Effective Coping
Uncomfortable feelings abound when dealing with chronic illness, such as the Coronavirus.
Both in private and public health, mounting negative feelings like fear, anxiety, grief, anger, among others, have to be coped with in constructive ways.
Effective coping is resourceful.
It avoids denial and takes action based on true facts. It defines problems in solvable forms. It considers options. It maintains open communications, high morale, and hope.
Judith F. Miller, in “Coping with Chronic Illness,” presents a model that can be helpful to us in our coping through the following specific tasks:
1. Maintaining sense of normalcy
2. Adjusting lifestyle
3. Obtaining knowledge and skill for self care
4. Maintaining positive self concept
5. Adjusting to altered social relationships
6. Grieving over losses
7. Dealing with role change
8. Handling physical discomfort
9. Complying with prescribed regimen
10. Confronting inevitability of death
11. Dealing with stigma
12. Maintaining perceived control
13. Maintaining hope
14. Others, such as enriching spirituality etc
Collectively, the coping tasks can precipitate and facilitate therapeutic powerfulness.
www.drsubida.com