6 Coping Strategies For Student Mental Health

Coping strategies for student mental health has become a serious issue in today’s world. The percentage of students dealing with different mental issues is increasing and thus it is important to deal with the mental health of students in a very positive way.

There are various coping strategies for students to deal with their mental health issues in a very positive and easy manner. Some of the coping strategies are Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies, Active Coping Strategies, Relaxing Coping Strategies, etc.

Top 6 Coping Strategies for Student Mental Health

The list of 6 coping strategies for student mental health has been shared below. Students can refer to the strategies shared to overcome their issues related to mental health.

1. Problem-Focused Coping Strategies
2. Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies
3. Active Coping Strategies
4. Relaxing Coping Strategies
5. Creative Coping Strategies
6. Social Coping Strategies

Also Check: Top 10 Most Effective Stress Management Techniques for Students

1. Problem-Focused Coping Strategies

Problem-focused coping strategies refer to dealing with the issue causing stress by just eliminating the source of stress. Problem-focused coping strategies are used for situations that can be controlled by the students. It aims at leaving the situation causing stress.

Some techniques of problem-focused coping strategies are listed below for the students.

• Ask for help
• Set boundaries
• Leave all the unhealthy and unfavorable situations
• Learn to prioritize your activities
• Learn time management
• Deal with the problems
• Take counselors advice
• Eliminate the unrequited activities and things from your life
• Challenge all your false beliefs
• Lessen your expectations

2. Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies

Emotion-Focused coping strategies help students in dealing with their emotions. Avoiding stress is not possible which causes our mental health. Thus, students with the help of this strategy can try to bring changes or have control over their emotions by following the techniques shared below.

• By doing Meditation
• By Journaling
• Having a positive thinking
• By learning forgiveness
• By reframing the problematic situation in a positive manner
• By talking all the things out
• Working with a therapist

3. Active Coping Strategies

Students can cope with their mental health issues, mainly caused due to stress and anxiety by following the active coping strategy. It helps and guides students to be physically and mentally active in all situations.

Some of the active coping strategies for the student's mental health are listed below.

• Go for a walk, run, or hike
• Do jumping jacks
• Do some yoga, exercise, or stretching
• Go for running
• Vibe with some music and dance
• Bounce or kick a ball
• Do rope jumping
• Squeeze the stress ball
• Go for a bike ride
• Play different games 
• Spend time with loved ones

Also Check: 10 Tips for Staying Focused and Productive as A Student

4. Relaxing Coping Strategies

Relaxing coping strategies are aimed at providing students with some mind and body techniques to deal with stress-causing mental health. Sometimes, pressure or overload of any situation or activity can also affect your mental health.

Thus, relaxing your mind and body is also important. The list of techniques useful for relaxing your body and mind is shared below.

• Listen to soft and calming music
• Take deep breaths
• Practice a guided imagery exercise and think of positive and calm situations
• Relax your muscles
• Drink Cold Water
• Close your eyes and start either forward or backward counting
• Read different books, novels, or magazines
• Take a long bath
• Blow bubbles
• Spend time with your dear ones
• Spend some time alone
• Try to sit in some calm and peaceful places

5. Creative Coping Strategies

Creative coping strategies are considered one of the best techniques or ways to deal with your stress-causing mental health. Getting involved in different activities while having stress or anxiety automatically reduces stress as it diverts us from the cause of stress. It helps us develop concentration on the creative work one is doing, which mostly reduces our stress level.

The list of creative coping strategies for students' mental health is listed below.

• Do drawings, paintings, or coloring
• Write poems, if interested
• Make up a song
• Play instruments
• Analyze your thoughts and feelings
• Try to make something new completely based on your perspectives
• Make up a new game
• Play with different textures, such as shaving cream or dry ice, etc

6. Social Coping Strategies

Being surrounded by people or getting involved in various activities or conversations, helps people forget their reasons for stress, as they get distracted. Meeting new people or interacting with different personalities helps a lot in reducing stress and also brings some changes to your mental health. Meeting friends and families makes you get involved in various tasks and can help your mental health as well.

Some of the social coping strategies are listed below.

• Play games with friends and family
• Interact with new personalities
• Have a conversation with your friends and family members
• Spend time with your favorite ones
• Share your feelings with your trusted friends and family members
• Try to be interactive and open up yourself

Also Check: List of 10 Novels for Students to Read

Types of Coping Mechanisms for Student Mental Health

There are mainly two types of coping mechanisms that help students deal positively and easily with their mental health. The two coping mechanisms are shared below.

• Adaptive Coping Mechanisms
• Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms

Adaptive Coping Mechanisms

Adaptive coping mechanisms help students to adjust to their emotional and stressful situations. It helps to handle stress easily and provides different activities to be done for avoiding stress.

The points listed below show some adaptive coping mechanisms for students' mental health.

• Deep Breathing
• Meditation
• Yoga or Exercises
• Journaling
• Talking with friends and family
• Having Positive Thinking
• Taking Bath
• Reading Books, Novels, or Magazines

Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms

Maladaptive coping mechanisms are considered a negative manner of dealing with stress. Using maladaptive mechanisms can reduce stress but can also cause some other issues. These are generally used for children having childhood trauma or any physical or mental abuse. Though these mechanisms help in coping with stress for some time, they can also lead to some physical or mental harm.

Some of the Maladaptive coping mechanisms for students' mental health are shared below.

• Drinking excessive amounts of Alcohol
• Using Drugs
• Anger Outbursts
• Denying/ ignoring or running away from the problems
• Self-harm
• Eating unhealthy food
• Isolating yourself

Also Check: 10 Ways to Balance Student Life And Academics

How to Improve Your Coping Skills

There are various ways of improving your coping skills which is a must these days. Most students nowadays are dealing with different mental health-related issues and they need to learn coping strategies and if aware then need to improve their methods.

Thus, some of the ways of improving your coping skills and dealing with your mental health have been listed below.

• Identify your stressors
• Take Notes of your current coping skills
• Try New Things
• Make it your Habit
• Get Some Help

Identify your Stressors

Identifying your cause of stress is sometimes difficult but sometimes very easy. For a student to be stress-free and have healthy mental health, it is necessary to be aware of the cause of stress.

• Students should try to be positive about the situation and negative thoughts appearing to overcome their bad mental health.
• They need to be patient and work based on your identified results.
• Identifying the reason behind the cause of stress can help reduce and overcome the mental health cause easily.

Take Notes of your Current Coping Skills

Students should try to be positive about their situation and should maintain a record of their responses whether negative or positive. For dealing with any issue they need to read themselves and their reactions to the situation.

By making notes they can learn their week and strengthen points regarding any situation.

Try New Things

Students should try to get involved with new things or should start doing some new activities providing happiness and positivity to them. By trying new things students can learn various new aspects and life which might help them in their stress coping patterns.

Make it your Habit

Students should try to add all the mentioned points in their daily routine as their habit and work on it regularly. By working on these points regularly students might get ways to deal with their stress and mental health-related issues.

Get Some Help

Students can take advice and help from their dear ones, friends, and families. Taking help from others can help them learn something new and different which might help in learning new coping strategies. Reaching out to professional consultants is also an option available for the students to express their thoughts to cope with.