Online Therapy Las Vegas: Your Essential Coping Skill
Whenever I talk about coping skills, clients usually jump to mindfulness, self-care, social connection, and physical movement. Those are great and helpful coping skills, to be honest. Many of my clients talk about how they don’t have coping skills. I challenge this idea often. Everyone has coping skills. The issue for many people is their coping skills are not helping support the life they want to live. In this blog, I’ll discuss coping skills.
Your unique and essential coping skills that you rely on are there for survival. They will help you survive through difficult times. In many cases, they are not there to help you thrive but to help you get through the specific situation you are experiencing. They are there to make sure that you live to fight another day. You might be confused about what I’m talking about right now but that is okay.
Coping skills can be both helpful and hurtful, depending on the situation. When I talk about coping skills, everything instantly goes into the helpful aspect of coping skills. Yes, coping skills can 100% be effective in managing stress and reducing its impact on you. Yes, mindfulness and 5 deep breaths will help you regulate your emotions and ground you. And Yes, some coping skills can help you improve your ability to address stressful situations. Coping skills are helpful and effective. Many people understand this and this is the type of coping skill everyone wants to learn. What people are missing is the other side of the coin, which is coping skills can be hurtful and cause additional stressors and issues.
Get Coping Skills with Online Therapy in Las Vegas
Many people who seek therapy have essential coping skills, which are hurtful to the individual. Again, let me say the point of a coping skill is to help you survive and get through a situation. Avoidance is a common coping skill many people use. Many men avoid and suppress their emotions rather than deal with them head-on. Even though it feels good to push those emotions in the box, it can lead to long-term issues. You might have those emotions explode out of the box one day and think to yourself, “Where did that come from?” Well, it’s always been there. You never addressed the issue and avoided processing it. Another example of a hurtful coping skill that helps you get through a difficult time is maladaptive coping skills. The first type of maladaptive coping skill that comes to mind is the use of substances. When people cope with substances, they may be relying on the substance to numb them emotionally or to escape from the problem. Another example of a maladaptive coping skill is escapism. This would be binge-watching that next series on Netflix or it could be getting lost in video games. Again, this may provide short-term relief but it does not address the issue. The last example of a hurtful coping skill I will discuss is social isolation. With social isolation, you cope by withdrawing from social interactions. In turn, this can lead to loneliness and make mental health issues worse.
Here is an example of coping skills in action. You’re at work and your boss comes around. He gives you another project, on top of all the extra work you are already doing. You start to feel overwhelmed. You aren’t sure how you are going to get this project done on time without pushing your other projects back. You start to spin and begin to get anxious. When you get home from work, you ignore your responsibilities to your family because you want to relax and decompress. You start to drink alcohol and take a couple of hits from the vaporizer. You play video games until midnight to escape reality. Then you fall asleep on the couch and repeat the process the next day.
Coping skills help people get through the situation but what they do not address is the actual issue. You need to address the actual issue to thrive. I don’t want you to only survive. That’s not life. I want you to thrive. Coping skills are essential in life but they can be both helpful and hurtful. Address the issue.
Get Online Therapy in Las Vegas
When you want to make a change, get online therapy in Las Vegas with Chris Rabanera. Get started with a free 15-minute consultation today. Offering online therapy in California, Michigan, and Nebraska, I specialize in addressing physician burnout, grief counseling, anxiety, depression and providing tailored mental health treatment for men. Let’s get to work to make lasting positive changes.
