ACCEPTS — structured distraction from crisis

Use Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotions, Pushing away, Thoughts, and Sensations to redirect attention during a crisis.

Why it works

Attention amplifies emotion: sustained focus on crisis pain intensifies it through re-activation and rumination. ACCEPTS does not deny or suppress the pain — it temporarily redirects attention elsewhere, giving the emotional response time to crest and begin to subside on its own. This is a short-term buffer, not avoidance, because it is time-limited and paired with eventual return to the problem.

How to do it

1. Activities: do something absorbing enough to require attention (a game, a task, a walk).
2. Contributing: help someone else — it shifts the focus outward and activates a different emotional system.
3. Comparisons: think of times you tolerated hardship successfully — evidence you can do it now.
4. Emotions: generate a different emotion intentionally (a funny video, a piece of music).
5. Pushing away: mentally set the crisis on a shelf for now, with a time to return to it.

Evidence

ACCEPTS is a distress tolerance skill taught within DBT. The attention-redirection mechanism draws on cognitive and affective science showing that emotion is sustained partly by attentional focus. Contributing aligns with the "helper’s high" — prosocial behavior acutely improves mood. (clinical)

ACCEPTS is a bridging tool for crisis moments, not a long-term strategy. Overusing distraction instead of eventually addressing the source problem is experiential avoidance.

Common mistake

Using ACCEPTS indefinitely instead of returning to the problem — distraction is crisis-level first aid, not a permanent strategy.