When emotional pain or anger becomes overwhelming, and you find yourself on the verge of being overwhelmed by emotions in situations such as work, school, or personal relationships, there are moments when it’s more effective to redirect your attention away from those emotions rather than fully experiencing them. This technique can also be useful when you’re faced with problems that can’t be immediately solved. When urgency to resolve an issue arises, it often prevents us from focusing our attention on anything other than the crisis at hand.
Engaging in activities that oppose negative emotions or behaviors, engaging in neutral activities, or helping others can reduce impulsive states or emotional distress. By redirecting your attention to non-crisis thoughts, images, or sensations, you can momentarily fill your short-term memory, lowering the intensity of the crisis at hand. Shifting your attention from your personal crisis to others can help decrease its intensity. Deliberately dispersing your attention across various thoughts and sensations can help you pass through impulsive states.
Among the crisis survival skills in DBT distress tolerance, the Distract Skill consists of seven components, which are easily remembered as “Wise Mind ACCEPTS.” Whether emotional pain is overwhelming you for a week, an unsolvable problem has arisen, or even in the absence of such situations, practice these skills.
1. Activities
2. Contributing
3. Comparison
4. Emotions
5. Pushing Away
6. Thoughts
7. Sensations
Songhee Chae, M.A. / DBT Institute of Korea
