Overcoming problems effectively through coping strategies, here's how

What are coping skills?

Quoted from the Medical Dictionary, coping skills is a pattern of character or behavior that can increase a person's adaptability. This includes the ability to uphold values or beliefs, the ability to solve problems, socialize, maintain health, and also the ability to maintain commitments. Coping skills can also be viewed as the ability to deal with stress to encourage oneself to keep moving forward to achieve the goals that have been set.

Why do we need coping skills?

The mental health condition of a person is generally influenced by three main factors, namely genetics, the presence of stressors from the environment and coping skills against stressful conditions. The first two factors, namely genetics and external stress, are among the things that you cannot control. However, coping skills are character traits that can be learned and applied to maintain mental health.

Coping skills are done by recognizing what problem we are actually facing by reducing stress first, for example, distracting for a moment by relaxing or doing other work. With reduced stress levels, we can think more clearly and be able to deal with problems more effectively.

Many mental problems that are triggered by stress also ultimately have an impact on physical and social health. Thus, having the ability to overcome problems (coping skills) is also very useful for preventing health complications that may arise later.

How do you apply coping skills in everyday life?

Strategy coping skills each person can be different, depending on one's personality and the type and source of stress experienced. However, psychologists generally differentiate coping skill strategies into two main categories, viz Emotion-focused Coping and Problem-focused Coping .

Emotion-focused coping

This is a coping strategy that focuses on a person's emotional state by reducing the negative emotional response to a stressful state - for example feeling embarrassed, grieving someone's loss, anxiety, fear, and frustration. This strategy is the only way of implementing it coping skills when the source of stress is beyond the control of someone who experiences it. Emotion-focused coping is done by diverting focus and attention from the source of the problem, for example by venturing or writing about the problems it faces, meditation, or by praying.

But sometimes, the emotion-focused coping strategy actually makes someone tend to procrastinate overcoming the source of the problem. This is what makes this strategy an ineffective way of solving long-term problems. This strategy is also dangerous when the problems faced actually require immediate treatment, such as early treatment of chronic diseases and financial problems.

In addition, emotion-focused coping strategies can also be destructive or actually add to problems and stress. This can happen when you become dependent on unhealthy distraction techniques such as using illegal drugs, consuming excess alcohol, smoking for reasons of stress, binge eating, or spending too long playing games or watching TV.

Problem-focused coping

In general, this is the best coping strategy. Problem-focused coping not only focuses on the level of stress, but also the root cause of the stress. However, this strategy cannot be applied to every situation and will only be effective when the source of stress comes from work or pressure while achieving a goal. Negative emotions such as sadness and frustration due to losing someone, for example, can only be handled with emotion-focused coping.

There are three important things in implementing problem-focused coping, including problem-solving skills, good time management, and social support. Even though this coping skill strategy is very effective, not everyone can apply this method so it requires practice in its application. An optimistic personality is also very much needed in applying this method. Because to overcome the problem requires self-confidence to assess and weigh whether the situation can be controlled.

Tips for training coping skills

The effectiveness of a coping strategy is influenced by the type of problem at hand, but there are a number of ways that you can solve the problem efficiently, including:

Positive thinking by seeing a problem as an opportunity to gain experience and learn.
Try to be calm - avoid overreacting to stress the first time you experience it. This can be done by taking a deep breath and relaxing yourself before making a choice or making a decision.
Accept yourself and others - understand that no one is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes.
Learn mistakes - Every mistake can make you make better decisions in the future.
Objective - Recognize and understand precisely what problems are actually being experienced by ignoring the feelings of stress or pressure they cause.
Communication - avoid harboring anger, opinions or negative emotions too often. Try communicating the problem well with the person concerned.
Build good relationships with other people - Social support is very necessary in helping you solve problems or achieve goals.
Build self-control and discipline - these two things are important in consistently achieving goals.