Improving Distress Worksheet Template (Page 2 of 13) in pdf

Facing Your Feelings

Introduction

The previous module focused on developing ways of accepting emotional distress. This module takes a

very different focus of learning how to improve your distress when you experience it. To improve distress

we focus more on your behaviours, looking at what to do and what not to do when you experience

emotional distress. Depending on the type of escape methods you typically use (i.e., avoidance, numbing &

withdrawing, or harmful releases), the strategies we will suggest for improving your distress will vary

slightly. This module will focus on helping you discover a variety of things you can try to improve your

distress, so you can experiment and find out what works for you.

Balancing Acceptance & Improvement

Accepting and improving distress are quite different approaches, and maintaining a balance

between acceptance and improvement is the key to building distress tolerance. It is unhelpful

to be at either extreme (i.e., only accepting how you feel or only trying to improve how you

feel). To tolerate distress you really need to learn how to do both. Our aim is to help you

learn how to accept your negative emotions, and with that in mind, then work on improving your

emotional experience. Imagine if you only tried to improve your distress without being able to accept it

first, if this were the case then your efforts to find something to improve your negative feelings would be

pretty frantic and desperate. If instead you could accept your distress, then your efforts to improve the

distress would more likely be calm, considered and calculated.

We have purposely put Accepting Distress before Improving Distress in this series of Modules, as we don’t

want “improving” to become just another strategy for avoiding your emotions. In summary, you need to

feel the emotion first, accept it, ride through it, and then take action to improve it.

However having said that, if as you work through these modules the distress you experience is extremely

intense and unbearable emotional pain, then you may not be able to apply the acceptance strategies

outlined in the previous module just yet. If this is the case, then it is ok to move straight to this module

and focus on improving your distress (particularly the Distress Improvement Activities on page 5). This is

particularly relevant for people who engage in self-harm or drug and alcohol use to manage their distress. In

these situations, temporary distractions may be necessary to help you get through the intense distress you

might be experiencing, and avoid engaging in behaviours that are damaging to you.

Improving Distress

As we have seen, being distress intolerant can manifest is very different sorts of behaviours or escape

methods. Some people avoid certain situations that make them distressed, engage in reassurance seeking

or checking to alleviate their distress, or use distraction and suppression to stop their distress. Other

people numb and withdraw via engaging in alcohol

or drug use, binge eating or using sleep to escape

Alcohol or

Binge Eating

Drugs

their emotions. And other people may engage in

harmful releases, hurting themselves in some

Sleep

Self Injury

physical way as a means of dealing with their

Distress

distress. Although these behaviours are very

different, and hence the strategies for improving

Distraction &

distress can vary too, the common guiding principle

Reassurance

Suppression

for improving distress is to do the opposite of your

Seeking or

Avoid

Checking

escape urge, and find specific activities that improve

Situations

your emotional state.

Please Note: As mentioned in Module 1, whilst these modules may be helpful to people who use drugs, alcohol or self-harm as a

means of tolerating emotional distress, it is important to recognise that these are very serious problems in their own right that

can cause a person significant harm. We strongly advise seeking help from a GP or mental health professional to address these

concerns, rather than relying solely on these Modules to overcome the problem.

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Page 2

Module 3: Improving Distress

nterventions

• Psychotherapy • Research • Training

Improving Distress Worksheet Template Page 2

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