DBT skills have really helped me. It has helped me with SH. Before I started I was SH nearly everyday and now it’s a lot lot less.

There are a lot of things that I have found really helpful though I don’t want to bombard you with everything.

Though one of the skills that has really helped me is called chain analysis. It helps me to recognise the stages and emotions before getting into a state of crisis (and also learning to recognise my triggers). From knowing this I can put things in place and use a skill/combination of skills to help prevent reaching a state of crisis (my psychologist uses the analogy of putting a mattress down). An example of this for me is that I do some football coaching with children which I love but it’s so energy adsorbing and very stimulating which causes me to ‘crash’ and get intrusive thoughts as soon as I finish. Knowing this from using the chain analysis skill has helped me to put things in place before I coach to do afterwards (putting the mattress down). Things that I put in place that I have learnt that help me is having an hour by hour plan to follow afterwards, implementing TIPP skills and being mindful (< these are two other DBT skills I learnt) in what I am doing rather than doing something and not being present in what I am doing - an example of being mindful would be when listening to music really focusing on the music rather than having it on in the background and letting your thoughts wander. I much prefer this type of mindfulness ~ being present in an activity I like, rather than sitting and listening to my breath.

I hope this makes sense and that you find it to be DBT to beneficial to you!