@msmerz - I wonder if I could ask you more about DBT? In concept, as I've read about it, I understand it is about managing your emotions (as you mentioned above: "learning to control emotions").

Maybe it's not for me, because when I've read about it, (& I did discuss this briefly with a former psychiatrist), my immediate reaction was to reject it, because of being told and shown all my young (and young adult) life, into the present that my emotions and perceptions were not valid, important or 'convenient', even were to be reviled (as in "how dare you [say that] after all I've done for you?"), and so on. "Stuffing (down) my emotions" by "managing, controlling them" seems fundamentally contrary to my struggle for existence, to be seen as an individual with valid perceptions and life experience.

May I ask you - even briefly here - if DBT offers anything for someone with my experience? Because, at the age of nearly 68 years, I need to be open to other avenues, as I've yet to "crack" the struggle my internal life has been, with its external consequences. (And, BTW, I have had many external successes, but they seem fleeting, I minimize them, and/or they are hard to sustain for any period of time).

Thank you ahead of time. With all due respect, not asking for therapy, but to expand on how DBT is best applied.