Coping Ahead and Making Plans for Emotional Regulation and Distress Tolerance

Distressing thoughts are abundant during this time and knowing that it’s important that we are prepared to cope and are able to tolerate and make it through distress. 

When it comes to tolerating distress some great ideas you can find here, it’s helpful to help to tolerate distress so you can get back to a healthier mindset to cope better. One major thing to remind yourself is that this is something that will not last forever and is temporary. We can feel bored or hopeless, but something that can help us through is remembering because this is temporary. In fact, I encourage you to make plans to visit friends and family, and even make plans to travel once this is over to have something to look forward to. These can be nice worth life worth living goals for yourself.

When you are feeling regulated to manage things better we want to find healthy things to cope with. Some things to help us cope better is making sure we are taking care of ourselves and even making sure we are getting the interaction we need.

When we know we are in for a distressful time we want to plan ahead of what we can do to cope in that situation to prepare ourselves. Sometimes it can be making the environment better for the situation and mentally preparing ourselves for the distress situation. For example, if you’re scared to go outside, mentally prepare yourself that it will be okay and plan what you will do to keep yourself safe. Prepare your mask in your car, remember to distance yourself as much. 

It’s important to take care of yourself physically, but also mentally so we can look forward to a brighter future.