Question

1. Of the coping and stress reduction techniques, which one (pick only one) do you make use of most often to help deal with the stress in your life? Does it agree with your highest score on the COPE Inventory?

2. Discuss why you use that above technique to manage or reduce the stress in your life. Include a specific personal real life example to support your answer.

Answer 1

Personally I have been using sublimation by engaging in learning (psychology , different languages , science etc) together with being active in creative thoughts and activities, as an act of coping with stress , besides my interests in them. But a careful analysis of higher scores in self distraction , active coping, and venting out suggests that it may not be my preferred coping mechanism even though it does not rule out my successful practice of the same. It could be due to the fact that the sublimation act could be serving as a distraction . Also possibly due to impulsivity, venting out being manifested most of the times before the conscious effort of sublimation takes over.

Why I use sublimation as a technique for coping with stress is due to the fact that its effects persists over time. Also it improves my resilience by bringing confidence when looking at the fruits of acts of sublimation over time.

There was a period of time in which I was forcefully put in a civil case involving the lane towards my home by neighbours as a strategy to pressurise my family to sell off the property (possibly under priced ). Since the court procedures were time consuming , that affected my social interactions as well as hindered with good marriage proposals. The situation was a clear case of being subjected to personal stress. I used the long time involved in the Civil suit hindering my personal improvement as a time to redesign my house . I myself took up the creative act of redesigning and successfully managed an extension which is aesthetic and intellectually challenging (even the architectural aspects) . By the time the long civil court case was over I had a beautiful home which gives me pride. Also I could logically tide over the negative thoughts of being hindered in productive youthful years by acts of ill wishers.