How Many Coping Skills Are In Your Toolbox?
Coping skills? What's that?
Oh, you mean those funny sounding emotional coping mechanisms and mental strategies that people who go to therapists use?
REMEDIES FOR ANYTHING & EVERYTHING
Since you've never been to a therapist and you have no clue, imagine that life is like a giant buffet table with all kinds of weird looking, unfamiliar stuff that you don't recognize at one end and the stuff you are used to at the other. You steer clear of the strange names and avoid the odd labels and head straight for the things you are accustomed to, with names you can pronounce, bypassing anything that remotely resembles "new" or "different" because that's just too scary to think about, right? Better to play it safe, so you keep making the same decisions over and over again -- filling your plate with familiar stuff.
You probably prefer to keep your distance from anything marked with letters like:
- CBA
- ABC's
- HOV
- DISARM
- ACT
- USA
- UOA
- CBT
- REBT
No, you are used to down-home thinking, like the things you grew up with, even if half the time it made you feel all queasy inside, you already knew which home remedy to take, so no need to step outside the box. Not you! Self-Help is for sissies, right?
No. Sadly, it's just that you haven't been exposed to tools and techniques that can help you in everyday life -- things no one ever told you about and you never bothered to ask because you were too afraid or embarrassed.
Not to worry! There is hope... Cognitive awareness is a learned skill and you, too, can learn how to use and apply its banquet of techniques in everyday life. If you don't already know what the acronyms above stand for, take this opportunity to look them up and do a little research. HINT: Much of the information you seek can be found at www.smartrecovery.org. Don't think you have to have a physical addiction to drugs or alcohol for this stuff to work because these are valuable tools that apply to all human beings. These tools help explain how your brain works and what YOU can do about making it work for you instead of against you.
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