shrug. Not all treatment modalities work for everyone, nor work for every disorder. That’s why there are different modalities, protocols, and best practices.

 

[Abstract]

It helped me a lot with recognising my emotions and allow me to express them. It helped with self hatred. It helped me with accepting feelings of overwhelm which made them more tolerable. It helped me recognise unhealthy behaviour in others and to protect myself better. It helped me develop self care. It helped me recognise and deal with dissociation even though indirectly. It helped me connect the disconnected parts of me. Connection to the present, connection to my thoughts and feelings, connection to self care, connection to and awareness of my symptoms. It helped repair some of the damaging effects that all the previous CBT had on me. Damaging for me that is. DBT was part of the antidote.

 

[Stephernovas]

DBT skills are great for emotion regulation, distress tolerance and etc. These will be the coping skills you use while working on your trauma. it may be 'common sense', but to have the be truly effective they need to be practiced regularly. I always talk about how I feel like I've rifled through all the coping skills I know, but they don't seem to be working (in some situations). When I mention that to my therapist, I also get the whole 'you have to keep practicing them'. The only reason I agree with this is because before the trauma that caused the PTSD to explode, I was practicing them. But, even then I still needed to practice them to ensure and/or increase efficacy. It's not about just doing the act of the skill, it's about truly immersing yourself into the behaviour. Physiologically when we practice breathing techniques and etc, our bodies have no choice but to change. It's been a b*tch, and sometimes I have to try a few different techniques, or even the same ones in a different order, but something eventually works. This morning was hard, but short of popping meds to numb the stress...coping skills are the way to go.