General
Positive strategy or technique to manage difficult emotions such as stress and effectively improve well-being rather than create additional problems.
What are Healthy Coping Skills?
This coping skill involves using your senses to reconnect with the present moment, such as identifying 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, 2 things you smell, and 1 thing you taste.
What is Grounding?
Give an example of an avoidant behavior that temporarily reduces emotional distress but prevents healthy coping by numbing or escaping feelings?
Substance Use, Oversleep, Overeating, potentially SIB
Why might someone engage in denial?
If someone admits they have a problem then they have to either change (can be hard or scary), or they can choose not to change but feel guilt or shame
Give 3 examples of a distraction coping skill
1. Talking to friends
2. Listen to music
3. Watch TV or Read
5. Play a game
6. Art or kraft
7. Hobby (e.g., fishing, knit)
8. Exercise
Define Maladaptive Coping Strategies
Responses to difficult situations or emotions that provide temporary relief or instant gratification but fail to address the underlying problem and often exacerbates the “issue”.
This technique involves deliberately tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups throughout the body.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A person frequently reacts with anger toward others when distressed. What underlying emotion is often being masked?
Anxiety, fear, shame, pain, or frustration.
Which defense mechanism involves attributing your own thoughts, feelings, or emotional experiences to other people, as if they are the ones feeling or thinking them?
What is projection?
What is the purpose of breathing exercises?
To intentionally focus your attention on your breath to help regulate your nervous system and calm your body's stress response.
Name 3 possible barriers to using healthy coping strategies
1. Instant Gratification
2. Negative Expectations
3. Self-defeating beliefs “don’t deserve it” 4. Time? 5. Fears (change, effort, ect)
This skill involves accepting reality as it is, even when you do not like or agree with it.
Radical Acceptance
Why might someone use substances as a coping method?
To provide temporary relief by numbing emotions
Share an example of Displacement
Idea: Someone has a bad day at work and snap/yells at spouse when they ask how their day was
What is the ultimate goal of Cope Ahead: to guarantee that you will not experience distress, or to prepare you to respond effectively when distress occurs?
Prepare you to respond effectively when distress occurs.
This skill involves mentally rehearsing how you will cope with a stressful situation before it happens.
Unconscious strategies people use to defend or protect themselves from anxious or negative thoughts or feelings. They can also be a way of distancing ourselves from unpleasant behaviors or emotions.
What are defense mechanisms?
You cannot change another person's decision, but you can choose how you respond and what boundary you set.
What is focusing on your circle of control?
How can staying in bed or oversleeping contribute to the cycle of depression?
Reduces opportunity to engage in rewarding activities and be productive that support dopamine and mood regulation, which can worsen low mood and reinforce the urge to stay in bed, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of depression.
A person spends more money than they can afford and then says, "I deserved it because I've been stressed lately." Which defense mechanism is this?
What is rationalization?
This coping skill often involves sitting quietly and focusing attention on the breath, a mantra, or an object of focus to cultivate awareness and calm.
What is Meditation?
What are the consequences of using unhealthy coping strategies vs healthy ones?
Unhealthy coping:
- Exacerbates and prolongs the issue.
- Prevents someone from getting to the root of the problem and potentially reaching goals.
-Prevents one from helping others/ empty glass
- Relationships, life, functioning, and overall well-being suffers
- Creates another problem
Healthy Coping Strategies: provide long-term relief and get to the root of the issue
This skill balances emotional reasoning with logical reasoning to help you make effective decisions.
Wise Mind
A person refuses help and insists on handling everything alone. What cognitive belief(s) might be reinforcing this behavior?
Beliefs about self-reliance, fear of vulnerability, stigma around help-seeking, or fear of being a burden.
What is the difference between repression and suppression?
Repression is an unconscious process in which a person is unaware that they are blocking a thought or emotion. In contrast, suppression is a conscious process in which a person intentionally redirects their attention away from a thought or feeling. Think of suppression like stuffing the garbage down as to avoid taking out the trash whereas repression functions like a file automatically being moved to a hidden folder on your computer
What is Mindfulness?
Involves paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings in the present moment without judgment.