PTSD is primarily caused by avoiding all cues that cause discomfort.
Pathological grieving is a result of the same avoidance.
The more I try to avoid and shut down my painful feelings, the more they will haunt me, and the more I will dwell on them.
Paradoxically, trying to block my painful thoughts just creates more painful thoughts.
And so Dialectical Behavioral Theory teaches us how to experience, tolerate, and accept emotional pain in order to cope with it.
Of course, sometimes I can't deal, because I'm at work or in a store and the like, so DBT also offers coping skills that help me distract myself in public crisis situations.
The main focus here is to get through a bad situation without making it worse.
As I am tired of watching myself make things worse, I turn to these coping skills as certainly being worth a shot.
