If you or someone you care about has a problem with drugs or alcohol, it may feel like a never-ending cycle. You might be looking for a way out, a chance to free yourself from the ongoing battle. With so many different treatment options out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to figure out what might work best for you.
Some therapies look at the behaviors that hold us back. Others explore our past and childhood experiences. Some tools really push you to confront the things you’re most afraid of. One therapy that could make a real difference in your life is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is a type of therapy. It helps you manage your feelings, thoughts, and actions.
Marsha M. Linehan is a psychologist. She created it to help people with emotional issues, relationship problems, and other mental health concerns. DBT helps you understand what triggers your reactions so you can better control them.
So, when we talk about “dialectical,” we’re saying that two opposing ideas can coexist. It’s like being okay with how you feel right now while also trying to better your emotional well-being.
In DBT, you accept who you are now. At the same time, you work on positive changes. These changes can improve your mood and help you move forward in life.
To fully grasp how effective dialectical behavior therapy can be, it’s helpful to first learn about its core ideas:
DBT focuses on teaching essential life skills. Some examples are being present in the moment (mindfulness), managing emotions (emotion regulation), building connections (interpersonal effectiveness), and getting through tough times (distress tolerance). Let’s get further into each of them!
Mindfulness:
DBT therapy helps you notice your thoughts and feelings. This way, you can make better choices instead of reacting right away. The key is to learn how to give yourself time to process your emotions before responding.
This concept comes from Zen, which focuses on gaining control over your urges and emotions. In this section, you’ll learn about. In this module, you’ll get to explore:
These three primary ‘what skills’:
These three main ‘how skills’:
A key term in this module is ‘wise mind.’ This means combining emotional awareness with logical reasoning. Emotional awareness is called ’emotional mind.’ Logical reasoning is known as ‘reasonable mind.’ These core skills are fundamental and are the foundation for the other modules.”
Distress Tolerance:
Life can throw some tough stuff our way; sometimes, it can feel like the pain is too much to handle. Instead of grabbing a drink or a pill, DBT shows you how to handle those tough times without slipping back into old, harmful habits. The skills taught in this module include:
Emotion Regulation:
Emotional regulation in DBT focuses on helping you manage intense feelings that are hard to control. The goal is to lessen emotional pain.
We want to help you manage strong feelings better. This way, you can respond in a healthier way instead of acting on impulse. The skills covered in this module are:
Interpersonal Effectiveness:
Finally, interpersonal effectiveness teaches you how to improve your relationships. Suppose you’re feeling the strain that using substances puts on your relationships. In that case, DBT offers tools to help you communicate better. It also enables you to set healthy limits.
You can create stronger and more positive connections with others. This module focuses on improving skills in three critical areas of interpersonal relationships:
These skills—each one powerful on its own—can help you reclaim your life step by step.
DBT is very effective for people struggling with addiction issues. Initially, it was designed to address personality disorders and relationship difficulties. Studies have shown that DBT can help with mood disorders and suicidal thoughts. It can also change harmful behaviors like self-harm and substance abuse.
This therapy is not only about stopping bad habits. It also helps you understand and manage the feelings and thoughts that cause these habits. Often, people connect addiction to deeper problems like mood swings, stress management issues, and relationship challenges. DBT provides you with skills to understand and handle these underlying issues, which can help break the cycle of addiction.
How serious is the problem?
If you’re dealing with a mental illness or drug or alcohol use problem, remember that you’re not alone. Approximately 58.7 million individuals, accounting for about 22.8% of adults, experienced a form of mental health issue. Almost 20% of the 4.5 million teens aged 12 to 17 who had serious depression last year also faced substance abuse problems.
Alcohol is the most abused drug in the United States, with about 134.7 million people using it. Besides alcohol, binge drinking and heavy drinking affect about 61.4 million people. This is around 45.6% of the population.
But it’s not just alcohol. Opioids affect 8.9 million people; 61.8 million use marijuana, and 5.9 million use nicotine. Other commonly misused drugs include cocaine, methamphetamine, prescription stimulants, benzodiazepines, hallucinogens, heroin, and synthetic cannabinoids.
One approach that could help you is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). DBT focuses on balancing two seemingly opposite things: acceptance and change.
It is just as important to find better ways to improve life and handle tough situations. This is as vital as stopping harmful behaviors, like using drugs, to cope with pain.
DBT helps people set important goals for their recovery. These goals can greatly assist them in overcoming addiction and staying sober. These consist of:
Reducing self-destructive behaviors
DBT’s first objective is to help you address your self-destructive behaviors. This can include using drugs to deal with difficult emotions. When you start using DBT, you’ll begin to recognize these behaviors, and the important part is you’ll figure out how to stop them, too.
Building a life worth living
However, DBT goes beyond just halting the negative. It is all about creating a meaningful life.
You will swap out those outdated, detrimental patterns for fresh, beneficial habits. Instead of simply getting by, DBT assists you in beginning to live satisfyingly and purposefully. Ultimately, you’ll walk away with valuable skills that will help you create the fulfilling life you want.
Improving emotional regulation
The goal of DBT is to improve the ability to manage emotions better. When people are overwhelmed by intense feelings, they might use drugs to escape the discomfort quickly. DBT helps people learn not to avoid or ignore these intense emotions but to accept them and positively deal with them.
DBT delves beyond surface-level addiction treatment, addressing the underlying emotional issues that frequently contribute to it. Addiction is often not solely related to the substance itself; it usually involves underlying issues.
For some people, it helps to hide feelings of emptiness, anxiety, sadness, or anger. These feelings can be hard to face. DBT supports you in understanding the root of these feelings and equips you with skills to manage them more effectively.
Understand the root causes of your addiction
One of the initial steps in DBT involves assisting you in comprehending the underlying reasons for your addiction. It’s not just about urges or material things. It also involves recognizing the emotional and mental triggers that lead to this behavior. By examining these fundamental elements, DBT assists in understanding the reason behind your use of substances.
Develop healthier coping mechanisms
Following that, DBT aims to assist you in building more effective coping strategies. DBT helps you manage your emotions in a healthier way. It teaches you not to use substances to numb emotional pain. You will develop abilities to handle stress, anxiety, or anger without resorting to destructive actions.
Build emotional resilience
Lastly, DBT also focuses on assisting you in developing emotional strength. Life is filled with obstacles, yet you can tackle them without turning to substances. In DBT, you will learn to handle tough emotions and situations better. This will help you avoid falling back into old, addictive habits.
DBT provides many valuable tools and methods to help make a difference. Let’s explore some of the main techniques used in DBT for treating addiction:
DBT therapy techniques help you learn about mindfulness skills. They show how these skills can help you control your behavior. You can also find ways to use them in challenging situations. Here’s a list of them:
These skills are meant to help you focus on the present moment rather than the past or future.
Some critical mindfulness skills are:
When you practice mindfulness with DBT, you’ll begin to:
Distress tolerance means using DBT skills to learn how to cope with discomfort healthily. It’s about facing those challenging, negative emotions instead of running from them. In DBT, you’ll discover techniques that help you get through moments of crisis or distress. Key skills include:
Crisis Skills: Tools for handling immediate crises (e.g., urges to self-harm, panic). The goal is self-regulation over emotional outbursts.
STOP:
This technique weighs the benefits of tolerating distress versus reacting impulsively.
TIPP: It aims to adjust body chemistry to calm distress.
ACCEPTS: It is a tool to help deal with triggers. These triggers can include activities, contributions, comparisons, emotions, and unwanted thoughts or feelings.
Self-Soothing with the 5 Senses: Use your senses (sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste) to help yourself feel grounded when you feel overwhelmed or disconnected.
IMPROVE the Moment: A set of skills to enhance emotional resilience, including:
Dialectical behavior therapy helps people, among other things, learn to handle their emotions better. In DBT, emotional regulation means learning to handle strong feelings. It helps us become less upset by mood changes. The aim isn’t to suppress your emotions but to understand them better and handle them more effectively.
DBT therapy helps you change how you think about your feelings. It guides you to gain control over your emotional reactions. In the goal-setting phase of treatment, DBT presents four important categories of emotion regulation. These can help you manage your emotional responses better.
As you learn DBT skills for managing your emotions, you will better identify, observe, and explain your feelings. It is critical to understand your emotions and how they influence your perception of life and healing.
Here are some of the techniques you’ll explore:
With such tools at your disposal, you’ll better understand and regulate your feelings. When you learn to recognize and name your emotions, you can change your quick reactions. These reactions can sometimes lead you to use drugs to cope with problems. This helps reduce painful or unwanted strong feelings, making your emotional life more peaceful and balanced.
Being effective in relationships in DBT means building and maintaining good connections with others. This includes close friends as well as acquaintances. It’s not just about talking to people; it’s about finding a way to connect that works well for you and them.
As you improve, your therapist will teach you DBT skills. These skills will help you connect with others, set limits, and handle tough conversations more easily. These skills will help you build more profound, more meaningful relationships. These skills are grouped into two main categories:
Here are some techniques from DBT that can boost your interpersonal effectiveness:
These tools will help you:
What’s critical is learning how to navigate both sides of relationships. On one hand, DBT helps you know how to become more intimate with loved ones. It also teaches you how to terminate relationships that no longer benefit you.
As you develop these skills, you will find a balanced way to handle your relationships. You will accept others as they are while also focusing on your own needs. It’s finding a harmony between embracing and fostering genuine, respectful development.
Typically, it consists of a combination of individual counseling, group therapy, and phone support.
In one-on-one therapy, you’ll work with a therapist who knows about DBT. They’ll help you deal with your addiction, understand the feelings causing it, and learn ways to manage triggers and cravings. You’ll also learn the critical skills of DBT in a personalized setting.
Joining group therapy is important in DBT. It allows people to connect with others who have similar experiences. In group sessions, you’ll practice DBT skills with others, share your experiences, and support one another. This joint learning opportunity has the potential to be very impactful and nurture a feeling of belonging among participants.
DBT stands out because it offers phone coaching as a unique feature. This enables you to contact your therapist in times of difficulty between appointments. Phone coaching provides instant support to help you remain focused when facing cravings, emotional distress, or challenging circumstances.
We know that cost is a major factor for most people when seeking treatment for drug & alcohol abuse in Virginia. Novara Recovery Center works with most major insurance plans to help cover up to 100% of the costs associated with treatment at our program. To find out your personal options for treatment, get a free verification of insurance benefits right now by clicking the button below.
For those who struggle with emotional and behavioral issues, DBT provides a number of advantages. DBT provides tools to help you build better-coping skills. It allows you to live a more fulfilling life by combining acceptance and change. Among the advantages are:
DBT is especially successful in assisting individuals in controlling their emotions. One fundamental principle is teaching clients how to better understand, experience, and control intense emotions through emotional regulation.
DBT uses mindfulness techniques and practical strategies. This helps people recognize and understand their emotions. It also helps them deal with emotional events more calmly.
DBT promotes mindfulness, leading to increased self-awareness. This recognition is crucial.
When you take time to understand your feelings and reactions, you can notice negative thoughts or triggers. This helps you avoid going back to substance use. The greater your awareness, the better you will be able to exert control over your actions.
The use of drugs or alcohol may lead to issues with family, friends, and colleagues, among other individuals. DBT can improve your communication skills with family, friends, and colleagues. Improving communication and problem-solving skills will enhance relationships and access to necessary support for improvement.
DBT is very useful for preventing relapse, particularly for individuals facing difficulties such as substance abuse, self-harm, or behaviors connected to emotional instability. DBT helps people learn skills to manage strong emotions. It also teaches them how to handle life’s challenges better.
To add DBT to your addiction treatment plan, start by finding a DBT therapist or treatment center. Look for one that specializes in DBT. Addiction treatment programs at various rehab centers and mental health clinics commonly include DBT. When you contact them, make sure to ask about the available DBT programs and what those programs include.
Along with therapy, committing to your healing journey entirely is vital. DBT isn’t just a quick solution; it’s more about making a lasting commitment to your mental health conditions.
At Novara Recovery Center, we offer unique treatment programs. These programs use proven evidence-based therapies, such as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Our goal is to help people who have both mental health disorders and substance use disorders (SUDs).
Let us guide you on your path to healing.
Written By:
Mental Health Writer
Geoffrey Andaria is a seasoned writer and editor specializing in mental health content. With a B.A. in English and Journalism, he possesses a solid foundation in crafting freelance articles and conducting research. Geoffrey has also completed courses in social work. He dedicates himself to providing valuable and informative content for individuals impacted by mental health challenges and addiction.
Medically Reviewed By:
Expert Contributor
Dr. Williams is currently a board member for two non-profit service organizations. He holds a Master’s degree in Human Services from Lincoln University, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He possesses a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Union Institute and University, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a license to offer addiction counseling in both New Jersey and Connecticut. Additionally, he has submitted an application to become a licensed psychologist in New Jersey.
