Dialectical Behavior Therapy (others call it Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) is a treatment pioneered by Marsha Linehan, PhD, in 1991. It is a cognitive behavioral treatment which combines cognitive-behavioral theory and methods with eastern meditative principles and practices. Dialectical Behavior therapy was developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan.

Who Benefits from DBT Skills Training?

DBT can be useful for Borderline Personality Disorder, Substance Abuse, self-injury, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and depression.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training

Usually, DBT includes a combination of group skills training and individual psychotherapy. There are four main types of skills that are focus in DBT.

Mindfulness techniques

Mindfulness is cornerstone in DBT. Mindfulness is an open, accepting, non-judgmental awareness. It helps individuals for accepting and tolerating the strong emotions. Therefore mindfulness considered “core” skill, because is essential to implement the other DBT skills successfully. When you’re mindful, you observe your behaviors, emotions and thoughts from outside, without judging and labeling.

The goals of teaching mindfulness skills in Dialectical Behavior Therapy are:

Fully observing without judgment
Describing without judgmental statements
Participating in the activity with fully focus

Distress Tolerance

Distress tolerance skill is an ability for accepting and tolerating painful events and emotions when, there is no way to solve the problem or get rid of the stressful situation.

Individuals who have low distress tolerance do self destructive behaviors for escaping from severe emotional pain. Self destructive behaviors destroy oneself, one’s family and causes emotional crisis for the long term. Self destructive behaviors include three categories:

1. Self harm.
2. Drug abuse.
3. Suicide.

There are four categories of distress tolerance skills in Dialectical Behavior Therapy:

1. Distraction.
2. Self-Soothing.
3. Improving the moment.
4. Focusing on the pros and cons.

Distress tolerance skills help individuals for tolerating stressful situations and managing difficult emotional states without using Self destructive behaviors.

Emotion Regulation

Individuals with borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder and suicidal individuals suffer from uncontrolled emotions such as depression, mania, anger and anxiety. Learning to regulate our emotions enables us to manage our emotions instead of being managed by them.

Emotion Regulation skills include three stages:

understand what you’re feeling
reduce your vulnerability
Decrease emotional suffering.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Our interactions with other people can generate stress. Stress can also lead to self destructive behaviors. On the other hand, our relationships are the effective tools for coping with stress. Interpersonal response patterns taught in Dialectical Behavior Therapy include effective strategies for asking for what you want.

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Mental health can be attributed to many things, and one of those things is diet. This has warranted the most attention from the mental health community than perhaps any other form of therapy. Nutritional awareness and increased popularity of non-pharmaceutical solutions to health problems has led to a great deal of press and some pretty strong claims on both sides of the mental health argument.

1. Low Carbohydrate Diet

Certain diets have a discernible impact on mood and mental health. The popular low carbohydrate diets that are often vaunted as a great means of promoting weight loss, for instance, may increase the risk of depression. This is because foods rich in carbohydrates tell the body to produce chemicals including tryptophan and serotonin. These substances create a sense of well being in a person and their absence can have a dramatic impact on mood. Many people who cut carbohydrates from their diets may experience depressive symptoms as a result of the shortfall in these substances. The impact of carbohydrate intake on depression remains somewhat unclear.

2. You Are What You Eat

We have all heard the old clich that you are what you eat. As with most oft-repeated phrases, its popularity is largely based on its accuracy. What we take into our body does have a profound impact on how well it functions. Although we often tend to think of mental health problems as being divorced from the physical realm, they do originate in the body. It only makes sense to consider how various nutrients and dietary habits may affect depression and other mental health concerns.

3. Vitamins

Certain vitamins also seem to be linked with depression. The B vitamin group, in particular, is often mentioned alongside depression. This is because B vitamins are key to the functioning of our nervous systems. Vitamin B6 is one example. Research has demonstrated that those suffering from depression often have very low levels of Vitamin B6 in their systems (as well as low levels of the aforementioned seratonin). Although most citizens living in industrialized nations generally to manage sufficient dietary impact of B6, certain medications (including birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy drugs) actually interfere with B6 ingestion.

4.Overhaul Your Diet

Far too many people eat out. It might shock you to actually discover how many calories are in a single hamburger these days. Eating a healthy and well-rounded diet consistent with recognized nutritional recommendations may be a good way of battling depression. A failure to restrict your diet to healthy choices may make you fat, and being fat might make you more depressed – being depressed makes you eat, and the vicious cycle continues.