Whether you are ditched by your friend or facing problems in professional life, healthy coping skills help you to drive out from such situations. Coping skills help you to manage stress and deal with problems from a positive perspective. All coping skills are not created equally. Sometimes, we end up with the skills which make us feel better instantly but don’t work in the long run. These types of skills may have a negative effect on your mental and emotional health.
Two Types of Coping Skills
When you are feeling distressed ask yourself a question” whether you want to change the situation or the way you feel about it?”
Problem-Based
When you choose a problem-based coping skill, you focus on the situation or on the problem itself. Try to find out the root cause of distress and find a solution. For example, you are feeling anxious because of the presence of some person in your life. You can put a full stop to that anxiety by ending the relationship with that person.
Emotions Based
When you want to change the way you feel about a particular situation and deal with feelings rather than the problem, you use emotion-based coping skills. For example, the loss of a loved one. You can’t change the circumstance, but you can change the way you feel about it, and that will help you to move on.
Problem-Based Coping Skills
There are different ways to deal with a problem, and removing the source of stress is one of them. Using problem-focused coping skills might be difficult, but worth taking.
- Talk to your friend or professional
- Involve in problem-solving
- Surround yourself with positive people
- Walk away or accept and deal with it. Avoiding is not a solution
- Eliminate the cause of distress (cutting off from the toxic people)
Emotion Based Coping Skills
When you are feeling something negative like anger, depression, and anxiety, emotion-based coping skills help you to deal with such emotional rush. The best coping skills to help you tolerate distress and pass through the situation. Emotion-focused coping skills help you to manage your emotions, so you won’t regret your actions later.
- Jot down your thoughts in a journal
- Meditate and exercise
- Spend quality time with your loved ones and share your feelings with them
- Use progressive muscle relaxation
- Reframe your thinking and try to think from a different perspective.
Negative Coping Skills Need to Avoid
A strategy that might help you to deal with the emotional rush temporarily doesn’t mean it is good for your health. Here are the few activities you should avoid to feel better about the situation and emotions.
- Avoid overeating. Food might make you feel better for some time, but overeating can lead to physical health issues.
- Consumption of alcohol and drugs
- Sleeping is a temporary escape. Do not sleep too much to avoid the situation.
- Avoiding the situation or emotions, instead of acknowledging them.
If you can’t handle the management of your emotions by yourself, it’s normal and a healthy option for you to seek the help of professionals like our team of best counsellors in Pune.
Recent Comments