What Are Coping Strategies And How Can They Help You?
Don’t you know how to deal with your bad situations? Coping strategies are vital to be able to solve certain psychological psychologies. Discover how to use them to your advantage.
The coping strategies They are methods that people use to deal with stress or certain situations that cause some discomfort. In this way, through these coping skills, people can be helped to adapt to the events that cause them the most negative feelings.
The action required to resolve the effects of stress: it is the coping behavior Lazarus and Folkman (1986) defined coping as those constantly changing cognitive and behavioral efforts that are developed to manage specific demands, external and/or internal, that are evaluated as surplus or overflowing the individual’s resources.
The coping strategies They are always, to some extent, extracting resources from the lack of resources, that is, drawing strength from weakness. The study of the influences of personality characteristics on coping processes has led to establishing differences between two concepts that may seem similar: coping styles and coping strategies.
The coping styles They refer to personal predispositions to deal with situations and are responsible for individual preferences in the use of one or another type of coping strategies, as well as their temporal and situational stability.
In turn, the coping strategies They would be the specific processes that are used in each context and can be highly changing depending on the triggering situations.
Types of coping strategies:
There are different ways of coping. Within these styles, we can see various coping styles in the face of bad situations.
Coping strategies focused on the problem : the person focuses on coping with the situation, looking for solutions to the problem. There is a deliberate search for a solution, for a recomposition of the balance. These types of strategies are confrontation, the search for social support and the search for solutions.
Emotion-focused coping strategies : the person seeks to regulate the emotional consequences activated by the presence of the stressful situation. The strategies are self-control, distancing, positive reappraisal, self-blame, and escape or avoidance.
Others : religious behaviors such as praying, using humor, restricting certain actions.
Each person has a personality pattern, a way of seeing life and a way of responding to the situations they experience, therefore no coping strategy It is better or worse if these factors are not taken into account. Now, what we could be sure of is that the best way to cope is the one that makes you feel better about yourself and that is consistent with your own beliefs and circumstances.
It is also important to know that many times we confront it unconsciously or impulsively, obtaining unsatisfactory results, or that maintain or magnify the negative situation. In this circumstance it would also be appropriate, if the person comes to consultation with this complaint, that we look for coping alternatives
Difference between defense mechanisms and coping strategies
Many people confuse the coping skills with defense mechanisms when fighting against an adverse situation. Although these two concepts share some similarities, the reality is that they are quite different.
Defense mechanisms
When we refer to the defense mechanisms We are pointing to those actions that happen at an unconscious level. When people use them, they don’t realize they are doing it.
Coping strategies
People who use an adaptive strategy of this style are completely aware that they are doing it. So much so, that we can use them to manage certain external situations that we cannot control. Use these stress coping techniques or our discomfort, it can be a good way to balance our emotions and feel better in our daily lives.
The key to differentiating these two concepts is mainly to see how the coping strategies of the conflict they end up focusing on the problem to try to solve it. Thanks to these coping techniques we can control negative thoughts, as well as the anxiety associated with a problem in question.
Most of these coping skills They can work and solve problems for a certain period of time. The reality is that they are basically used to combat certain situations in the best possible way. Even so, the psychological problem behind it should always be solved with the help of a specialist.
1. Support
One of the methods of coping with a problem It is through conversations with our family and friends. In this way, support can be a patch that helps us get through a difficult situation.
2. Relaxation
One of the coping techniques Most useful for those who suffer from stress are the different relaxation exercises that we can do. Through meditation or other calming techniques we can avoid certain problems in our routine.
3. Troubleshooting
To do one of these coping techniques It is vitally important to identify the problem that causes a situation of discomfort. Once the causes have been visualized, we must then develop a method to avoid it or manage it in the most effective way.
4. Humor
Taking a stressful situation to heart can be one of the best coping techniques Laughing at ourselves in certain situations can make us stop giving them so much importance and we can face them in the best possible way.
5. Physical activity
Physical exercise is a very effective way to better deal with certain situations in our lives. The reality is that sport has many benefits on a psychological and physical level.
With these coping strategies You will be able to reduce many of the situations that cause a problem in your daily life. Even so, it is vitally important to know yourself and be able to address psychological problems at their roots.
There are some stress coping techniques or bad situations that can become counterproductive. Many of them are popularly known and used frequently.
1. Escape
There are some people who deal with both anxiety and stress by trying to avoid situations that generate this discomfort at all costs. This not only means that they may lose certain job opportunities, but it can also cause them to become increasingly distant from their family and friends.
2. Food and addictions
Many try to leave these bad situations behind by self-soothing in an unhealthy way. In this way, one of the bad coping strategies The most well-known is emotional eating. In addition, certain addictions to both video games and drugs can be derived from these errors.
3. Numbness
In some cases, bad situations end up making the person in question resort to sleeping to forget about the negative feelings they entail. Although it is one of the coping techniques more unnoticed.
4. Self-harm
In many cases, when problems are not faced and end up destroying the person’s life, this can lead to certain risky behaviors. One of them is through self-harm, which in some cases can go unnoticed. This point is crucial to detect the disease in question and go to a psychologist.
The use of these coping skills It can be a good method to improve mental and emotional well-being. Even so, many people can leave the solution to their problems behind because of having these coping techniques or styles. The essential thing is to use them as a method to cope with these bad situations while solving the psychological pathologies they entail.
