You would never use a snow shovel to curl your hair. So what makes you think that you can use the same coping strategy for every situation? Ya can't.
There are 4 types of coping skills every teenager needs to know in 2021 (+ beyond).
I love the way that Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) breaks coping skills into 4 different types of coping strategies in their Distress Tolerance module.
This video post will review what each of these 4 types of coping skills are, and how teenagers can choose the right type for their needs to cope with 2021 and beyond.
Let's build mental health awareness and break mental health stigma with these 4 types of coping skills in 2021 + beyond!
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If you prefer to read, here’s what you need to know about 4 types of coping skills every teenager needs to know in 2021:
DISTRACTION
Distraction helps you take space either mentally, physically, emotionally, away from the situation.
So the difference between taking a break and using distraction versus avoidance is avoidance happens when you move away from the situation and you never return back to it.
Distraction is when you use distraction to take some space away from the situation. And then when you are in a better emotional, mental, physical state of being, you then return back to the situation to problem solve. See the difference there?
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SELF-SOOTHING
You're probably like most people in the sense that you probably beat up on yourself when you make a mistake. That's totally normal. It's helped us survive as a species, but it's not really healthy.
And I don't really know how helpful it is to constantly be mean to yourself?
So when you can physically self-soothe and relax your physical responses to negative experiences, it allows you the ability and capability to learn from that information and make better choices moving forward.
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A few ways that you can engage self-soothing skills are to think about one or more of your five senses and how you can interact with that sense in a way that is pleasing and relaxing for you.
A great way to engage your self-soothing skills is to listen to music. Now, you just want to be careful when it comes to music because music can really shift your emotional state.
✅ So if you are listening to music and it's helping you feel better, then keep doing that.
✅ If you are listening to music and it's helping you feel more connected to others, keep doing that.
❌ If you are listening to music and it's making you ruminate or overthink about something problematic, and it's actually worsening your mood, mm, change the playlist.
You'll know if you just check in with yourself. Is this helping or hurting? And you can do that with any coping strategy.
IMPROVE THE MOMENT
These are seven different skills that you can literally take with you anywhere.
A lot of coping strategies that people talk about usually require engaging with something else, but this really just requires yourself and your mindset.
So the IMPROVE the moment skills are all about changing the way you experience whatever you're observing at that moment.
CRISIS SURVIVAL
I think if this past year has taught us anything, it's really that we need to be okay with uncertainty and expecting the unexpected.
The crisis survival skills are used in the moment when things are just so intense or so overwhelming that we need relief and we need relief now. We cannot wait.
If you are looking for more help and assistance with coping with anxiety as a teenager, I highly recommend that you check out this video right over here: https://youtu.be/sEt8uou6VIE
And if you found the information in this video useful and helpful, please share it.
You never know who YOU could be helping. Thanks for watching!!
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