Everyone has times where they need to cope with stress or negative emotions, regardless of whether they live with a mental health disorder. Coping skills can be defined as thoughts or behaviors used to manage these internal and/ or external stressors (Algorani & Gupta, 2023). The coping skills we choose to help us deal with challenges can lead to adaptive or maladaptive patterns depending on whether the skills we choose are healthy or unhealthy. With this post, we discuss common unhealthy coping skills and offer insight into healthier coping alternatives that foster better mental health outcomes.
Unhealthy Coping Skills
Unhealthy coping mechanisms may offer temporary relief to stress, but when used repeatedly they often feed into a negative cycle that worsens mental health outcomes. Here are some common examples:
Substance use
While turning to alcohol or drugs may temporarily alleviate negative feelings and decrease anxiety, repeated use raises one’s risk of developing an addiction. In addition, drug and alcohol use can exacerbate existing mental health conditions and/ or contribute to the development of new conditions (Eske, 2023).
Self-harm
Self-harm comes in many forms. Although self-harm may cause minimal physical injury at first, repeatedly engaging in self-harm often leads to an increase in severity and is associated with an increased risk of suicide (Woodley et al., 2020).
Emotional eating
Many of us associate food with comfort, and this can lead to emotional eating. Emotional eating is positively correlated with binge eating, which increases one’s risk for developing metabolic abnormalities and increased weight (Chao et al., 2015). Those who engage in binge eating often find themselves in a cycle of craving followed by guilt and shame (Schaffner, 2023).
Other common negative coping skills include additional addictive behaviors, like shopping or gambling. Individuals can also develop negative mental coping skills, like resorting to negative self-talk when faced with stress (Schaffner, 2023). Some negative interpersonal coping skills include lashing out at others or isolating oneself from their support system. Emotional suppression, avoidance, and disengagement are other common adaptive behaviors that are associated with poor mental health outcomes (Algorani & Gupta, 2023).
Types of Positive Coping Skills (Algorani & Gupta, 2023)
Problem-focused: coping skills that directly address the problem causing the distress
Example: You receive a negative performance review at your work and feel anxious about your job security. A problem-focused coping skill would be scheduling a meeting with your supervisor to go over the listed problem areas and generate a plan on how you can improve.
Emotion-focused: coping skills that reduce the negative emotions associated with the problem
Emotion-focused coping skills vary greatly from person to person. Some common examples may include exercise, journaling, artistic expression, and cognitive strategies like reframing. Initial distracting activities like taking a break from the situation and reading or watching a movie may be helpful before returning to issue or addressing the negative emotions head on.
Meaning-focused: cognitive strategies that allow the individual to derive meaning from a negative situation
Social coping or support seeking: an individual reaches out to friends or family for emotional support
Developing Positive Coping Skills
Many of us already have go-to strategies that we use to cope, whether we recognize them as coping skills or not. It is important to identify these strategies and determine whether they are healthy or unhealthy. If you find yourself clinging to unhealthy coping skills and are having difficulty replacing them with healthy alternatives, it may be time to seek help from a therapist. Therapists can also assist you in adding to your toolbox of positive coping skills and help you recognize when you need to use them.
If you’re interested in speaking to someone to address unhealthy coping skills and/ or build upon positive strategies you’re already using, send us an email at info@pausewellnesscenter.com to discuss your options!
References
Algorani, E. B., & Gupta, V. (2021). Coping mechanisms. StatPearls. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559031/
Chao, A., Grey, M., Whittemore, R., Reuning-Scherer, J., Grilo, C. M., & Sinha, R. (2015). Examining the mediating roles of binge eating and emotional eating in the relationships between stress and metabolic abnormalities. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 39, 320-332. 10.1007/s10865-015-9699-1
Eske, J. (2023, February 14). What are the effects of drug misuse? Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/effects-of-drug-abuse
Schaffner, A. K. (2023, September 19). 10 most common unhealthy coping mechanisms: a list. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/unhealthy-coping-mechanisms/
Woodley, S., Hodge, S., Jones, K., & Holding, A. (2020). How Individuals Who Self-Harm Manage Their Own Risk—‘I Cope Because I Self-Harm, and I Can Cope with my Self-Harm’. Psychological Reports, 124(5), 1998-2017. 10.1177/0033294120945178