Therapy keeps negative emotions in check
Diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder which has negatively impacted her relationships with others and led to repeated suicide attempts and incidents of self-harming, Johnson said she is resolute in learning how to cope with overwhelming emotions.
Therapy keeps negative emotions in check (link)
Rolling up her sleeves, Phyllis Johnson reveals the scars she had inflicted upon herself in the past.
Known simply as “P.J.” to her friends, the Sioux City woman would often cut herself as a way to release the pain she was feeling in her life.
Diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder which has negatively impacted her relationships with others and led to repeated suicide attempts and incidents of self-harming, Johnson said she is resolute in learning how to cope with overwhelming emotions.
As a patient of Mercy Behavioral Care Clinic’s Pathways Outpatient Mental Health Program’s dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), Johnson is looking to heal the scars on her arm as well as the ones in her heart.
Developed by psychology researcher Marsha M. Linehan, DBT, the psychotherapy combines behavioral science with the concepts of acceptance and mindfulness.
Used for people being treated for bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder as well as borderline personality disorders, DBT utilizes a mixture of homework, discussion and breathing exercises inspired by Eastern philosophies, explained Pathway’s Lynn Marksbury.
“Living with a borderline personality disorder is like living life with the volume knob turned all the way up,” she said. “There’s so much noise and confusion going on that it’s hard to find your bearing.”
Through DBT, patients learn the skills needed to get them through a crisis.
Such skills (or “modules”) include distraction (reading, exercising or even breathing when a crisis is imminent); mindfulness (not obsessing in the past and staying in the moment); distress tolerance (managing painful situations without resorting to harmful behaviors); emotion regulation (managing one’s emotions instead of being managed by them); and interpersonal effectiveness (reducing one’s anxiety and the stress of confrontation).
“Sometimes a person’s brain is ‘hard-wired’ to experience emotions more intensely,” said Pathways’ therapist Melissa Wallace. “Through DBT, we’re helping people change the ways they respond to those emotions.”
Having gone through DBT, Johnson no longer feels the need to cut herself.
Instead, she turns to her art or even writing out the schedule of the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team to distract her when emotions threaten to flood.
“I used to see my life in black and white,” Johnson said. “With DBT, I’m happy to see moments when grey is being able to shine through.”
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