DBT Skills for the Highly Sensitive Brain: How to Target Self-Destructive Physical Patterns
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, originally designed for Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) and those with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), has wide applicability in anxiety treatment.
One strategy of DBT treatment is reducing your physical vulnerability to anxiety.
The overwhelming emotions of anxious reactions can cause an individual to lash out (or go into a self-blame spiral). While we do not want to avoid anxiety, we also do not want to leave ourselves so vulnerable to huge emotions that we are constantly riding the waves of our reactivity.
In my experience, the top three self-destructive mechanisms that affect our mental health are as follows:
Nutrition
Many of us with anxiety and overwhelming emotions end up developing unproductive relationships with our body’s fuel. We may seek comfort in restriction or excess, we may target certain foods in moments of anxiety, and we may simply have anxiety spirals about what we eat and when.
Unhealthy patterns around food are anxiety reinforcers.
The more we achieve a natural flow with our nutrition, an ease of relationship with food, the less anxiety we will feel overall. Holistic nutritionists can assist in eating for our mental health, by supporting their clients to develop balance, positivity, and flexibility with food.
Movement
Our bodies are designed to move.
We need to incorporate any level of exercise, preferably outdoors, to prime us for greater calm.
Sleep Hygiene
Clients with BPD, HSP, and OCD have radically reduced resilience with poor sleep. For many, the best strengthening action we can take is introducing a rigid sleep routine. Strategies for changing poor sleep patterns can be discussed with your clinician, but CBT for insomnia is highly effective.
While we are often up against anxiety-fueled insomnia, we must try to intentionally cultivate sleep hygiene techniques.
DBT therapy teaches us to set ourselves up for success.
Whether this is by self-care, re-framing, or perspective-taking, we aim to disrupt the current status quo.
Furthermore, with the proper shifts in nutrition, movement, and sleep hygiene, our clients are far better able to access the healing properties of mental health therapy.
If you are interested in anxiety treatment for mental wellness, please contact Kairos Wellness Collective today.
