5 Strategies to Cope with Problems and Stress
Problems are the biggest source of stress for people, however, problems are inevitable throughout life, so it is essential to learn how to manage them without having negative consequences for the person themselves.
However, and in a general way, three basic types of response to stress situations are established:
Confrontation (attack).
Fleeing or avoiding the situation.
Passivity or inhibition (collapse).
TYPES OF COPING
Coping strategies can be categorized based on the object of the coping efforts (that is, what the coping is directed towards), differentiating between problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping.
Problem-focused strategies: Their purpose is to resolve the situation or carry out behaviors that modify the source of stress.
Define and formulate the problem: Only well-formulated problems have a solution. In scientific investigations, the terms of the problem (or the question to be solved) are usually clear and well defined.
Generation of alternative solutions: The objective now is to generate or seek the greatest possible number of behaviors or action alternatives to solve the problem-situation. A "brainstorm" may be the right technique to do it. At the moment "anything counts", so that a mental block about possible solutions is not established.
Decision making: Now is the time to evaluate the solutions generated and decide which one or which to choose to solve the problem. For this, evaluation criteria must be established, each one with a specific score depending on the importance given to it, for example, personal well-being, professional image, economic compensation.
Implementation and verification of the selected solution: After the period of time during which the selected solution will be put into practice, it is evaluated to what extent it has been effective, that is, if it has achieved the solution of the problem.
