Recently started DBT

[nightmaresandtears]

(I checked a couple of pages back and didn't notice a thread like this, but if there is, please direct me.)

I have recently started DBT a couple of weeks ago and am struggling quite a bit. I find it very triggering and it's causing some ed behaviours to get worse.

I find it hard to relate to the other people in my group, as they are all a fair bit older than me with very different life experiences. On top of that, I have been through a CBT course previously for borderline personality disorder, and am finding that a lot of what my group is talking about is no longer an issue for me, which is frustrating.

I am trying, and I know that there will be parts of the course that are valuable, but in all honesty I feel like giving it up as a lost cause. The only reason I'm sticking with it is because my psychiatrist seems to think it is the best thing for me, and I do trust him.

I'm just looking for some support and encouragement I guess, and also if anyone would like to share their experiences with me, as I don't know anyone who's been through DBT and I feel a bit alone in this.

[findingmyself]

No your not alone. I have recently started dbt therapy too. My best advice is to seriously tell your therapist all this speak your needs in a calm nice voice to your therapsit seriously and hopefully she will meet your needs.

In dbt there is that dbt diary card Im guessing thats what your refering to when you said you feel triggered. I have diffrent reasons I dont like the dbt diary card. If its triggering you then you need to tell your therapist that and figure it out with her on what to do about it. I dont like the dbt diary card because It makes me feel like it makes me be more concious of when I cut or had suicidal thoughts and so on. Im not saying I block it out I just dont let it consume me. I feel focusing on it so much is bad but thats just my opionin I want to move on after I cut or have suicdal thoughts not dwell on it.

So see we all have diffrent needs and all have diffrent feelings towards things. So best advice nicely speak to your therapist tell her how your feeling about the dbt and see if you guys can come up with something diffrent to do or something.

Like Im going to talk to my therapsit that does dbt going to ask if for right now I dont have to do the dbt diary card bec of what I said above and some other things I need to talk to her about.

Take it one appointment at a time. Take it one day at a time just talk to your therapist about your needs and hopefully she can meet them.

[Cacoethes]

i did DBT for a year in hospital.

honestly i found it didn't help me, but it helped literally everyone else in the group, and the patients who had done the course previously really got on well with it.

if you are only doing it because your psych wants you to, then you probably won't get anything out of it because your haven't got your heart in it.

try talking to your DBT therapist about it, and maybe she could suggest something.
x

[Koriandr]

I've been doing DBT for 10 months now, and I found that it tends to be really triggering for the first few months of it, and eventually it gets better.
The thing with DBT is that it doesn't work unless you put forth a lot of effort to make it work. I think everyone can learn from DBT, but you have to be willing to work hard to learn the skills and to apply them.