The following chart is an addition to what we have been learning about Emotions. Since we have been journeying through the Emotion Regulation part of DBT we have gotten to the Changing your Emotion and Opposite Action. This is where we move from validation into action. We identify the initial urge we feel when the emotion pops up and what action we need to engage in to start to conquer the emotion.
If you are feeling Anxiety/Fear then your natural response or trained response is to Avoid the threat. Yet, once we have “checked the facts” and decided that the threat is not valid then we approach.
For instance, if we are afraid of driving since we were in a bad car accident. We Stop and we check the facts. Just because we were in 1 bad car accident does not mean that every time we go to drive or get in a car we will be in an accident. The facts of the situation is that the car is not the threat and therefore we do not need to avoid it. We then gently begin to approach things by getting in the car, then maybe taking a short drive around the block and then doing a short drive to a longer destination. The longer we drive and observe the good habits of our driving and how many times we have a successful drive it starts to reduce the initial response of avoidance.
Try this out with the following emotions and think of examples where you remember the initial urge and how you overcame. Remember to start where you are already being skillful and build from there. It all starts with observation.
Middle Path Counseling MO 