High fit

Distress Tolerance involves surviving a crisis without making it worse. Ivan Lowe, lying on a couch in unbearable bone pain with a rare leukemia diagnosis and no prognosis, was in a prolonged, uncontrollable crisis. Each time he looked at the chemotherapy bottle and considered taking too many pills, he did not act — not because the pain diminished, but because he held onto one anchor point (Rebecca) long enough to not cross the line. He repeatedly tolerated the crisis without taking an action that would have made it permanently irreversible.