Distress Tolerance
In this article:
Think of distress tolerance as a continuum where at one end people can be extremely intolerant of distress, and at the other end people can be extremely tolerant of distress.
Fear and avoidance of the distress actually magnifies the experience of difficult situations or emotions.
Distress Tolerance focuses on learning skills to increase your capacity for difficult emotional experiences
Distress Tolerance in DBT
We all experience emotions. Emotions are an important part of being human, and are essential to our survival. We are designed to feel a whole range of emotions, some of which may be comfortable to us, and others may be uncomfortable.
Most people dislike feeling uncomfortable. There are many different ways that humans can feel uncomfortable…we can be hot, cold, tired, in pain, hungry, sick, and the list could go on. The type of discomfort we will be talking about in the module of DISTRESS TOLERANCE is emotional discomfort, or what is often called distress. We may not like it, but experiencing uncomfortable emotions is a natural part of life.
However, there is a difference between disliking unpleasant emotions, but nevertheless accepting that they are an inevitable part of life and hence riding through them, versus experiencing unpleasant emotions as unbearable and needing to get rid of them. You may believe that you “can’t face”, “can’t stand”, or “can’t tolerate” emotional distress. Being intolerant of experiencing emotional discomfort can actually create more problems, as it interferes with living a fulfilling life, and can compound any emotional discomfort you might be experiencing.
What is Distress Intolerance?
A perceived inability to fully experience unpleasant, averse or uncomfortable emotions, and is accompanied by a desperate need to escape the uncomfortable emotions.
Difficulties tolerating distress are often linked to a fear of experiencing a negative emotion.
Often distress intolerance centers on high intensity emotional experiences, that is, when the emotion is ‘hot’, strong and powerful.
However, it could also occur for lower intensity emotions such as less intense anxiety or sadness.
It is not the intensity of the emotion itself, but how much you fear it, how unpleasant it feels to you, how unbearable it seems, and how much you want to get away from it that determines if you are intolerant of the distress.
Dr. Tracy Marks is a psychiatrist who posts educational content online.
But modified forms of DBT can be helpful for other conditions like bipolar disorder, anxiety, eating disorders, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Today I’m going to teach you one of the many techniques that is used with DBT to be able to manage your emotions. It’s called distress tolerance. Distress tolerance is the skill of being able to accept the emotion that you’re feeling without resorting to coping behaviors that make your situation and overall condition worse.
Healthy Distress Tolerance
An important thing to consider when assessing your own level of distress tolerance, is that like many things in life, doing anything at the extreme can be unhelpful. Think of distress tolerance as a continuum where at one end people can be extremely intolerant of distress, and at the other end people can be extremely tolerant of distress. Sitting at either end of the spectrum isn’t good for you.
If you were always overly tolerant of experiencing all unpleasant emotions, then problems might result such as tolerating bad situations or bad people in your life. If you were tolerant in the extreme, you would never take action to change unhappy circumstances in your life that need to be changed.
The Paradox
The strategy of avoidance seems to work for other things that make us uncomfortable (e.g., heat, cold, pain, hunger, etc). However, when we apply the same strategy to our emotions, it seems to backfire. This is the paradoxical nature of distress intolerance. That is, the more we fear, struggle with, and try to avoid any form of distress, generally the worse that distress gets. Fear and avoidance of the distress actually magnifies the experience of difficult situations or emotions.
DISCLAIMER: All information included is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used for self-diagnosis or to instruct anyone on how to proceed with their mental healthcare. A mental health diagnosis can only be identified by a trained professional that facilitates a proper assessment. Please speak to your healthcare professionals prior to making any changes.
