Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster: DBT Skills to Help Teens Manage Emotions

by Sheri Van Dijk

The teen years are an emotional roller coaster. So, how can you make it through? In this important guide, leading dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and teen expert Sheri Van Dijk offers four core skills to help you manage your emotional ups and downs, build great relationships, and thrive! As a teen, you're experiencing intense changes in your life―both physically and mentally. To top it off, you're probably unsure of how to handle your emotions in a positive, constructive way. Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster offers evidence-based techniques to help you regulate your emotions and find balance in all areas of life― whether it's at home, at school, or with friends and peers. By learning to be more aware of your emotions, you'll be able to let difficult feelings pass without reacting to them in destructive ways. You will also learn the four basic DBT skills to help you manage your core mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. You'll discover how to apply these skills to help deal with a number of negative emotions, such as low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, depression, and more. By changing the way you react to your emotions and to others, you'll be able to build better relationships and feel more confident as a result. If you’re ready to understand and better manage your feelings, stop acting on impulses, and calm yourself in moments of emotional stress, this book will show you how.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction, Emotion, Health

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2016

About the author

I am a psychotherapist working at Southlake Regional Health Centre and in private practice. I have a Master's degree in social work, and specialize in treating psychiatric disorders using dialectical behavior therapy and mindfulness practice.

I have written several books that help readers use DBT skills to treat emotional problems, including The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bipolar Disorder, The Bipolar Workbook for Teens (co-author), Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life for Teens, and Calming the Emotional Storm; and am the author of DBT Made Simple, a book that aims to teach clinicians how to use DBT with their clients diagnosed with a variety of emotional problems.

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my sixth book, which teaches teens DBT skills to help them be more effective in their relationships; look for this book to be published early in 2015.

In 2010 I won the R.O. Jones Award at the Canadian Psychiatric Association Annual Conference for my research on using DBT skills in a bipolar disorder group, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in March, 2013.

Visit me at www.sherivandijk.com.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book. A teen version of Calming The Emotional Storm. The chapter on distractions and soothing provided more concrete ideas than the adult version. DBT has useful skills and these books explain these skills and steps in an accessible manner.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheri Van Dijk (2023) SURVIVING THE EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER (AUDIOBOOK)
BorrowBox - Merky Books Digital

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5 out of 5 stars

BorrowBox writes, "As a teen, you're experiencing intense changes in your life - both physically and mentally. To top it off, you're probably unsure of how to handle your emotions in a positive, constructive way. Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster offers evidence-based techniques to help you regulate your emotions and find balance in all areas of life - whether it's at home, at school, or with friends and peers. By learning to be more aware of your emotions, you'll be able to let difficult feelings pass without reacting to them in destructive ways. You will also learn the four basic DBT skills to help you manage your emotions: core mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. You'll discover how to apply these skills to help deal with a number of negative emotions, such as low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, depression, and more. By changing the way you react to your emotions and to others, you'll be able to build better relationships and feel more confident as a result. If you're ready to understand and better manage your feelings, stop acting on impulses, and calm yourself in moments of emotional stress, this book will show you how."
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Good to keep it fresh.
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[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have been trying ti find DBT books that might help me help my teen manage big emotions.
All the books-including this one- are a “word salad” of feelings, situations, options, recommendations and recognitions that require a willing participant in the activities to moderate emotions.
Without that willingness, whatever I learn is just for me and doesn’t help someone who doesn’t think they need help or “need to fit into society’s box!”

Not worth listening to.
Very much common sense.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was well written for teenagers, but as a DBT therapist, I felt like much of the modules were watered down. Great book for beginning DBT or just figuring out what it is

[Magen - Inquiring Professional Dog Trainer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 3.5 stars for teens

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a basic understanding of the principles of DBT and core DBT skills. Very accessible. Examples were really geared for teens. Excited to try to incorporate some of these skills into my life.

[Spring Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster is well written. It gives so many tips and tricks for people going through a lot. It is for people who don't know exactly how to cope with their emotions. If you are feeling emotions you have never felt before this book can help you. It offers and teaches you how to use DBT. DBT is a dialectical behavioral therapy. You can try it for yourself to see if you can benefit from it. It can help you build your relationships, deal with situations you could possibly be put in, and have great coping mechanisms.

I learned so much and some of the tips can actually help. Something I really liked is that it is still fun to learn when you don't necessarily need the tips and tricks for your emotions. It can help you feel like you're not alone and your problems can be fixed. It gives examples of situations you could possibly be in and what exactly you should do.

I feel like Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster can best help teens. The language is not too harsh and it is not just meant for people going through hard times. I think the thing that attracted me to this book was knowing many people going through a lot. I know quite a few people with anxiety and depression. This helps me understand what it is like to have that and how to help them cope with it.

So, I recommend reading this book if you know others going through a lot, are going through a lot and need coping mechanisms for your emotions, or you are curious and may experience these things later in life.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Surviving the Emotional Roller Coaster is a very serious book that is oriented mostly toward troubled teens with serious emotional issues (especially sensitive ones/those dealing with emotional dysregulation). The author doesn't mince words: this is a book that needs to be attended to thoroughly and with a complete lifestyle change. There are no pretty graphics or pats on the back: it is a thorough examination of the various emotional issues that overwhelm and disrupt life - and meditative/mindfulness practices that can be used to ameliorate or nullify them. Through DBT (Dialectic Behavior Therapy), the author helps readers get past knee-jerk overreactions and instead focus on logic and insight into the issues they face.

The book breaks down as follows: Introduction; Mindfulness: waking up to your life; What you need to know about your emotions; Slowing down the emotional roller coaster; Leaving the judgments out of it; Dealing with intense emotions; Stop letting your emotions get in the way; Accepting reality; Surviving a crisis without making it worse; The building blocks for positive emotions; Improving the relationships in your life.

Due to the serious nature of the book, the level of writing, and the requirement of self regulation, I feel this is a book best suited for older teens who are already experiencing an emotional crisis/inability to cope. For others, such as kids just entering middle school or who would like to know how to deal with emotional issues a bit better during the turbulent teen period, this might be too heavy. E.g., I chose this book for my 12 year old who is going through puberty and the emotional period this entails but this is well above her reading level and more than what she needs. All the same, I can use the practices of mindfulness with her and guide her into a more gentle future. So yes, there are some good points in here for adults to read.

The crux of the book is about dealing with issues in a non-judgmental fashion and using mindfulness (breathing techniques, clearing the mind, focusing on only one small thing at a time) in order to clear the head and manage the stress. There are small 'exercises' to write down thoughts or past situations that were problematic - they an be used as a counterpoint to the discussions and personalize the book.

As can be seen from the chapter list, the book is quite thorough - from making family/friend relationships better to learning to accept that life can be very unfair. For my 12 year old, I found the discussion about self judgement being another form of bullying (in this case, self bullying) very enlightening.

So yes, a very serious and in depth book especially suited for very troubled or sensitive teens who are having difficulty coping with life. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[julia ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i feel like this is a really good introduction to the concepts of dbt, everything felt easy take in and understand. it was really good in the form of an audiobook, as audiobooks that get more technical can be harder to understand than physical copies in my opinion. also love a lot of the suggestions/explanations too!

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is part of New Harbinger Instant Help book series of teen-targeted help books on topics like communication, anxiety, self-esteem, depression, anger, etc. Unlike some other books in this series, this book relied heavily on psychology (ie opinions) and less on common sense or research like other books. This partially led to an over simplification of some ideas like emotional dysfunction is only caused by a mix of biology and environment (how you grew up), which I think leads to a lack of personal responsibility for unstable emotions or explanations why siblings turn out so drastically emotionally different in many cases. The book is based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan. It teaches people skills to manage their skills to more effectively. These skills are divided into four categories: Mindfulness skills, distress tolerance skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, and emotion regulation skills. I wonder though, if your emotional dysfunction is because of your biology and upbringing (which you can't change) why is the solution to that problems learned skills you do have control over? Seems to me like this psychologist is erasing people of responsibility for their actions, saying the problem is not their fault or within their control but still managing to contradict themselves by saying the solution is completely within their power to fix. I.E. no personal responsibility but still self-empowering. Rather isn't it more logical that just maybe all biology, upbringing, and people's own bad habits are responsible? Which is why learning skills and correcting bad habits the solution? I found this book to be very new age-y and a lot less practical than other books in this series. I would not recommend this one, but I would others in the series!

[Gv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty much similar to "Calming the Emotional Storm" by the same author, just using different words (when it does).