The Dbt Skills Workbook

[Hashi]

I love poems...I like writing them a lot too.

Me too. :)

I'm not sure anyone else would find this poem soothing! It's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. It has a lot of anguish in it, but also redemption (the most soothing part for me is the section where he watches the water snakes and everything changes).

Even the anguish relieves my own feelings because it's cathartic and it reminds me that what I'm going through is archetypal and shared. It's so beautifully expressed, both words and imagery. I can't write anything like that - I wish! - but it resonates so much with what I've been going through recently I feel like someone has done it for me.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Hashi,

I may look into getting a copy of the workbook. Or at the very least, check it out of the library... Our library is mostly in storage right now so I need to order my books online. I suppose this is the perfect excuse to get me motivated to use the library again! Well, until the new one is fully constructed and open.

Maddog,

I don't think your un-soothable... Sometimes its just hard to find something that works. I worked at meditation for over 9 months before I started feeling any effect on my own (my therapist could assist during sessions, but I had difficulty on my own.) Now I'm to the point where I can calm myself in seconds whereas it used to take me at least a half hour of meditating. So my point is that you should keep trying, trying, trying. Something that may not work right now may later be a great tool for you to use, if only you keep at it.

 

[Hashi]

I agree with ScaredOfLonely, that it's about keeping trying. I'm on a self-soothing roll now! Well, at least I managed it last night. All I did was curl up with a blanket somewhere in my home that I don't normally go to when I'm upset, but there was something about bothering about myself enough to do that and how cosy it was.

I suppose it's that the soothing things are finally, finally starting to get through to me. I hope so, I really need this skill.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Ok, apparently I have so many skills books that I have NO idea which ones I actually own! long/short, I do in fact own the DBT skills workbook, and yes, I have worked through it before :-/

So last week I was reading through the workbook in between innings (big baseball fan, lol) and I was ok with everything, although it was all review, up until I got to page 200 (yes, that's the precise page...open your book and you'll see what I'm talking about!) So for 199 SOLID pages we are told up and down, left and right, inside and out to NOT judge anything good or bad. Not a hard concept to grasp, right? (A bit harder to master, lol). And what happens on page 200? You are told to judge your feelings as good or bad! (I kid you not!) My first reaction was to throw the book across the room, but that wasn't wise considering I was sitting in front of a huge flatscreen. So I reconsider donating the book to the thrift store. Another bad choice as I wouldn't want anyone else to be confused. So ultimately I decide that it's best suited for fuel in the woodstove. So maybe you're thinking this is a rash decision, but I haven't burned it yet. I have the original DBT book and I understand the skills. Seriously, though, don't tell me to do one thing for 199 pages and then pull a 180. You lose ALL credibility with me! (Bad, bad editing....they could have simply worded it as "more desirable" and "less desirable" feelings!!) I'm currently working through my CBT for dummies book, and I'm getting SOOO much more out of it.

Sidebar. I am HOCKED off at all of my past therapists who pushed DBT on me. Nobody ever pushed me toward CBT (outside of hospitalization)...it was always "you need DBT!" And is it just me, or is CBT much more in depth than DBT? I whipped through my DBT book pretty quickly, but my CBT book is a harder read and the skills are harder to master (lol, maybe because it was written by the Brits and it takes me longer to understand word usage. Yes, I can hear you all laughing at me from across the pond....)

But, to each their own. We all heal differently, and while I don't get a lot out of DBT, I'm glad that others do.