4 DBT Skills That Help Calm Anxiety in the Moment

When anxiety spikes, it can feel overwhelming. Your heart races. Your thoughts spiral. You might feel the urge to escape, shut down, or panic.

If you’ve ever wondered, “How do I calm down right now?” — you’re not alone.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers practical, evidence-based skills that help you regulate intense emotions in real time. At Channel Islands Mental Health Treatment Center in Ventura, DBT is one of the core therapies used in our intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs to help teens and adults regain control over anxiety, depression, and emotional overwhelm.

Below are four DBT skills that can help calm anxiety in the moment — and why they work.

What Is DBT and Why Does It Help Anxiety?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a structured treatment that teaches skills and was originally created to help people manage strong feelings. Now, it is often used for problems such as anxiety, sadness, past trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and moods that change often.

Unlike traditional talk therapy alone, DBT teaches concrete tools in four key areas:

Mindfulness
Distress tolerance
Emotion regulation
Interpersonal effectiveness

For anxiety, DBT is especially helpful because it doesn’t just challenge anxious thoughts — it teaches your body and brain how to respond differently when anxiety shows up.

Let’s Look at Four Specific Skills

1. TIPP Skills: Calming Your Nervous System Fast

When anxiety feels like panic, your nervous system is in “fight-or-flight” mode. DBT’s TIPP skills are designed to quickly regulate your body’s stress response.

TIPP stands for:

Temperature change (like holding an ice pack or splashing cold water on your face)
Intense exercise (short bursts like jumping jacks or brisk walking)
Paced breathing (slowing your breath)
Paired muscle relaxation (tensing and releasing muscles)

These techniques are effective because anxiety has physical effects. When you change how your body’s chemicals work and how you breathe, your brain believes you are out of danger.

This can be especially helpful during:

Panic attacks
Social anxiety spikes
Sudden waves of overwhelm
Emotional flooding

2. The STOP Skill: Preventing Anxiety From Escalating

Anxiety often spirals because we react quickly — sending the text, canceling the plan, avoiding the conversation, or mentally catastrophizing.

DBT’s STOP skill helps interrupt that spiral.

STOP stands for:

S – Stop
T – Take a step back
O – Observe what’s happening inside and around you
P – Proceed mindfully

This skill creates space between feeling anxious and acting on that anxiety.

Instead of automatically avoiding or reacting, you pause long enough to choose a response aligned with your long-term goals — not just short-term relief.

Over time, this reduces avoidance behaviors that keep anxiety going.

3. Grounding Through Mindfulness: Coming Back to the Present

Anxiety lives in the future.

Depression often lives in the past.

Mindfulness — a core DBT skill — brings you back to the present moment.

In DBT, mindfulness isn’t about “clearing your mind.” It’s about noticing:

What you see
What you hear
What you feel physically
What thoughts are passing through

Without judging them.

When you anchor your attention to the present moment, your brain shifts away from “what if” thinking and catastrophic scenarios.

For people who struggle with:

Overthinking
Rumination
Social anxiety
Constant worry

Mindfulness can be a powerful daily tool for managing anxiety.

4. Opposite Action: Doing the Opposite of What Anxiety Tells You

Anxiety urges you to:

Avoid
Withdraw
Cancel
Stay quiet
Play small

DBT’s Opposite Action skill teaches you to gently do the opposite — when it’s safe and appropriate.

If anxiety says, “Don’t go,” you go (even briefly).

If anxiety says, “Don’t speak up,” you share one small thought.

This isn’t about forcing yourself into distress. It’s about retraining your brain.

Avoidance temporarily lowers anxiety — but strengthens it long-term. Opposite Action helps break that cycle.

This skill is especially helpful for:

Social anxiety
School avoidance in teens
Work-related anxiety
Depression-related withdrawal

Why These Skills Work Better in an Intensive Program

While DBT skills are powerful, they’re most effective when practiced consistently and supported by trained clinicians.

At Channel Islands Mental Health Treatment Center, DBT skills are integrated into:

Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) for teens, young adults, and adults
Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) for those needing a higher level of support
Individual therapy
Skills groups
Family therapy (especially for teens)

Our structured “Total Immersion” approach helps clients not only learn these skills, but practice them in real-life scenarios, with support and feedback.

This level of care is often ideal for people who:

Haven’t made enough progress in weekly therapy
Experience anxiety that interferes with school, work, or relationships
Struggle with both anxiety and depression
Need structured support to stabilize

When to Seek Additional Support

If anxiety is:

Causing panic attacks
Leading to school or work avoidance
Interfering with relationships
Paired with depression or hopelessness
Not improving with weekly therapy

You may benefit from a more structured, skills-based approach.

Channel Islands Mental Health Treatment Center provides in-person anxiety treatment in Ventura and virtual programs throughout California.

If you’re in immediate danger or experiencing a crisis, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Our programs are intensive but not designed for emergency care.

You Don’t Have to White-Knuckle Anxiety

Anxiety can feel powerful — but it’s treatable.

DBT teaches that two things can be true at once:

You’re doing the best you can.
And you can learn skills to do better.

With the right support and consistent practice, it’s possible to feel more grounded, more confident, and more in control.

If you’d like help determining whether an IOP or PHP program is right for you or your teen, reach out to Channel Islands Mental Health Treatment Center to schedule a confidential screening call.