Reply to DBT increases anxiety, depression and family conflict

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I also agree that there is too much emphasis on trying to bring mental health awareness into all aspects of a young person's life. It's one thing to encourage being aware of what you're thinking/feeling and knowing support resources available to you, and another to have specific modalities applied to everyone and [b]encouraging pathologies to be casually thrown around. It's more harmful than helpful, I'd say[/b].[/quote]

This reminds me of the critique of the now-discredited three-cueing method of teaching reading - that is is the way poor readers read and by teaching it, we are teaching children to use coping strategies of poor readers rather than teaching them to be good readers.  By teaching coping methods for emotional dysregulation, are we teaching emotional dysregulation?  [/quote]

Huh, that is a very interesting take. The preface to the article refers to the idea that healthy emotional regulation involves a context-specific menu of different techniques. I do feel like some of the techniques I’ve been taught, especially mindfulness, can make things worse if deployed at the wrong time. Eg a mindful approach can magnify anxiety at a time when ignoring or distracting might work better. I am in therapy with a great therapist who can help me tease this stuff out, but that’s very different from just dictating to a class of adolescents who may not have the 1:1 support to discuss what is working. [/quote]

NP and agree, that's an interesting perspective. I had a similar experience with meditation during a period of very high stress and depression -- clearing my mind of all thoughts just left the depression sitting there and, uh, I did not enjoy sitting with it. Meanwhile mindfulness DID work for depression and I still use some of the techniques now.

Also as someone who has done a lot of therapy and "self work" or whatever, and has spent time around a lot of people in a similar situation, I can absolutely see how an intensive focus on identifying and processing emotion could backfire in adolescents in particular. At least those not dealing with the emotions that DBT was designed to address (depression, extreme anxiety, suicidality). Because adolescence is an intense time emotionally but a lot of that roller coaster is truly just due to hormones. If a 14 year old learns to take every one of their strong or negative emotions seriously and use DBT techniques to deconstruct it... I can definitely see ho that could lead to more conflict and anxiety. Sometimes you really do just need to ride stuff out.

- An adult with chronic depression who is learning it functions really differently in peri-menopause than it did before[/quote]

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