Coping and well being

Human beings have always encountered stress ever since they set their foot on this earth. While the cave dwellers had little knowledge about the psychobiology of stress and modern techniques of coping fatalism was their only recourse. Ignorance was bliss and submitting to fate was wisdom. Humanity has come a long way since then. There is more knowledge about stress than ever. But the irony is that there are more victims of stress also,age and wage being no bar.

One of the most mysterious of mental states,stress is highly subjective and equally dangerous. Some stress is good as it  activates,but an overdose kills.Stress tolerance is an individual attribute and is highly variable. Thus some succumb  to the slightest pressure, while others remain cool even under high levels of it.However, stress is an inescapable part of human  life and cannot be wished away. Psychological experiments have shown that even animals are vulnerable to stress.One of the first evidence of stress on health came from animal studies, the famous executive monkey study of early 50s. The damage that stress can do leaves no room for complacency.Though  enough has been researched about the subject, the fact remains that it is not the stress per se that is problematic. What matters is the coping.  Stress does not depend on external conditions only. It is  affected by a host of factors,some inherent to the individual like the personality, the support system, the susceptibilities,and the lifestyle . People differ widely in their reactions to stress. This is due to the Stress Tolerance Quotient (STQ), which varies from individual to individual. Even though stress has been scientifically studied for a long time and the stress disease links are well established, the coping styles that can give individuals the all important stress resilience are still not clearly understood.

How a person responds to stress is his coping style which is usually individual specific.Broadly speaking there can be two coping styles, functional and dysfunctional , depending on how a person  approaches it. The human body is superbly equipped to deal with stress provided a person picks up the appropriate approach.  When individuals experience stress they adopt some strategies.The attempt is to manage  the stressful experiences so that a state of psychological and physiological equilibrium is restored. Even if a conscious and deliberate strategy is not formulated some strategies are definitely adopted. For instance,the decision to leave the stress unattended.This also can be a style, only it is dysfunctional. Coping is a process that involves efforts towards the solution of a stress related situation. It is the way these efforts are made that determine whether one is able to cope with stress effectively or not. It is some kind of an intra psychic behaviour. Coping behaviours can range from most casual manoeuvres to highly effective problem solving behaviour. The fact of the matter is that most individuals do not understand the grammar of effective coping and become a victim of stress. However, effective coping can be learnt and abilities to handle stress can be developed. The trick lies in cognitive appraisal, that is seeing the big picture. Often people crack under pressure and become a victim of  abnormal fears.This can be dangerous. Cognitive processes play a key role in determining the effectiveness of emotional reactions which are natural outcomes of stressful situations. Human beings often act irrationally under stress and breakdown  under pressure. Typical personality patterns can be found in individuals when encountering stressful situations, which is largely determined by fear and uncertainty that often come with stress. An individual must assess the situation holistically and objectively.It is something like environmental scanning so that one can match it with strengths and weaknesses.Effective management of stress depends on coping mechanisms adopted by  an individual. The first step is  to analyse all aspects of the specific situation and identify all resources at hand to cope with distress. It is the motivational state that is critical and one must be maintained at a high level. Human autonomic systems prepare for fight or flight during stress, but the problem is that usually  people opt for flight rather than fight. This has to change. The very decision to fight will initiate the process of the functional coping mechanism.There is the need to respond and not react.

Don’t Awfulize,Try Reframing

Awfulising may not be a standard English word in usage but in the absence of an exact equivalent it seems to serve the purpose well. These are turbulent times and if we look all around we find a lot of negativities of  impinging our mind set all 24 hours  of the clock.Let us talk of the wars that the world is fighting.While it is difficult to count countries that are at  war with one another,there are many more that are operating from behind the scenes.But honestly speaking it was also in the past.But against such background it is only likely that human minds have developed that habit of awfulising, that is thinking of the worst case scenario for every happening that may or may not impact them. It is only logical that the state of mental health has become a global issue that needs to be addressed seriously and urgently. While a good many are suffering from grave  psychological conditions, a large number of people are finding it difficult to sleep. In fact, insomnia is  afflicting a sizable section of the global population resulting in further deterioration of mental health. This is a result of what psychologists call availability bias when a lot of negative information is doing rounds and the mind of the people imagines only the negative things befalling on them. The corona pandemic is to  a certain measure responsible for this. The helplessness that people encountered during those three nightmarish years the Covid 19 virus ruled the earth has made their outlook pessimistic and minds fragile. The large populous countries like India with comparatively weak medical infrastructure and poor health awareness find the problem even more alarming. But even the rich and less populous countries like the US are also facing the music.It is largely because of the negative faulty attitude that people have developed in the recent past owing to the catastrophic experiences of the pandemic. It was a kind of horrible disruption the world had not faced in the past hundred years. Painting the worst case scenario has become a part of habit for most people. The big question is what to do? One thing is certain that awfulising will certainly not help, rather it will worsen the predicament. We need a heavy dose of optimism to fight this negative mind set that our subconscious has created. Mind is the villain of the piece, and greatest bottle neck to mental peace.The Bhagwat Geeta says mind is your greatest enemy if it controls you, and your best friend if you control the mind. You need to tame and train the mind to look at the positive side of the events, treat them as challenges rather than problems. How to do it is the issue. The step number one is to reframe the entire scenario, develop self awareness and analyse the situation objectively. In this world of eight and half billion odd people, all the bad luck cannot be a part of your share. That is as simple as that. So rather than thinking of the worst case scenario, think of the best case scenario. And mind it, you can make it happen. Of course, for this you need faith.Faith in God, which will give you faith in yourself. You need to get out of the dark groove you have created and pushed yourself in.Certainly it’s not going to be easy. But yes, it is possible. Just be open minded and try to see the big picture. Reorient your subconscious mind to look at things more objectively and positively. You create the thoughts in mind, and mind creates possibilities for you. Copy book definition of anxiety is irrational fear. Naturally then, why fear something that is irrational. Close your eyes for sometime, think clearly and relax.