What Are Coping Skills?

Coping skills help you deal with stressful situations in life. Two of the main types of coping skills are problem-based coping and emotion-based coping. Understanding how they differ can help you determine the best coping strategy for you.

Problem-Based Coping is helpful when you need to change your situation, perhaps by removing a stressful thing from your life.

Emotion-Based Coping is helpful when you need to take care of your feelings when you either don’t want to change your situation or when circumstances are out of your control.

Problem-based coping skills focus on changing the situation, while emotional-based coping skills are centered on changing how you feel. Knowing which approach is right for a specific situation can help you deal with stress more effectively. There isn’t always one best way to proceed. Instead, it’s up to you to decide which type of coping skill is likely to work best for you in your particular circumstance.

What Is Proactive Coping?

Coping skills are usually discussed as a reactive strategy: when you feel bad, you do something to cope. But proactive coping has been found to be an effective way to help people deal with both predictable changes (like a decline in income during retirement) and unpredictable changes (like managing a chronic health condition). If you are facing a stressful life event, consider the skills you can use to cope with the challenges you’re likely to face. When you have a “coping toolbox” ready to go, you’ll know what to do and that could help you to feel better equipped to face the challenges ahead.

It's important to develop your own “coping toolbox” of coping skills that you find useful. You may need to experiment with a variety of coping strategies to help you discover which ones work best for you. Whether problem-based or emotion-based, healthy coping skills help calm stress without avoiding the issue. The right coping skill often depends on the situation and your specific needs in the moment. At Colorway Wellness we’ll work together to develop a “wellness toolbox” of coping skills to help you feel like your best self, live your best life, and believe the best is yet to come!