Topic Tuesday // Distress Tolerance // Tues 17 July, 7pm AEDT

I can relate to what you say @MoonGal

That's an interesting point you raise there @HayleyC - sort of giving yourself permission to feel emotions and focusing on effective actions rather than falling into unhelpful ways of coping.

Understanding the emotion we're feeling is so important @utopia for some people, they find it useful to focus on the skill of labelling their emotion as a first step. Kind of like saying "This is anger. It's ok that I'm feeling this"

That point arond avoiding suppression is a really important one @Zoe7 Tolerating distress is often about allowing our emotions to run their course, rather than prolonging our distress by trying to push them away.

When I feel intense emotion, so I'm really distressed either with anger or sadness, my brain kicks into fight or flight mode very quickly. And I usually choose flight. I hop in my car and set up a playlist of emotional songs and drive listening to my songs, and singing out loud until I feel myself calm down and ready to turn back and head back home. Sometimes it's half an hour. Sometimes it's hours.

@CheerBear - do you think it would be good to simply try and focus on what your body is doing/feeling. As a start. When I can't name my emotions. Start that way?

I can relate to you @MoonGal

Seeing our emotions differently can help us with distress tolerance. For example, fear is helpful when it kicks in in response to a real threat to safety, anger can spur us on to change things for the better, sadness tells us that we care about people or things, helping us to live a fulfilling life by telling us what’s important.

Another way of seeing our emotions differently is to remember that they are temporary. Although it can feel like our emotions will go on for ever – especially when we are highly distressed – our emotions are more like waves that become increasingly more intense, reaching a plateau, before they subside and pass. The more we accept our emotions and ‘ride the wave’, the quicker they pass and the less distressed we feel.

Has there been a time when changing how you view emotions has helped you manage distress? How might you be able to re-frame unpleasant emotions to help you to ‘ride the wave’ of distress?