How To Make Doing Your DBT Diary Card A Habit

Kat Schultz
12 hours ago
2 min read

A journal lies open to an empty page next to glasses, a key, and a mug

Those of us who have been in a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program know that completing your diary card is key. It's just not the easiest thing to do.

For the uninitiated, DBT is a synthesis of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Zen Buddhism. It incorporates mindfulness skills into the foundation of CBT. It's used to treat emotion dysregulation and self-destructive behaviors, among other mental health struggles. Diary cards are a fundamental piece of homework in DBT. They're a way to track your emotions, urges, behaviors, and skill use.

Diary cards are meant to be filled out every day- that's what makes them challenging. It's worth it though, because diary cards can help you see patterns over time and also help you recall what your week was like when you bring it to use in your individual therapy session.

There are more than 5 DBT skills that may help with mood swings but here are 5 to try first:

Choose a diary card you'll actually use

There are about a million different diary card templates out there. There are grids you can print out and complete by hand. There are diary card apps you can keep on your phone. There are spreadsheets you can continually update. You can even create your own in a journal and get as creative as you like with it. These options can be overwhelming. The best diary card is the one you actually use. If you choose one to start and are having a difficult time filling it out, choose another and try that one instead.

Incorporate it into an existing routine

Most of us have routines we complete throughout the day, even if we don't think about our habits in that way. Maybe you have a morning or bedtime routine that you do more or less the same every day. Add doing your diary card into one of those routines to help you remember to complete it. For instance you might add it into your nighttime routine and complete it after brushing your teeth. You might even keep it on your nightstand to help jog your memory.

Set reminders

Try to help yourself out by setting reminders to do your diary card. That could be an alarm at the same time every day. It could be a post it note on your mirror. It could be through an app on your phone that gives you a notification. Perhaps you already use a habit tracker and add it to that. We're trying to set ourselves up for success as much as possible.

Be kind to yourself

Give yourself grace when you forget to complete your diary card. No one is perfect and starting a new habit is very hard. Practice being nonjudgmental with yourself and offering compassion when you forget rather than being hard on yourself. It's not the end of the world. Embrace dialectics; "I'm doing the best that I can AND I can do better."