In this week's episode, Dr. Johnson is going to review with you a behavioral therapy skill called Distract. Now, some of you may be thinking, “I’m great at distracting myself from my problems—I have my Ph.D. in Avoidance Principles!”
This skill is about functional avoidance, which is different from unhealthy avoidance. With unhealthy avoidance, we really have no intention of ever ending the avoidance behavior. We are going to stick our fingers in our ears and la-la-la ourselves into oblivion. The way Dr. Johnson describe the Distract skill with patients is that there is a problem that needs to be solved, but now ain’t the time. So, for all you worriers who are staying up until 3 A.M. trying to figure out your entire life before work, this is the skill for you. It’s also a good skill for when your emotion mind is going to take over and you won’t be able to respond wisely.
As you know, Dr. Johnson love a good acronym and this time, it’s ACCEPTS. We use the Distract skill by remembering that your wise mind accepts.
A is for Activities C is for Contributing C is for Comparisons E is for Emotions P is for Pushing Away T is for Thoughts S is for Sensation
You want to use this skill when emotional pain threatens to be too much or you’re dealing with a problem that can’t be solved immediately. Also, in functional avoidance, there is a time limit on the avoidance. Remember that the goal is to take a break from the problem so that you can catch your breath, so to speak, and get back to it—not to pretend that the problem doesn’t exist and that it will go away on its own.
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