In this remarkable and inspiring memoir, Linehan describes how, when she was 18 years old, she began an abrupt downward spiral from popular teenager to suicidal young woman. After several miserable years in a psychiatric institute, Linehan made a vow that if she could get out of emotional hell, she would try to find a way to help others get out of hell, too, and to build a life worth living.

Uncharacteristically for me, I was anxious about giving my talk. I was there to tell the story of how, more than two decades earlier, I had developed a type of behavioral treatment for highly suicidal people, known as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT for short). It was the first successful treatment for this population of people who experience their lives as being in hell, so miserable that death seems to them a reasonable alternative.They responded in their warm and soothing soft voice that always calmed me down, “Well, most people who do that don’t really want to die”. I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes after that. I had known at least the most basic facts about suicide, including that it was usually a cry for help or something. But I had just assumed I was an outlier – that I really did want to die. It took me a while to realize they were right in that I was a lot more like “most people” than I thought.

Other people come to DBT grappling with behaviors that also leave them at the end of their rope, fed up and demoralized. I did not know what had happened to me. No one knew. My experience at the institute was one of descending into hell, an out-­of-­control storm of emotional torture and absolute anguish. There was no escape. “God, where are you?” I whispered each day, but got no answer. I find the pain and turmoil hard to describe. How do you adequately describe what it is like being in hell? You can’t. You can only feel it, experience it. And I did. I felt this inside myself, and it came out finally as suicidal behavior. She says, "You can't think yourself into new ways of acting; you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking." That’s the part of my little equation where building a life worth living comes into play. The realization that I never wanted to die and that I actually wanted to get better was incredible . And that was my biggest reason for recovering: wanting to . The unison of wanting to be alive – a lesson I am eternally grateful for having learned from an amazing mentor of mine – and building a life worth living (credits to the so admirable Dr. Linehan!). This connection made a light bulb go off in my head. A light that guided me towards recovery.After going through the one-year program myself, I noticed that the phrase “building lives worth living” and all of its variations seem to be thoroughly integrated into every DBT therapist’s vocabulary – it has certainly wiggled its way into mine. But what exactly does it mean? It seems like a pretty ambiguous statement, and I think it is. It’s one of those things that can mean anything to anybody. Maybe what my therapists’ think it means is completely different than how I interpret it. Maybe Dr. Linehan intended something else entirely. Nevertheless, it’s a statement that can make an impact. And honestly, if we take time to really think about what it means to build a life worth living, I think we can all reflect a little upon our lives. Through the journey of recovery, I’ve begun to learn what it means for me.

Change asks you to look at the things you know but aren’t working for you (even though they may still bring you comfort and a sense of stability) and then reject them in favor of uncertainty that you hope will pay off. It’s normal to be concerned by the idea of change, but don’t let that fear prevent you from trying. Reach for the tools you need to make it bearable, or create the safety net that will allow you to move forward. THIRA Health can help you with these efforts to keep them from being overwhelming. Accept that you deserve the happiness you want

Featured DBT books

i128907368 |b1060006331770 |devg |g- |m |h3 |x2 |t0 |i6 |j70 |k200122 |n09-28-2022 15:06 |o- |a618.92 |rLIN As interesting as I found this book I did not find it well written. I found that much of it was repetitive and her constant pushing of DBT principles distances the reader of who she is as a person rather than her roles as researcher, therapist or Zen master. I also found (quite) surprising the high number of psychological blind spots that she still carries. There is also lots of humblebragging and false modesty here. I also found that she censored a great deal with regards to emotions experienced and relationship issues (were not explored to any great depth.) The book appears hurried and only partially revealing and truthful. This review contains themes of suicide and suicidal ideation. The treatment designed by the author was created to keep people alive. She succeeded. Are you one of us?” a patient once asked Marsha Linehan, the world-renowned psychologist who developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy.

So when I finally did, it was pretty huge, at least in my mind. I remembered how hard it was for me to get the words out, and how hard it seemed for that person to get their words out after I told them. First, they made sure I wasn’t planning on doing anything like that again. After I assured them I wasn’t, I said that I wasn’t really sure why I did it. aPsychotherapists |zUnited States |vBiography. |0https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2010108807 This phrase is used because some people come to DBT at the end of their rope, struggling with thoughts of ending it all. Throughout her extraordinary scientific career, Marsha Linehan remained a woman of deep spirituality.

Be prepared for accountability (and the way it feels)

Remembering what you’re working towards; your goals and your DREAMS will keep you moving forward when you want to run away. It helps you and your therapist know what to prioritize I have done many hard things in my life, most prominent of which was having to come to terms with a totally unexpected complete and devastating breakdown of me, of who I was in the world, which you will get a glimpse of shortly. As a result of that episode, I had to fight to rebuild my high school education, which required me to go to night school while doing a day job to support myself. It was a day-­job-­and-­night-­school life again for me as I then strove to be a university undergraduate. By this time I had spent a lot of time living in small rooms in YWCAs in different cities. Most of the time I was friendless. And at almost every step of the way, I faced rejection after rejection that might easily have derailed me on my journey. Later, in my professional life, I had to battle to have my radical ideas and approach to therapy accepted by my peers and by the world of psychiatry more generally, and struggle as a female in male-­dominated academia. i128907356 |b1060006331789 |deve |g- |m |h1 |x0 |t0 |i3 |j70 |k200122 |n12-04-2020 18:16 |o- |a618.92 |rLIN Powerful and intimate . . .Linehan ably guides readers along her roller-coaster life as she conquers the male-dominated world of academia while hiding her physical and emotional scars. . . . Readers looking to overcome their past will find inspiration in this dramatic, heartfeltnarrative.” — Publishers Weekly