Individuals are said to be in the state of coping when they try to reduce the impact of a loss or suffering. They might be taking action, facing responsibilities and dealing with difficulties and problems calmly and effectively. Coping is also like dealing with a problem as if you are fixing the hurt. As part of coping, individuals also take actions in reducing stress and they are doing their best in coping with the loss.
Coping means responding to loss, contending to complexities and acting to beat them. It is also referred to as a technique of dealing with stressful events and situations and taking actions to retain balance. This is indeed a struggle to move on. Coping is a human approach that intends to solve problems by taking the right approaches and courses of actions. Coping can either be external and internal. In case the problem is unsolvable or prolonged, this is probably because the problem involves permanent loss like chronic illness, broken relationship or even death.
Effective Coping Techniques
All coping techniques are composed of different stages and generally, these include the following:
Orienting: Noticing something that is interesting and that can turn your attention towards that particular thing.
Observing: Paying discreet attention about what is really going on.
Appraisal: Determining the impacts of observations on set and given goals.
Deciding: Creating other alternatives, assessing value, planning and selecting the next courses of actions.
Acting: Carrying out all the decisions made.
Reappraising: This pertains to reflecting on appraisals, actions, decisions and result.
Ways of Coping
There are several ways on how individuals cope with the shortcomings and challenges they face. According to various researchers, actions and thoughts that individuals used are categorized and identified. There various ways on how they cope with stress and problems include the following:
Distancing: It pertains to cognitive efforts of detaching oneself and minimizing the importance of situations. This way of coping includes denial.
Self-Controlling: This describes the effort of regulating one’s actions and feelings.
Seeking Social Support: Describes the effort of seeking tangible, emotional, and informational support.
Accepting Responsibility: Acknowledging one’s own unique role and trying to put things right. This also includes acceptance.
Escape-Avoidance: This describes behavioral efforts and wishful thinking to avoid or escape the problem. Items on category are contrast with the Distancing scale that mainly suggest detachment
Positive Reappraisal: This describes the efforts of creating positive meaning by concentrating solely on personal growth. It also has its religious dimension.
Planful Problem Solving: This focuses on problem-focused efforts in altering the situation combined with a systematic approach to resolve the problem.
Confrontive Coping
This is another way of coping wherein one confronts or faces the issue or the problem directly or head on. Confrontive coping also describes the aggressive effort of altering the situations or suggesting certain degree of hostility as well a risk taking. It is a way of coping that sometimes includes anger.
If these different ways or techniques of coping are done by individuals, they can somehow find relief. However, they have to note that coping is still based on the situation they are in.