Hi again, friends!
Sorry I didn’t make a post last week. I bet you thought I disappeared again, but I didn’t.
These last few weeks have been rough. I’ve changed medications twice since I wrote last, I think, and I’ve had a lot going on mentally and situationally.
Today is day two of Seroquel and it’s kinda kicking my ass, honestly. I’m exhausted and having a bit of a rough day mentally, but I decided that if all I get done today is this post, then that can be enough for me.
So with that said, I’m going to write about this skill in DBT called Wise Mind ACCEPTS.
If you recall my last post, I talked about the difference between wise mind, emotional mind, and reasonable mind.
Wise mind is the place where reason and emotion meet.
ACCEPTS is an acronym. It stands for:
A – Activities.
C – Contributing.
C – Comparisons.
E – Emotions.
P – Pushing away.
T – Thoughts.
S – Sensations.
These are all distraction techniques, but the acronym is a helpful way to remember them. In no way are you meant to do all of these things at once.
Activities can be things like exercising, cleaning your house or bedroom, watching your favourite movie, or starting that new show you’ve been meaning to watch, or reading a book. The point is to do something you enjoy.
Contributing can be things like volunteer work, or donating things you don’t want or need anymore, or messaging an old friend and giving them words of encouragement, or heck, even go hug someone you love.
Comparisons are when you think back on old situations and appreciating how far you’ve come.
Emotions. Try to evoke an emotion in yourself other than the one you’re feeling right now. If you’re sad, watch a comedy that will make you laugh. If you’re angry, listen to your favourite happy or sad song. The point is to feel another strong emotion other than the one that caused you to use the skill in the first place.
Pushing away is about setting your current emotion aside for now. This doesn’t mean forgetting about it or avoiding it forever, but if you’re unable to deal with your present emotion, try to find a way to think about other things.
Thoughts are about distracting your current thoughts. Start counting, whether you just want to count to 10 or 100, or count the colours you see in a room, literally anything you want. Or if numbers aren’t your favourite, try to remember all of the words to a song you know, or focus on the words in a book. It’s all about focus.
Sensations are about creating new physical sensations in your body to distract from emotions. You can do this by holding an iced cube in your fist, taking a warm or cold shower, getting someone close to us emotionally to scratch your back or “pet” your hair. Squeeze a stress ball. Eat spicy food. Stuff like that.
These things help distract us from our current situations and emotions until the emotion is “cooler” or more calmed down, or the situation feels less overwhelming, and we can (hopefully) return to it in wise mind.
Alrighty, friends, that’s it for me for now because I feel like garbage. Hopefully you find some help in posts like these. Feel free to ask any questions you may have, but keep in mind, I’m not a medical professional, and I’m still learning myself.
Keep on keeping on.
As always, and especially in times like these, take care of yourselves and your loved ones, friends!
Paige
A Rambler In Bloom 