Coping refers to cognitive and behavioural strategies that people use to deal with stressful

situations or difficult demands, whether they are internal or external.

There are two coping strategies based on the different areas of focus:
Problem-Focused Strategy
Those using a problem-focused coping strategy will focus on the problem itself, attempting to
tackle the root cause of distress.
Emotion-Focused Strategy
Those using an emotion-focused coping strategy will focus their energy on dealing with their
feelings rather than the problem itself.
The two coping styles based on goal are:
Active Coping
This type of coping involves an awareness of the problem or situation causing stress and
conscious attempts to either reduce the resulting stress, eliminate the source of the stress, or
both.
Avoidant Coping
Avoidant coping may or may not be accompanied by an awareness of the problem, but there
are no active attempts to reduce stress or eliminate the problem. They may be aware that
there is a problem or they may be in denial about the problem

We can categorize different kinds of coping mechanisms by type:

Adaptive Mechanisms
Mechanisms in these groups are positive mechanisms that help people effectively deal with
their stress.
Attack Mechanisms
These mechanisms attempt to displace the stress or discomfort a person is feeling onto
another person or people.
Avoidance Mechanisms
As the name implies, these mechanisms involve avoiding the issues that are causing stress.
Behavioural Mechanisms
Behavioural coping mechanisms are attempts to change what the person does in order to
more effectively deal with their stress.
Cognitive Mechanisms
Cognitive mechanisms involve a person trying to change the way he or she thinks in order to
deal with stress.
Defence Mechanisms
These refer to the original set of defence mechanisms outlined by Freud. Some of these
mechanisms are generally agreed to be accurate descriptions of the mechanisms people use,
while others have little evidence to support them.
Finally, the most important distinction between coping mechanisms or styles is simply
whether they are healthy or unhealthy. 

Unhealthy Coping

In general, unhealthy coping will actually create stress or anxiety and damage self-
confidence 

This includes:

 Avoidance – mentally or physically avoiding potential sources of stress

 Denial – refusing to acknowledge the problem
 Displacement – shifting of intended action to a safer target
 Dissociation – separating oneself from parts of your life
 Projection – seeing your own unwanted feelings or characteristics in others
 Regression – returning to a child state to avoid problems
 Repression – subconsciously hiding uncomfortable thoughts
 Trivializing – making small what is really something big