Is Your Coping Style Making You Mentally Strong or Just Surviving?

Did you notice that each of your friends tackles board exam stress differently? Everybody has learnt different coping style to stand up to adversity. That difference not only defines what approach has been taken but also how much mental strength you have within you. People say that resilience in tough times is proof of your inner strength. In this article, many things will be clear to us in terms of the relationship between coping styles and mental strength.

Read More: Humour as a Coping Mechanism

Let’s Explore What Coping Styles Are

Coping styles tell us how one combats stress according to their management strategies. Some use adaptive, while others use maladaptive coping styles. Effective coping styles can amplify resilience, adaptability, and mental well-being. It helps people to handle challenges constructively. The following coping styles will introduce the gist of each style:

1. Problem-focused coping style focuses on problems that cause distress. It involves taking steps to solve the main problem by actively planning goal-oriented activities and avoiding distractions. But in this mechanism, they do not react immediately to stress.
2. Emotion-focused coping style has a different approach. It targets negative emotions around the problem that divert our productive attention to the problem, including acceptance, positive reframing, using humour, religion, and expressing our emotions to friends.
3. Avoidant coping is defined as not confronting the problem and escaping from it through defence mechanisms or substance use. It is considered a maladaptive strategy leading to a temporary stress-free space.

Read More: Yoga and Meditation Practitioners Deal with Negative Emotions More Effectively

What is Mental Strength?

The ability to maintain resilience when challenged by exerting the greatest possible amount of effort while effectively dealing with stressors is known as mental strength. Working on your mental strength can be useful when you can not reach the edge of mental illnesses; in fact, it will help to achieve life satisfaction. Two types of students and their growth of mental strength will explain to us the importance of it: one is an average student, and the other is always top of the class.

In the real world, both face rejection; different reactions follow this adverse situation. The average student accepted it and has been resilient, but the top student couldn’t accept it. So, this contrast highlights that mental strength develops gradually through tough times in which our mind is ready to accept everything, solve the problem with a versatile approach, and preserve self-confidence.

Coping style is not merely a reaction; it also says many things about oneself, such as our emotional regulation skills, problem-solving skills, how much we are self-aware, our confidence, and our tolerance level. As Folkman and Moskowitz (2004) reveal, coping styles are not merely reactions to stress but reflections of a person’s adaptability, emotional awareness, and belief in their ability to endure and grow—key dimensions of mental strength.

What does your coping say about you and your mental strength?

1. Problem-Focused Copers

For instance, an employee who has stage fright and gets stressed out about an upcoming presentation in the office might cope by hiring a public speaking coach, writing a script, and practising public speaking in front of a few close friends. It has been proposed that problem-focused coping is used primarily when a person evaluates a stressor as within their capacity to change.

They invest their efforts into time management and creation of a to-do list, usually ask for help, and establish healthy boundaries. Of course, if someone tackles the problem while coming up with solutions, then it means that person carries great resilience and self-assurance. People often show the following qualities:

• You trust your situational evaluation and ability to manage consequences. Confidence in every decision-making will help you become capable of sustaining mental well-being.
• You believe you have control over external situations. You do not blame situations; moreover, you rely on your abilities and skills.
• Instead of focusing on emotions, you would take actionable steps to resolve the stress.

Read More: 10 Proven Ways for Anger Management

2. Emotion-Focused Copers

For instance, you have told your teenager to clean up the room and organise it properly before she comes home from work. But the teenager did not clean the room; even more messes have been piled up. Emotion-focused copers might try to get control of their anger and impatient. They would focus on anger management; for that purpose, they will take a hot shower or cook something delicious for themselves. So, they would avoid bursting out in anger.

They use a variety of tools to control feelings, including meditation and other relaxation techniques, prayer, positive reframing, affirmations, seeking social support, and talking with others (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Emotion-focused copers are emotionally intelligent and empathetic; they can understand others’ emotions as well because of their high level of self-awareness. Sometimes, self-blaming is also involved.

Emotion-focused copers tend to:

• They do not repress their emotions.
• They practise self-compassion.
• They use calming techniques to process feelings through art, music, and therapy.

People do not express their feelings under the impression of weakness. But emotion-focused copers take initiatives to heal themselves from inside, and it is one of the major steps to improve your mental strength.

Read More: Feeling Overwhelmed? Try These 7 Relaxation Techniques

3. Avoidant Copers

Students avoid thinking about the result; they are afraid of failure, and to avoid stress, this coping style helps unconsciously. Passive-aggressiveness, procrastination, and overthinking are certain behaviours that are found in them. Escaping from the situation is the main motive, so they binge-watched TV shows and abused substances to forget the stressors. They display the following traits:

• Negative thinking patterns lead them to fear failure or judgment.
• They have a low level of emotional tolerance, and that’s why they always run away from obstacles.
• They cannot regulate their emotions well since they might not reflect on them and become aware of them.

Read More: The 2 Minute Rule to beat Procrastination

4. Mixed coping style

Smart people adapt their coping styles according to potential situations, as these are context-dependent. Flexibility in the selection of coping mechanisms can enhance overall well-being; they will be useful as adaptive mechanisms. For example, a person may initially practise emotional adaptability by digesting their unpleasant feelings following a breakup. Clarity may result from this, making it possible to employ cognitive techniques. Problem-focused coping may then help individuals take positive steps to regain their confidence, while occasionally it may also be useful to prevent needless emotional overthinking.

Research says that…

1. Gender differences: Women mostly used emotion-focused coping strategies, while men are more likely to engage in problem-focused coping. Women also take the help of maladaptive mechanisms like avoidance, but men are more proactive, so they actively take part in solving problems, like physical activity (Theodoratou, Maria et al., 2023).
2. Schoenmakers et al. (2015) studied how coping styles are associated with mental strength, especially in the context of managing loneliness. They highlighted that proactiveness is needed to reduce it, such as joining social groups, doing meditation, meeting friends, and helping others. It also came up that an emotion-focused coping style worsens the loneliness problem. The study explains that true mental strength involves not just intentions but proactive, flexible responses to stress.

Bottom line

Analysing one’s coping styles helps spot your weaknesses and strengths and provides one with your guide on how to navigate real-life obstacles. They can give you each and every detail of your feelings, hidden emotions, and thought processes. Mental strength is also determined by this person’s coping style, leading to a clear vision of potential growth. Strength doesn’t mean one has never been through any mental struggle.

It means knowing what is best for you, such as knowing your feelings and your cognitive abilities, and opting for an adaptive version of responses. With deliberate practice, being allowed to be flexible, and conscious efforts, anyone can transform themselves into a better human being who constantly strives for improvement nd does not easily give up on things; that’s the real mental strength.

FAQs

1. How do you describe mental strength?

Mental strength is your capacity to make decisions in the rough times and move forward,ch requires resilience, a proactive approach, adaptability, flexibility to thrive in the worst situations, emotional control, and self-confidence.

2. How to build stronger coping mechanisms?

Practice mindful exercises to increase self-awareness, build problem-solving skills, avoid maladaptive behaviours like temporary retreats or avoidant strategies, and find a balance between all styles.

3. What do a person’s coping skills describe?

These coping skills help a person to stand firmly in stressful situations. It can help people to take action, face problems and persistent in solving problems.