No longer wanting to die
June 05, 2015
Will Lippincott, a publishing professional, describes his experience of having been suicidal and of finding an effective set of tools for recovery in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). As a middle-aged white man, Mr. Lippincott is a member of a demographic group with a relatively high suicide rate in the United States, and has specific risk factors for suicide as well, including a diagnosis of treatment-resistant depression and the experience of having lost his own father to suicide. Voluntarily hospitalized, Mr. Lippincott was enrolled in a DBT skills group that over time gave him the abilities to break unhealthy coping habits that had kept him in pain: “DBT provided me with a rubric for figuring out what was causing my anxiety, anger, or sadness — and new options for how to behave in light of it.” Dialectical behavior therapy is an evidence-based approach that was adapted from cognitive behavioral therapy.
Spark Extra! Dialectical behavior therapy is listed in Section I: Evidence-Based Practices of the SPRC Best Practices Registry.