There are many different conceptualizations of coping strategies, but the five general types of coping strategies are problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, social support, religious coping, and meaning making.
Weiten has identified four types of coping strategies: appraisal-focused (adaptive cognitive), problem-focused (adaptive behavioral), emotion-focused, and occupation-focused coping. Billings and Moos added avoidance coping as one of the emotion-focused coping.
Examples of healthy coping skills include: Establishing and maintaining boundaries. Practicing relaxation strategies such as deep breathing, meditation, and mindfulness. Getting regular physical activity.
A big event or a buildup of smaller stressful life situations may trigger excessive anxiety — for example, a death in the family, work stress or ongoing worry about finances. Personality. People with certain personality types are more prone to anxiety disorders than others are.
Here are three strategies I use every day to stop overthinking:
Positive reframing. This is often confused with “toxic positivity,” which asks people to think positively — no matter how difficult a situation is. ...
Write down your thoughts once, then distract yourself for 24 hours. ...
If you have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, know that you are not alone. Anxiety affects 40 million adults in the U.S., according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. ...
Dr. Manly suggests creative activities, journaling, meditating, deep breathing, playing with pets, and/or spending time in nature. All of these are effortless emotion-focused coping methods that lower our cortisol levels and support our sense of well-being.
This method of coping is said to be the most effective way to tackle life's problems; however, problem-focused coping is only effective if the individual has control over the outcome (Zaman & Ali, 2019).
Coping skills are those daily strategies and activities that we use to help deal with, work through, or process our emotions. We all have them. We have learned them from our families and the people who have influenced us most in our lives. They can be positive and healthy, but they can also be negative and unhealthy.
Emotion-focused coping skills help you process and work through unwanted or painful emotions and reactions. In other words, this approach helps you manage your emotions rather than outside circumstances.
The Ways of Coping Checklist (WCCL) is a measure of coping based on Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) stress and coping theory. The WCCL contains 66 items that describe thoughts and acts that people use to deal with the internal and/or external demands of specific stressful encounters.
