My Crisis Box

*** Warning - triggering topic discussed ***

 

One thing I notice, which I believe is common to most people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), is that when I am in crisis I really struggle to get myself out of it. My emotions become too much and so incredibly painful where, in my head, the only solution is to end it all. Because I know how serious these thoughts become, as I've made attempts and feel like I have no control over it, I need to be able to have resources available to me to bring myself down a notch. Currently I have notes with distress tolerance ideas hidden under my lounge and my bed, I have an emergency distress tolerance kit and I have a Pinterest account with images to remind me of skills I could put in place when in crisis. 

These skills that I talk about are tools that are taught in the treatment of BPD, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), founded by Dr  Marsha Linehan. The skills are broken down into 4 modules: Core Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance and Emotion Regulation. 

Even though all of these modules interconnect and assist all BPD symptoms, the skills I most concentrate on in a crisis are Distress Tolerance skills (hence the name).

This is my crisis box:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there are many millions of other ideas that I have to put in my crisis and I will add them as I work through my Blog. 

If these skills don't work I always have my back up plan to call my sister or one of my friends. Sometimes this is hard as I don't want to burden those I love, however, if it means my livelihood then I try to make it a priority to call them. If worse comes to worse I can always try my psychologist or the local hospital.