Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! February is now over, time for a new chapter. Were you productive during the month? If not, you still have time to catch up! Today we’re going to talk about coping mechanisms. You guys know how much I care about mental health and I feel like this is a great topic for today’s article.
We all have at least one or several coping mechanisms. They are things that we do on the daily basis, mostly when we feel overwhelmed and anxious. As common as they are, a lot of people may not know what a coping mechanism is and how to recognize it. Therefore, as usual let me use other authors’ writings to explain to you guys what “Coping mechanisms” are.
What is a Coping Mechanism?
“Coping mechanisms are the strategies people often use in the face of stress and/or trauma to help manage painful or difficult emotions.” 1 Basically, coping mechanisms are things that we do or how we act in order to manage stress and anxiety when facing a stressful situation.
Coping mechanisms can be both healthy or unhealthy. Thus, it is important to learn how to identify each category.
Personally, one of my main coping mechanisms is “Catastrophizing” ; I shall explain. Basically, whenever I am facing a stressful situation, whether it’s something really serious or anything as irrelevant as a soccer game, I always imagine the worst possible outcome. You may associate it with negative thinking (and it is), but the way I see it, by expecting the worst, I prepare myself for what is coming. It helps me prevent myself from being sad, angry or disappointed. On the other hand, if the outcome turns out to be positive, then it will create a sense of happiness that is associated with a kind of unexplainable relief.
Beside the one cited above, there are other unhealthy/toxic coping mechanisms that we practice everyday, that are unconsciously affecting both our mental and physical health, and even our relationship with people around us.
1. Isolating. This happens when the person dealing with the crisis isolates him/herself from others. No matter what happens in life, we will always need one another. Keeping your problems to yourself is not always the best solution.
2. Blaming others. There are people that manage their anxiety by blaming others for what’s happening to them. Sometimes there isn’t even a connection between the situation and who they’re blaming. You’ll often hear them say things like “If it wasn’t for X,Y,Z, I would not be in this situation today”.
3. Downward Social Comparison. To feel better about an unfortunate situation, some compare themselves to others. They feel better knowing that someone else has it worse than them.
4. Alcohol (or any other drugs) abuse. I believe that this might be the most common one, hence the popular saying “Drown in your sorrows” which basically means forgetting your problems by getting drunk.
I didn’t do drugs. It wasn’t my thing. But the drink was terrible. Today when I look back, it’s like I was another person. You could call it a coping mechanism, but that would be an excuse. I just drank too much. Gary Oldman
5. Self harm. There is another category of people who deals with stress by hurting themselves. It allows them to focus their attention on the physical pain rather than the emotional one.
We all use both healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms depending on the situation we are facing. There is no reason why you should be ashamed of the type of coping mechanisms that you use. That was not my intent with this article. The most important thing is to identify what they are, understand what they do to your health, and recognize that it’s something you need to work on. Unfortunately, unhealthy coping mechanisms aren’t talked about enough, but with time, support and patience we can all improve our mental health by slowly adopting more healthy habits, which I will talk about in part two.
That’s all I have for today everyone. Thank you again for reading my articles. If you like my posts, don’t forget to like, comment, and share them as much as you can to help me grow my audience. Until we meet again, stay safe and be blessed… always!