When you find things difficult in your life, is running away from your problems something you do? If so, is this a bad thing? Life isn’t always easy. Everyone, at some point in their lives, has to deal with unwanted feelings and situations that can be painful and challenging. But, not everyone has the same coping mechanisms to deal with problems in the same ways.
One type of coping strategy is to run away from problems in order to avoid them altogether. However, this can lead to eventually having to deal with the consequences of running away or even making the situation worse. Running away from your problems may indicate that you just may not deal with adversity well, are struggling with anxiety, struggle with self-esteem, or simply don’t have enough life experience to know what to do in challenging situations. In any of these cases, it can be helpful to understand, practice, and implement healthy coping strategies in order to avoid running from challenges. This way, you can learn to face challenges in your life head-on and gather the confidence to overcome the things in your life that are difficult and unavoidable.
The Reasons People May Run From Problems
Running from problems is usually the result of someone not wanting to deal with the challenges that they’re facing. They think that avoiding troubles will somehow remove them from them. However, in time, many people who use this strategy realize that it doesn’t work. When we run from our problems, whether they’re in relationships, at work, financial, or legal, they will end up catching up to us in the end. So, people who use running away as a method of coping often find that doing so has only procrastinated facing up to the issues in their own lives.
It makes sense not to want to deal with the hard things that life throws at us. But, running away from issues doesn’t solve anything – it just simply makes us deal with those issues later. And, can even make those issues harder to deal with down the road. Rather than running away from issues, it can be helpful to utilize healthy coping skills that can be helpful in order to face issues as they come in the present moment.
Identifying What Coping Skills Are
Coping skills are methods used to cope with the unwanted situations, behaviors, emotions, and thoughts that we have in our lives. They take time and practice in order to learn how to use them effectively. But, once we can learn a few, coping skills can help us to feel prepared when it comes to facing issues in our lives.
Some Ways to Practice Coping Skills
Practicing coping skills can fine-tune them in order to help make them more comfortable to use. Some of the ways to practice coping skills can include:
Seeking Solutions: Running from problems doesn’t help us to understand how to solve them. A good coping strategy for unwanted and uncomfortable situations in our lives is to try to seek solutions. Some examples of solution seeking is asking others for advice, going to therapy, and researching issues you’re facing online and how others have managed them.
Reducing Stress: When we’re stressed and bad things happen, we are more likely to react poorly. So, working on managing your stress levels can help you react more positively and in more effective ways when issues arise. Some ways to manage stress can include exercising, eating healthy and nutritious meals, and getting enough sleep every night.
Acceptance: Accepting that life can be hard sometimes and the issues that you may be facing can better prepare you to cope with the issues at hand. When we don’t accept the issues in our lives, we are not able to move forward and find alternative solutions.
Don’t Play the Blame Game: Sometimes, the bad things that happen in our lives are our own fault. It can be hard to face this fact, but it’s better to take responsibility for our own actions than to blame our problems on other people – causing even more pain. Working on taking responsibility can help you to get through tough times with more respect for both yourself and others.
Learning and Practicing Coping Skills in Treatment
Psychiatric services can help people who are struggling with problems and who tend to run away from issues by teaching necessary skills, like coping skills, in order to help. Southcoast Psychiatric Services offers counseling and psychiatric services that help to teach individuals invaluable coping skills in order for them to refine them and utilize them in daily life.