Preventative Coping Skills

          Think of a time when you didn’t get enough sleep. Did you find yourself more irritable? Cranky? More stressed out? Had difficulties concentrating? This is an example of your “threshold for successfully handling stressors” being lowered due to not engaging in preventative coping skills. Now, think of how you felt after going on a walk during nice weather. Did you feel more clear-headed? Calm? Rejuvenated? This is an example of how engaging in preventative coping skills increased your threshold for handling stressors. 

Preventative coping skills are coping skills that we utilize to prevent our inability to successfully handle stressors. Preventative coping skills are things that we engage in consistently whether we are facing stressors or not. The goal of preventative coping skills is to “raise our threshold” of what we can face before we can no longer successfully handle our stressors. 

Examples of healthy preventative coping skills are: 

• Adequate sleep

• A healthy diet

• Being active

• Consistent hygiene 

• Taking medications consistently

• Going to therapy

• Engagement in a hobby

• Time away from social media

• Spending time with loved ones

• Playing with pets

• Getting adequate sunshine 

• Getting outdoors

While the implementation of preventative coping skills doesn’t mean we won’t ever face stressors, it does mean that we are setting ourselves up to be able to successfully handle more stressors or a greater amount of a stressor than we would without our preventative coping skills.