Coping skills
also known as coping mechanisms
Medically reviewed by the Shrinkopedia editorial team, led by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA.
5 min read · 1,187 words
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Coping skills are the thoughts and actions people use to manage stress, difficult emotions, and hard situations. Some tend to help, and some bring short-term relief while making things worse over time. They support treatment and daily functioning. They don't replace care when care is needed.
Definition
Coping skills are the strategies a person uses to handle stress and the emotions that come with it. Researchers often draw a distinction between two broad kinds.
Problem-focused coping acts on the situation itself: making a plan, solving the problem, or changing what can be changed. Emotion-focused coping works on the feelings the situation brings: calming the body, reframing a thought, or seeking comfort and support.
Neither kind is better in the abstract. The useful question is fit. When a situation can be changed, problem-focused coping often helps most. When it can't, managing the emotional response usually matters more. Coping skills can also be learned and strengthened, which is part of what makes them worth understanding.
What it looks like
- A stressful deadline gets met by breaking the work into steps, a problem-focused move.
- A loss that can't be undone gets eased by reaching out to people, an emotion-focused one.
- Paced breathing settles a racing body enough to think more clearly.
- Avoidance or numbing brings quick relief, then leaves the problem larger than before.
What people often confuse this with
A cure. Coping skills help people manage stress and function day to day. They don't, on their own, remove a serious mental health condition. They support treatment; they aren't a substitute for it.
Equally good options. Coping skills aren't all the same. Reaching out, problem-solving, activity, paced breathing, and reframing tend to help. Avoidance, substance use, and rumination tend to make things worse, even when they feel better for a moment.
Resilience. Resilience is a broader capacity to adapt and recover. Coping skills are specific strategies. Strong coping skills contribute to resilience, but they aren't the same thing.
Reality check
Myth: As long as something makes you feel better, it's a good coping skill.
Short-term relief is a poor test. Avoidance, substance use, and rumination can all feel better in the moment and worsen things over time. Sometimes called maladaptive coping, they're worth noticing precisely because the relief is misleading.
Myth: There's one best way to cope.
There isn't. The same strategy can help in one situation and not another. The useful question is fit: change the situation when you can, and manage the feelings when you can't.
Myth: Good coping skills mean you don't need treatment.
Coping skills are valuable, and they're not enough on their own for a serious condition. Depression, anxiety disorders, and other conditions need treatment. Coping skills work alongside care, supporting daily life, not replacing it.
What research says
Coping is studied across psychology and clinical care, and some clear patterns hold.
- Fit matters. Research on problem-focused and emotion-focused coping suggests effectiveness depends on whether the situation is controllable.
- Some strategies tend to help. Social support, problem-solving, physical activity, paced breathing, and cognitive reframing are generally associated with better outcomes.
- Some tend to backfire. Avoidance, substance use, and rumination often bring short-term relief and worse outcomes over time.
- Coping skills can be taught. Therapies like CBT and DBT are, in large part, structured ways of building stronger coping skills, and DBT in particular includes explicit skills training.
What we know and what we don't know
What we know
- Coping skills are learnable strategies for managing stress and emotion, and they can be strengthened.
- Some strategies tend to help; avoidance, substance use, and rumination tend to make things worse.
- Coping skills support treatment and functioning, but don't replace care for a serious condition.
What we don't know
- Which coping skill helps most varies by person and situation, and isn't easy to predict.
- The line between adaptive and maladaptive coping isn't always sharp; context shapes it.
- How best to help someone shift from unhelpful to helpful coping is an ongoing question in treatment.
Questions people ask
What are coping skills?
Strategies to manage difficult emotions, situations, or symptoms. Includes cognitive strategies (reframing, self-talk), behavioral strategies (activity change, seeking support), and physiological strategies (breathing, grounding, movement).
Are coping skills a substitute for treatment?
For mild difficulties, sometimes. For diagnosable conditions, coping skills are usually part of treatment rather than a substitute for it. Skills work best when built on a treatment foundation.
Are some coping skills better than others?
Adaptive coping (problem-solving, seeking support, structured self-care) generally outperforms avoidance-based coping (substance use, isolation, distraction that becomes escape) over time. Which specific skill works best varies by person and situation.
Can I learn coping skills without therapy?
Structured self-help resources and skills-based books can build a coping skill repertoire. For chronic or severe difficulties, therapy that teaches and practices skills produces more durable change.
What if coping skills stop working?
Skills sometimes lose effectiveness when a condition worsens. This can signal a need to add or change treatment rather than a personal failure.
Key features
- coping skills are the thoughts and actions used to manage stress and emotion
- problem-focused coping acts on the situation; emotion-focused coping manages the feelings
- which kind helps depends on whether the situation can be changed
- some coping skills help; others bring short-term relief and longer-term harm
- coping skills can be learned and built, including through therapy
Sources
- American Psychological Association (APA). Research on stress and coping.
- National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Caring for Your Mental Health.
- Peer-reviewed research on problem-focused and emotion-focused coping.
- Clinical literature on skills-based therapies, including CBT and DBT.
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How to cite this page
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Coping skills. Shrinkopedia, medically reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA. https://shrinkopedia.com/terms/coping-skills/- APA
Shrinkopedia. (2026, May 24). Coping skills. Medically reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA. https://shrinkopedia.com/terms/coping-skills/- MLA
"Coping skills." Shrinkopedia, 24 May 2026, https://shrinkopedia.com/terms/coping-skills/.
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Medical disclaimer
Shrinkopedia is for education, not medical advice. It can't diagnose you, and it isn't a substitute for care from a licensed clinician. If stress or difficult emotions are hard to manage on your own, a clinician can help you build coping skills and decide what kind of care you need.
If you're in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or call 911.
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