I THRIVE
Coping Skills Corner
In psychology coping skills or mechanisms are defined as the thoughts and behaviors utilized to influence and soothe internal and external stressors. More specifically, they are the conscious thoughts and behaviors that we use to regulate stressful situations, difficult people, or challenging emotions. It is important to have a series of copings skills, we'll call them 'tools in your toolkit,' to ensure you can make it through the ups and downs of life.
We've compiled a list of resources below to assist in developing healthy coping strategies and mechanisms to keep you well and happy or assist to you to get there if you're not. Read on below to peruse.
**Remember to always contact your provider prior to trialing any new therapy or treatment. Some of the techniques below may not be appropriate for all persons.
Coping Skills Lists & Ideas
Under stress, it might be difficult to come up with ways of coping. Or, maybe you just want a little help coming up with something new.
Consider checking out a few links for coping skills lists linked below to come up with coping skills ideas:
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of mindfulness based talk therapy. DBT was designed for people who experience emotions intensely. While this therapy is most commonly used in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, it is utilized for other mental health conditions and general coping skills training as well.
Thinking ‘Dialectical’ means developing the understanding to recognize how two things that seem opposite could each be true. For instance, it may seem paradoxic to consider the process of changing your behavior while simultaneously accepting yourself as you are. DBT assists you to recognize these possibilities so that participants in the practice learn to better live in the gray and ride the waves of life, rather than being stuck in the extremes of black and white thinking and the subsequent extreme emotions this creates.
The 4 cornerstones of DBT include:
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Mindfulness: The act of being present.
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Emotion Regulation: Learning to ride the waves of life.
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Interpersonal Skills: Getting along with others, communication, and assertiveness skills
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Distress Tolerance: Skills to bring you back down to earth when your emotions have taken you out of orbit.
Check out DBTSelfHelp.com for an awesome free resource for DBT skills separated by category and remember to check out our DBT page for even more skills!
Consider trying out a few coping skills from each of the 4 cornerstones of DBT below:
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Emotion Regulation
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Emotional Regulation Skills from DBTTools.com
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Interpersonal Effectiveness
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Distress Tolerance
Self-Care
Self-care can be defined as the practice of taking intentional action to maintain and/or improve upon one's health and wellbeing. The practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own happiness and wellbeing, in particular during periods of stress is vitally important.
Consider trying out a few of these self-care strategies and reviewing the links below:
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Self-care: Evidence-based strategies to cope with stress and trauma slide link
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Mental Health America Taking Good Care of Yourself strategy suggestions
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National Institutes of Health Caring for Your Mental Health
Vulnerabilify Factors
Vulnerability factors are factors that, when out of balance, affect our ability to function our best mentally, physically, and emotionally. It's important to keep ourselves in working order.
Check out a few ideas to improve health and coping through bolstering our vulnerability factors below:
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Sleep
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Nutrition
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Physical Activity
Social Support
Social support is shown to be protective against the development of mental health and a healthy support network also dictates a better prognosis for recovery from mentall illness. Having the love and support of people around you has been show to assist in easing psychological distress, mediating the negative health consequences of burnout, and to be an important factor of overall wellbeing, even affecting a person's longevity.
Research reflects that persons with high degrees of healthy social support are more resilient in high stress situations and encounters. Having a healthy social support network has also been shown to reduce a person's perception of overall stress in their life. Much of our experience can be dictated by our perception, perhaps it's easier to make lemonade out of life's lemons when we have some buddies to drink it with :). Consider this the next time a negative experience, is morphed into an adventure with the right company.
Consider reading up on a few of these methods to build social support and the benefits of doing so below:
Spirituality
Healthy spiritual practices are shown to be protective against developing mental illness and to dictate improved prognosis for recovery after trauma. Spirituality has also been shown to play a positive role in healing from moral injury in patients suffering from PTSD, trauma, and betrayal and to have a positive relationship with post-traumatic growth.
At I THRIVE & The Kintsukuroi Project, we define spirituality as whatever gives a person connection to the larger whole, one's values, purpose, and the transcendent self. This may include activities involving flow, religion, time in nature, or various spiritual practices to name a few.
Consider exploring a few of the following aspects of yourself as you develop your personal spiritual practice:
**Please always remember to consult your provider prior to trialing any new therapy or treatment. Some techniques on this site may not be appropriate for all persons.
