70 tips to develop healthy coping skills

In this article you will learn the following

-77 tips to create healthy coping mechanism and a battery of coping skills - to deal with difficult situations and people

-61 Signs and unhealthy coping mechanisms and recognizing Maladaptive behaviors

-14 medical conditions which can also trigger Unhealthy coping skills and behaviors

Developing healthy coping strategies recognizing your maladaptive behaviors

To deal effectively with the disrupting changes happening on a continuous basis in our professional, financial, relationship, social business, technological, political and personal life - it is mandatory to have a battery of effective and healthy coping skills.

Developing effective and healthy coping skills - does not happen instantly and in silos - it is an ongoing practice on daily basis - so that- when you face a serious setback, crisis or challenge - you can subconsciously summon these skills to deal with the situation and people better.

Effective and healthy coping skills - are your own tools which enables and empowers you to adapt and bounce back from all types of adversity, trauma, threats and other significant emotional events and massive stressors.

It may seem a monumental task - when you read this article - but believe me - you can practice most of these skills almost on every day basis.

For all the tips given this article [unless that tip is executable as it is] - there are detailed do-it-yourself, 900+ blogs and 3000+ answer in both my websites as well in my Quora page.

77 tips to create healthy coping mechanism and a battery of coping skills

• 1.Create, maintain and nurture - caring and supportive relationships which are filled with love and trust
• 2.Create a solid self-believe - that tells you in any unnerving situation - that although it is an unnerving situation and right now you are not able to see any solution - but you will ultimately come out
• 3.Develop Ability to think and creating realistic plans and solutions and implement your plans
• 4.Strengthen your problem-solving, decision-making and resourcefulness
• 5.Learn how to manage your stress effectively
• 6.Improvise in case your solutions don't work-out and implement the improved solutions
• 7.Know your strengths and abilities and what limits you
• 8.Learn to manage your impulses
• 9.Learn to manaage your negative feelings and emotions
• 10.Accept help and support from those who care about you
• 11.Volunteer to help those who can't - assist others in their time of need
• 12.Create a solution-focused mindset and perception
• 13.Develop ability to look beyond the present and imagine what you need to do to make future better
• 14.Instead of seeing crises as insurmountable - note what positive ways you are using already to deal with it
• 15.Create a flexible mindset - understand many of your past aspirations may no longer be feasible or desirable
• 16.Accept what all in your circumstances is beyond your area of control
• 17.Focus on what all you can influence
• 18.Then go and take actions in all that you can do
• 19.Break your large objectives into small achievable goals - take decisive actions in these as per the priority
• 20.Try to accomplish at least a small amount if progress toward your goal(s) each day - by taking actions
• 21.Learn to face the problems, anxieties and fears - instead of thinking of ways to escape
• 22.Reframe the situation - and check if they can give you any opportunity of growth
• 23.Trust your own intuitions and develop confidence in your ability to solve problems
• 24.Learn to recognize - when you are blowing unpleasant events out of proportion by magnifying
• 25.Visualize what you want rather to avoid worrying about what you fear
• 26.Make self-care and care of those whom you love and those who are affected - a top most priority
• 27.Learn to relax - to recharge yourself mentally, physically and emotionally
• 28.Create your own methods - how you will deal effectively[to learn about all these - this please read my blogs on handling these difficult emotions] - when you are feeling lonely, sad, melancholic, depressed, angry, scared, anxious, frustrated, irritated, bored, burned-out etc.
• 29.Recognize when you feel burned-out
• 30.Create ways to make your mood positive - when you are in un-resourceful emotional state
• 31.Ensure that you walk and exercise daily - especially when you are going through crisis
• 32.Get into healthy distractions - clean your home, arrange things
• 33.If possible - identify what things are still - for which you should be grateful
• 34.Establish and maintain healthy boundaries
• 35.Walk away and leave a situation that is causing you stress - If it won't affect your future
• 36.Talk about your problems with a trusted person
• 37.Avoid unhealthy coping skills
• 38.Create proactive coping skills - to deal with the similar situations in future and also with unexpected life changes
• 39.Plan for circumstances that might derail you
• 40.Find what works for you - because all the strategies won't work for you
• 41.Keep refining, strengthening and sharping all that works for you by regular practice
• 42.Use each failure and rejection for self-development and self-growth - by finding ways you can succeed in future in similar situations
• 43.Find out and determining an alternative out of box solution which can handle your situations effectively
• 44.Seek help talking with a trusted friend or colleague may be enough to ease your stress and build stronger connections
• 45.Learn to create controlled distraction - so that when you are less stressed you can come back to address the issues
• 46.Learn to lower your expectations
• 47.Take responsibility for the situation
• 48.Challenge previously held beliefs that are no longer adaptive
• 49.Try to get enough good quality sleep
• 50.Ensure eating a well-balanced diet.
• 51.Practice relaxation exercises such as yoga, prayer, meditation and progressive muscle relaxation - if they work for you
• 52.Find a ways to connect with different forums and groups
• 53.Create healthy outlets for venting emotional expression
• 54.Create a space for yourself - by being with yourself and observe your thoughts without forcing them- acknowledge and accept your thoughts and emotions during these times
• 55.Think about past situations that you handled better and come out stronger
• 56.Learn to disconnect to replenishing your emotional energy
• 57.Look back at situations that you did not handle well and identify the elements that led to that outcome - create solutions which may help you deal with similar situations better
• 58.Identify and accept that there are certain circumstances that you cannot change
• 59.Take a problem and break it down into manageable pieces -start identifying goals that you can work right now
• 60.Walk away from an argument or disagreement to cool off
• 61.Learn to express emotional displeasure in a productive way
• 62.Learn to say NO to avoid overextending oneself with too many obligations
• 63.Accept the faults of others
• 64.Realize that you can't change others and may thing those are happening in the world - BUT - you can do something to protect you and your loved ones
• 65.Set realistic expectations for oneself and others
• 66.Visualize yourself achieving your goals
• 67.Learn to manage your anger effectively
• 68.Face your fears in controlled environment - through creating stimuli - go for progressively graded approach - where your initial targets are mildly feared situations and people - then gradually reach your most feared ones
• 69.Learn guided imagery by visualizing peaceful experiences, places, or scenes in your mind to help you focus and relax
• 70.Learn to practice breath therapy - take deep, slow, and long breaths
• 71.Learn Cognitive restructuring by asking yourself a series of open, focused questions between two people – to challenge irrational thoughts
• 72.Replace negative thoughts with more healthy, positive ones that reduce the impact of real or imagined events
• 73.Practice Thought-stopping and thought-interruption to break the cycle of negative thoughts as they arise to stop panic from spiraling and creating whirlpool of domino effect
• 74.Practice these self-talk statements - like - I am going to face this challenge and do my best - it is my responsibility to come out of this situation and I need to take needed action however fearful - I have come out of tough situations before and I am going to overcome them now
• 75.Learn and improve your improving social skills
• 76.Learn and practice self-discipline
• 77.Seek professional help by trying out among the various Therapy options for maladaptive behaviors - like - cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), applied behavior therapy (ABT) and interpersonal psychotherapy

61 Signs and unhealthy coping mechanisms and recognizing Maladaptive behaviors - they could be the combinations of following behaviors

• 1.Using Passive-aggressiveness by indirectly expressing negative feelings on unrelated issues
• 2.Bottling up your inner feelings rather than talk about them openly
• 3.Withdrawal - avoiding engaging in social activities
• 4.Uncontrolled outbursts and being in rage and anger all the time
• 5.Throwing temper tantrums would fall into this particular category
• 6.Banging your head and self-hitting
• 7.Declining to take prescribed medications
• 8.Maladaptive daydreaming by engaging your mind in extensive mental fantasy that involves dreaming about unrealistic accomplishments, complex characters and plots and can last for hours
• 9.Making yourself too busy and avoiding relaxing
• 10.Not sharing or failing to talk about your uncomfortable situation, problems and emotions
• 11.Living in denial - denial and behavioral disengagement prevent you from dealing with the stressors in your life
• 12.Having toxic positivity which prevents you from validating your emotions over-analyzing the problem
• 13.Overthinking and magnifying and generalizing to make something very bad
• 14.Isolation from friends and family
• 15.Drinking alcohol or using drugs - if you are addicted seek professional help
• 16.Overeating or going to the other extreme and not eating properly
• 17.Sleeping too much, sleeping late or sleeping in abnormal hours
• 18.Venting your anger, frustrations and helplessness on to others
• 19.Playing victim
• 20.Spending money recklessly or overspending as later these may cause even more stress
• 21.Lashing out physically or verbally
• 22.Destroying objects or personal property
• 23.Social withdrawal, including becoming isolated from friends and family
• 24.Compulsions and risk-taking behaviors such as gambling, unsafe sex, experimenting with drugs, theft, or reckless driving.
• 25.Emotional numbing -shutting down feelings to provide relief from stress and anxiety
• 26.Escaping by changing behavior to avoid the situation and difficult feelings.
• 27.Having Intrusive thoughts - unwelcome or involuntary ideas and thoughts that may be upsetting and difficult to manage.
• 28.Procrastination consciously or unconsciously to avoid difficult issues or tasks that require completion.
• 29.Blaming, accusing and harmful self-criticism
• 30.Disengaging or reduce the effort in a task or social situation
• 31.Overly rehearsing a future event, excessive worrying, and hyper-vigilance
• 32.Throwing Tantrums -screaming, crying, dropping to the ground
• 33.Showing Aggression – hitting, kicking, biting, slapping, pinching, grabbing, pushing
• 34.Lack of cooperation with instructions/demands/requests
• 35.Verbally inappropriate behavior – name calling, swearing, screaming, whining, crying
• 36.Avoiding people, places, or situations that can cause unpleasant feelings or stress
• 37.Having Mood swings and angry outbursts
• 38.Taking on responsibilities at social functions that reduce interactions with others
• 39.Choosing clothing that reduces attention
• 40.Trouble controlling anger
• 41.Canceling plans at the last minute because they think they will humiliate themselves
• 42.Skipping social events they are interested in because they think they will feel awkward
• 43.Turning down a promotion at work because they don't believe in their abilities
• 44.Have increased anxiety or depression
• 45.Serious Work problems with colleagues bosses and customers
• 46.Difficulty in relaxing and/or sleeping
• 47.Legal problems like DUIs or police cases for violence etc.)
• 48.Marital arguments - relationship breaks - Relationships ending abruptly
• 49.School problems, study problems
• 50.Thoughts of self-harm or harm to others
• 51.Ridiculing others
• 52.Excessive talking​​
• 53.Compulsive behavior
• 54.Damaging behavior
• 55.Binge-eating
• 56.Anorexia
• 57.Bulimia nervosa​
• 58.Stealing
• 59.Gang violence​shyness
• 60.14 medical conditions which can also trigger Unhealthy coping skills and behaviors
• I.Social anxiety disorders
• II.Depression
• III.Phobia
• IV.Avoidant disorder
• V.Conduct disorder
• VI.Borderline personality disorder​
• VII.Antisocial personality disorder​
• VIII.Developmental delays
• IX.Autism spectrum disorder​​
• X.Causes of maladaptive behavior
• XI.Anxiety disorders
• XII.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
• XIII.Panic disorder
• XIV.Personality disorders
• XV.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• XVI.Intellectual disability