Angry Birds

Diary sheets! 

Apparently these are an essential part of DBT and I will need to do one every week till the end.  Joy had given me one at the last session saying I may as well get started.  The idea is that as I gain the skills I will learn and apply them more often and the giving in to the self destructive urges will ultimately stop as the urges become less intense and less frequent.

Fair enough!

I’d dutifully recorded my moods and urges to self-harm alongside things I did that helped.  At the next session we looked at what I’d recorded.  I had listed as one of the things that helped when the urge to self-harm was getting intense, 

“playing stupid computer games”

Mistake!  In Joy’s words,

“If it helps it’s not stupid!” 

I can see what she’s saying.  If faffing with a game prevents me from acting on powerful urges to self-harm, the game has a useful purpose.  What was a silly, pointless, frustrating, time-wasting game of “Angry Birds” became a helpful, even therapeutic Angry Birds.   

What a great investment that 69p app for my i-phone was!