I Just Don’t Want To Get Off The Couch | A Blog About Coping with Emotions

When we are feeling down, or experiencing low mood it can hard to know what to do. I know for me I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV or sleep. I have a hard time feeling motivated to do things I know I enjoy or even more so, it can be hard to remember what makes me feel good. How then do we make a shift so we can get off the couch? Opposite Action is a skill from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) used to help reduce emotional responses we don’t feel good about and in turn helps increase positive emotions. Acting opposite of our emotions helps us by intentionally going against the emotional action urge like sitting on the couch.

To be clear, we don’t want to brush the current emotion under the rug but rather we want to try to change the way the emotion is expressed. The hope is this will reduce the sensitivity to the emotion. In my case, wanting to sit on the couch when I am feeling down, I work on making a choice I know will counteract the emotional experience of this low mood. When I am in a place where I can think clearly and calmly I can come up with a pretty long list! For me it’s going for a walk or run, playing with my dog, meal planning healthy meals and snacks, cleaning the house, talking or spending time with friends, reading etc.

While we can’t directly control our emotions, we can choose how to react with our thoughts and behaviors. If you are feeling depressed, what are your urges? Sit on the couch like me? Eat way past being full? Or maybe it’s working long hours. The next step is to identify a few things you know make you feel good and give it a try. Even if it shifts your frame of mind just a little I think it is worth a try. Don’t you?

Written by Sonja Kromroy, MA, LPC