How to deal with stress? Moreover, is there anyone out there suffering from the stresses that can not disappear or remove? In that case, there is a coping strategy called ‘emotion-focused coping.’ Emotion-focused coping is an attitude that effectively manages or prevents inappropriate emotional reactions to stressful situations, and it is useful significantly when we can not change the situation.
However, if actions exist that can change the situation, problem-focused coping is helpful indeed. Certainly, it gives you more options with stressful circumstances. Problem-focused coping and seeking social support are other major coping strategies. You can read about it in How to Deal With Stress – Part 1 in this blog to know more about it.
Emotion-focused coping
Emotion-focused coping techniques aim to deal with the emotional reactions that arise from stressful circumstances rather than directly managing the problematic issue.
- Positive Reinterpretation and Growth: Focusing on personal improvement and growth might help you build positive meaning with the situation.
e.g., Starting a new project can be challenging and stressful in various ways. But, it will be possible to accomplish something vital and meaningful improvement in the career.
- Acceptance and resignation: Accepting the circumstance as unchangeable and attempting to adapt and learn to live with it.
e.g., When people break up with their lovers, they accept the facts and adapt to the way they live without them.
- Denial: Ignoring and refusing to acknowledge the reality of the issues. To get away from feelings of pain.
e.g., When a traumatic situation has happened and denying the incident can be helpful. It will help our mind gradually accept what has happened and make a rational decision to get proper help.
- Religion: As a source of emotional support or a guiding light for positive interpretations and growth.
e.g., An individual diagnosed with cancer frequently relies on one’s own religious belief.
- Humour: As a form of dealing with negative feelings.
e.g., nurses ask pediatric patients questions about their favorite foods or foods that they think are really awful. It helps to start off a humorous interaction with the patients.
Coping Strategies to use for Short-term
The following coping strategies may be beneficial by lowering stress and avoiding anxiety from being overwhelmed. However, unfavorably using it for the long term.
- Escape-avoidance: Seeks to avoid attention from the problem by turning away from it.
e.g., When a guy is told he has a fatal condition, he may choose the avoidance strategy of stopping medical care and keeping the sickness hidden, including from close friends and family.
- Wishful thinking: A mental process in which one understands reality and truth according to one’s preferences or wishes.
e.g., An individual might think and wish to get the highest score regardless of the amount of study done so far. Help reduce stress levels before the coming exam day.
- Alcohol and drugs: To cope with negative feelings and reduce tension, some turn to drinking alcohol or using drugs. Individuals can be harmed by the overuse or abuse of alcohol and drugs. It should be only used for a temporary period.
Every coping strategy and technique can not work perfectly in every scenario. Rather, the efficiency of a strategy is determined by the current situation’s features.
In addition, the suitability of the strategy used in that situation is another factor that makes an effective outcome. People who have learned several coping skills and understand how and when to use them efficiently are more capable of accepting well with life’s stressors.
Read another Phrens blog post How to Deal With Stress – Part 1
References
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- Passer, M & Smith, R. (2015). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour. (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
- Broadbent, J & Hayden, M. (2015). HBS110 Health Behaviour. (2nd ed.). Pearson Australia.
- Orzechowska, A., Zajączkowska, M., Talarowska, M., & Gałecki, P. (2013). Depression and ways of coping with stress: A preliminary study. Medical science monitor: international medical journal of experimental and clinical research, 19, 1050.
- Stanisławski, K. (2019). The coping circumplex model: an integrative model of the structure of coping with stress. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 694.
- American Psychological Association. (2020). APA Dictionary of Psychology. More information here 1 & 2
- Dowling, J. S. (2002). Humor: A Coping Strategy for. Pediatric nursing, 28(2).
- Mayo Clinic. (2017). Denial: When it helps, when it hurts. More information here.
- Lifeline. (2021). Substance abuse, misuse and addiction. More information here.