Hello P-assengers! Glad to meet you again in another PIDAS’s weekly article. How was your day? I hope it was delightful and full of joy. So in this opportunity, we’ll discuss “coping mechanism”. What is the coping mechanism? How do we identify this condition? Is it dangerous? P-assengers will find answers to all of those questions in this article. So stay tuned until the end!
What is the coping mechanism? It’s quite a familiar name, isn’t it? Coping mechanism is a strategy that people often use to face or go through stress, pain, or difficult emotions. So coping mechanisms sometimes help us to manage our stress and cope with negative emotions such as anxiety, loss, etc. Roughly, there are two types of coping mechanisms. One, a problem-focused coping mechanism which means dealing with the problem to reduce the stress. And the other, emotion-focused coping mechanism aka handling any negative emotion that is caused by the problem.
Most people have a different coping mechanism to deal with their stress. Some of them are good but some of them aren’t effective for a long period, this can be dangerous and cause harm. A good coping mechanism is called “adaptive coping”. This way generally involves confronting the problem directly, making a rational and realistic decision, changing unhealthy emotions, and so on. To identify it, here are some common adaptive coping mechanism,
- Relaxation, sometimes the best way to deal with our stress is to try to relax. These activities include meditation, listening to classical music, etc.
- Exercise, your body needs to move, exercise can be a natural way for stress relief. You can do yoga, running, swimming, or any other physical activities to cope with it.
- Getting social support is important. If you’re dealing with something stressful most people often isolate themselves from others, but it’s wrong. Instead, you can seek external support from your family, friends, or even professionals.
- Problem-solving, identify your problem and source of stress and try to deal with it. You can start by making some potentially effective solutions for the problem then deal with the best ability you have.
- Humour, you could light up a stressful situation, that way you won’t be overwhelmed by the unhealthy emotions and can cope with them.
What about the maladaptive coping mechanism aka the “bad” one? There are some common maladaptive coping mechanisms such as using drugs, escaping from reality, drinking too much alcohol, numbing, self-harm, and so on. The list is quite long. These things can create some new problem and it can’t take the stress to disappear. It can also have a bad effect on those around them. The worst outcome? Death. Yes, it’s that dangerous.
So what do you guys think? Do P-assengers often use a coping mechanism to handle stress? Or your friends and family are the ones who use it? Either way, we hope this article is useful and increases your insight. Let’s meet in another weekly article, goodbye, P-assengers!
Sumber refrensi