Coping through Avoidance....

How do you respond to the triggers in life? When looking at Distress Tolerance - we need to understand what distress is. The external stressors of life can feel continuous, and the impact these stressors have on our lives depend on each individuals resilience, coping skills, and support systems in their life. Where there is distress - this is described as suffering, a long standing experience of internal pain, shame, anger, sadness. In the work that we do, we need to understand the external stressors and the way in which we respond to this, as it is a clear indication of the way that our nervous system responds to triggers, as well as being a conduit towards our internal suffering, vulnerability and the ways in which we avoid healing the parts of us that need to be seen, heard, and validated.

1.) Avoidance - can I escape the threat?

There are five different coping skills described in schema therapy. These are understood as maladaptive coping mechanisms that are developed in childhood, and become longstanding behaviours that impact our lives in adulthood. Although in childhood, the behaviours have mostly served as protection, in adulthood they become destructive as they are no longer necessitated as they were in childhood.