Stress is a normal part of life however sometimes we can become overwhelmed and distressed. If we don’t have helpful coping strategies to manage this distress, we can sometimes turn to substance use to get us through. Using substances can actually make us feel worse and continue the cycle! Distress tolerance skills are alternative, healthy ways to survive the moment of distress, or crisis, without making it worse.
These skills will not solve the problem and should only be used in the short term to help get us through, until we can get back into wise mind. Once we are in wise mind we can use other DBT problem solving strategies to effectively resolve the situation.
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