Anxiety can feel overwhelming, consuming both the mind and body with worry, tension, and fear. While anxiety is a natural response to stress, chronic anxiety can interfere with daily life and emotional well-being. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers practical, evidence-based skills that help people manage intense emotions, tolerate distress, and respond more effectively to anxiety. Below are five DBT skills that can be especially helpful when anxiety feels unmanageable.

Mindfulness: Staying Present in the Moment

Mindfulness is a foundational DBT skill that involves paying attention to the present moment without judgment. Anxiety often pulls attention into the future—imagining worst-case scenarios or replaying worries. Mindfulness helps bring awareness back to what is happening right now.

Practicing mindfulness might include focusing on your breath, noticing sensations in your body, or observing sounds around you. Rather than trying to eliminate anxious thoughts, the goal is to notice them and let them pass without engaging. Over time, mindfulness can reduce the intensity of anxiety and create a greater sense of calm and control.

TIPP Skills: Calming the Body Quickly

When anxiety spikes, the body’s nervous system goes into fight-or-flight mode. DBT’s TIPP skills are designed to quickly lower physiological arousal. TIPP stands for Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, and Progressive muscle relaxation.

For example, splashing cold water on your face or holding an ice pack can activate the body’s dive reflex and slow your heart rate. Brief bursts of intense exercise, such as running in place, can release excess adrenaline. Paced breathing and muscle relaxation help signal safety to the nervous system, making it easier for anxious thoughts to settle.

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Opposite Action: Reducing Avoidance

Anxiety often leads to avoidance—staying away from situations, people, or tasks that trigger fear. While avoidance may provide short-term relief, it usually strengthens anxiety over time. Opposite Action is a DBT skill that involves intentionally doing the opposite of what anxiety urges you to do, when it is safe and appropriate.

For example, if anxiety urges you to cancel plans or avoid a conversation, opposite action might mean showing up anyway or engaging briefly rather than withdrawing completely. By gradually facing feared situations, anxiety often decreases, and confidence grows.

Check the Facts: Challenging Anxious Thoughts

Anxiety can distort thinking, making situations feel more dangerous or overwhelming than they truly are. The DBT skill Check the Facts helps evaluate whether emotions fit the actual circumstances.

This involves identifying the triggering event, separating facts from interpretations, and asking whether there is evidence to support your fears. For instance, instead of assuming “Something terrible will happen,” checking the facts may reveal that the likelihood is low or that you have handled similar situations before. This skill can reduce emotional intensity and promote more balanced responses.

Self-Soothing: Creating Comfort and Safety

Self-soothing is a distress tolerance skill that uses the five senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—to create a sense of comfort. Anxiety often makes the world feel unsafe, and self-soothing helps counter that experience.

Examples include listening to calming music, lighting a scented candle, wrapping up in a soft blanket, or sipping a warm drink. These small, intentional actions can ground you in the present moment and provide relief during anxious episodes.

Conclusion

DBT skills offer practical tools for managing anxiety by addressing both the mind and the body. Mindfulness, TIPP skills, opposite action, checking the facts, and self-soothing can help reduce emotional intensity and increase resilience over time. While these skills are not a replacement for professional treatment, they can be powerful supports in daily life. With consistent practice, DBT skills can help transform anxiety from something overwhelming into something manageable.

To learn more about therapy for anxiety, contact me today for a free consultation call.