I started DBT this summer and just started radical acceptance yesterday (with other distress tolerance skills the weeks prior). And even though I was having a relatively good day, that therapy session made me fall apart. The two areas I struggle with the most (my relationship and career) kept coming to me the entire session. Likely because I struggle with figuring out whether I'm tolerating the negatives in both because I'm afraid of \~whatever my anxiety convinces me will happen\~ if I don't.

So today, I decided to treat my five senses and really make my day as good as I could. And of course, my day ended with a huge fight with my partner. Normally it'd go one of two ways, either forget about it and feel like I'm tolerating things I shouldn't. Or I say "fuck you" and isolate completely in a horrible slump where I do everything bad for myself for days/weeks. Today, I was able to stand up for myself in a healthy way. And even though it still didn't go the way I hoped, I told myself that I wouldn't let my day get ruined. So I've been continuing to focus on self-care since then (this post being one of them) and I actually feel pretty great. Regardless of what happens after this, I'll know I still had a good day. This is the first time I'm really seeing a skill help me and I'm really proud of that.

TL;DR One distress tolerance skill motivated me to use some others today. I didn't have control of a situation but the skills I used helped me have control of the rest of the day. Big win!

Thanks for reading