macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Keep On Keeping On – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Keep On Keeping On

I gave a client “there is nothing else you can do” speech today. I told him if his relative is not a danger to himself or others, he could not force him into treatment. Doesn’t matter if he is in communication with the fairy people or if he sees the devil in the fireplace, there is nothing my client can do to force him into treatment.

People hate that speech. My client told me he hated when people said that to him. We like to believe in our efficacy, our power. “There has to be a way! Maybe I can try harder, find a better argument, something.”

Accepting there are some things you are not able to influence is a bitter pill.

In at least that way, you folks who have wet AMD are ‘better off’ than those of us who have dry. At least you folks get to actively participate in your own treatment. Granted, getting a shot in the eye is not my idea of a good time, but it is something. We folks with dry AMD get to do…..nothing.

How do you sit there and do nothing when everything is falling apart around you? The thought that you may have to endure for years and years and have no recourse is terrifying for people.

I have talked about the distress tolerance skills but, since this came up and we are actually teaching distress tolerance, I want to revisit it. Distress tolerance skills are not ways of ‘fixing’ anything. They won’t make my client’s relative to not be psychotic and they won’t give me 20/20 vision. What they are are strategies for enduring.

With distress tolerance skills, we get to hunker down and survive the storm, not make the storm go away.

Also said this before but I will say it again: one of the tenets of DBT is “I am doing as well as I can, but I can do better”. No one wants to be a screw-up. We can pretty much guarantee that under their present state of circumstances, most people will be doing the best they can. Given new circumstances and a new skill set, they can do better.

How that figures in here is that I don’t want you to think that using distress tolerance skills to endure means you stop trying. Offered a viable treatment, I, for one, would take it in a heartbeat. Treatment would be the new skill set and how I could ‘do better’. However, until that day comes, I am stuck enduring.

There are several pages on which I talk about the DBT skills IMPROVE and ACCEPTS. IMPROVE skills are used when we are in the midst of a crisis. The letters stand for imagery, meaning, prayer, relaxation, one thing in the moment, vacation and encouragement. [Click here for one of Sue’s past pages on IMPROVE.] ACCEPTS skills are used when we are trying to endure in the long term. The letters stand for activities, comparison, contribute, opposite to emotion, pushing away, thoughts and sensations. [Click here for one of Sue’s past pages on ACCEPTS.]

Lin will probably put the links in, but if not, just search the keywords. There really is something you can do when there is nothing to be done.

Keep on keeping on.

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