All posts tagged: Coping

Coping With Physical Anxiety Symptoms

Coping With Physical Anxiety Symptoms

Published by Jenni Sidey

Experiencing strong and uncomfortable physical sensations is a common part of anxiety. Your heart may pound or race, you may feel tightness in your chest, dizziness, a dry mouth, or stomach upset. When these symptoms occur, it feels like you don’t have control over your body, and you may lose a sense of physical capability. Over the past couple of months, I have experienced physical symptoms of anxiety when walking outside, something I have never felt before, and the symptoms have diminished my sense of capability. This has been a challenging experience, and as I work to build back my capability, I want to share effective strategies for coping with physical anxiety. Acknowledge That You Are Safe Often, when you experience physical anxiety, it is because your anxiety alarm is misfiring, telling you there is a threat or danger when you are actually safe. Feeling a sense of threat is frequently based on the idea that something bad could happen, not on an actual danger in the moment. For example, your heart may pound before …

The anniversary of my best friend’s death hits me every year. Experts say these coping mechanisms may help

The anniversary of my best friend’s death hits me every year. Experts say these coping mechanisms may help

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Every February 11, the anniversary of the untimely death of my 19-year-old best friend hits me and I feel a heaviness that doesn’t lift until the day’s end. The day when you lost a loved one, had an accident, or experienced another traumatic event can trigger grief, anger, sadness and anxiety – and also cause physical symptoms, like sickness and insomnia. In more severe cases, people suffering from PTSD may relive experiences in vivid flashbacks or dreams. Experts call this “anniversary syndrome” or the “anniversary effect,” and every person’s experience is unique. Some 70 percent of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced at least one traumatic event, according to the National Council for Behavioral Health. “During these times, these feelings and reactions can be strong and often ‘take you back,’” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. The symptoms might …

The key to coping with a parent’s death may be how many siblings you have

The key to coping with a parent’s death may be how many siblings you have

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Those with a greater number of siblings may find it easier to cope when a parent dies, a new study suggests. Researchers in Finland observed a reduction in the purchase of medication for anxiety and depression among those with more brothers and sisters in the year preceding and following a parent’s death. The correlation was particularly pronounced in women. The analysis also indicated a higher likelihood of seeking medication when a person’s mother passed away than when a father died. Experts scrutinised the buying patterns of drugs such as antidepressants, sedatives, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety medications over a six-year period, encompassing three years before and three years after a parent’s death. The study focused on patients aged between 35 and 55, who had between zero and three siblings. Your siblings could be key to helping you navigate the loss of a …

I thought I’d been coping with my sister’s death – a Taylor Swift song showed me I hadn’t | Taylor Swift

I thought I’d been coping with my sister’s death – a Taylor Swift song showed me I hadn’t | Taylor Swift

Published by Sam Flores

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it had been five years since my sister, Emily, had died. She had lived with cystic fibrosis her whole life, yet we were a close, tactile family. We laughed, hugged and sang often. When Emily died, relatively suddenly, aged 30 (I was 27), I coped with it as well as anyone could. In fact, I prided myself on how outwardly resilient I seemed: I spoke to a therapist, started a new job. I poured myself into a packed diary and a big city. It wasn’t until time stopped, in a way, in 2020, that I really sat with my grief. I was forced to – made redundant like so many others that summer, my days had no shape. Like many people living in city flatshares, my one little freedom was a daily walk. Taylor Swift’s Evermore album came out that December and, like its predecessor, Folklore, was quickly on heavy rotation as I strolled about my south London neighbourhood, waiting for something to change. I walked mainly around Tooting Common, taking the same …

What is dissociation? The coping mechanism that often goes unnoticed

What is dissociation? The coping mechanism that often goes unnoticed

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore You call your teen’s name, but they don’t respond. They’re staring past you. You call again, louder this time. Nothing – how rude. But what if they’re zoning out? For some teens, this can be a sign of dissociation, a temporary disconnection from thoughts, feelings, body or surroundings. It’s the brain’s way of protecting itself from overwhelming stress or emotion. Dissociation is often linked to trauma – experiences that feel deeply distressing or life-threatening. But because dissociation is quiet and invisible, it often goes unnoticed. A withdrawn or “spacey” teen draws less attention than one who’s anxious or acting out. Misunderstanding this response can lead to frustration and strained relationships. In two recent studies, we interviewed teens who dissociate, as well as their parents and clinicians. We wanted to understand better what it feels like when it happens – and what …

To win freedom from Trump’s America, Europe needs to overcome its ‘downward coping syndrome’

To win freedom from Trump’s America, Europe needs to overcome its ‘downward coping syndrome’

Published by Sam Flores

The US military operation against Iran has demonstrated in the most dramatic terms the need for EU autonomy in global affairs. Responding to the situation, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has called for a new EU foreign policy to guide the bloc towards “European independence”. But it is not enough for the EU simply to set itself against the Trump administration. It also needs to resolve a muddled “illiberal liberalism” that afflicts the way it has begun to pursue European autonomy. The EU can’t currently seem to decide whether it seeks independence so that it can preserve the liberal order or so that it can move beyond it. The second Trump administration has supercharged the EU’s push for independence. It has prompted European governments to get far more serious about reducing their military and security dependence on the US and to reduce their broader external trade vulnerabilities. This is now the unrivalled driving force behind most European foreign and security policies. But criticising the current US administration does not in itself amount to …

Exclusive: How Kate Middleton and Prince William are coping under pressure as senior aide admits: ‘We’re not in a good position’

Exclusive: How Kate Middleton and Prince William are coping under pressure as senior aide admits: ‘We’re not in a good position’

Published by Daniella Wilson

They would have been forgiven for feelings of trepidation when they stepped out for their first big moment with members of the public since the bombshell arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. A week after the monarchy was plunged into an unprecedented crisis, with serious questions being asked about who knew what, and when, in regard to the long‑running Jeffrey Epstein scandal, the Prince and Princess of Wales may have been braced for heckling, as other family members have experienced in recent weeks. But instead, on the surface, they were able to breathe a sigh of relief. William and Kate seemed to be blown away by the incredible reception they received in Wales last week, when, amid mounting scrutiny of the royal family, the couple outwardly projected calm resilience. An off‑the‑cuff remark by Prince William a few days earlier had made headlines around the world, but their relaxed smiles and warm interactions with the crowds conveyed a sense of stability during these turbulent times. Their busy programme took in a visit to a community cafe, an art …

Coping With Our ‘Bad’ Emotions Isn’t Easy

Coping With Our ‘Bad’ Emotions Isn’t Easy

Published by Jenni Sidey

This post is a review of Hard Feelings: Finding the Wisdom in Our Darkest Emotions. By Daniel Smith. Simon & Schuster. 227 pp.$28. When he has been beset by “unruly and offensive emotions,” Daniel Smith acknowledges, he has looked for only one thing: “a way out,” a “vacuum to clear away the debris, and some help.” But he now realizes that “no emotion is inherently bad.” In Hard Feelings, Smith (a psychotherapist and author of Monkey Mind and Muses, Madmen and Prophets) draws on works of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, literature, art, and, most of all, his personal experiences, to examine six dark emotions: annoyance, shame, envy, boredom, regret, and despair. To vilify or reject these emotions, he argues, is not only futile, but “a kind of psychological abuse.” Especially when “emotional regimes (ethnic, national or denominational cultures) and “emotional communities” (families, college friends) have codes governing how emotions should – or should not – be expressed. Moreover, emotions contain essential information we can’t get elsewhere “about our vulnerability, furtive desires, hidden assumptions, and half-remembered experiences.” …

Why coping with heavy rain in Scotland’s whisky country shows how to save water for the summer

Why coping with heavy rain in Scotland’s whisky country shows how to save water for the summer

Published by skeptic

After weeks of relentless rain and flooding, and even more forecast, 2025’s droughts and hosepipe bans feel like ancient history. But they shouldn’t. The UK is increasingly caught between these wetter winters and warmer, drier summers. What if this year’s summer brings water shortages again? The seemingly endless rainfall causing flooding across the UK right now could help solve future summer drought problems – if we capture it right. The stakes are high in Speyside, home to around half of Scotland’s malt whisky distilleries. They had to cope with 2025 being the UK’s warmest and sunniest on record, where prolonged dry conditions led to widespread restrictions on water abstraction. Multiple distilleries were forced into temporary closures, costing the industry millions of pounds and highlighting just how vulnerable even Scotland’s famously wet regions are to water scarcity. Whisky production represents one of the UK’s biggest industrial water users. Large quantities of water are required for the distilling process and the product itself, so understanding water conservation is both extremely important for the industry, and can also …

January Is A Month Of ‘Quiet Coping’, Survey Finds

January Is A Month Of ‘Quiet Coping’, Survey Finds

Published by Sam Flores

Ah, January. Not only does it seem to go on forever, but it’s also uniquely exhausting – it’s filled with post-holiday blues, grim weather, and, for some, symptoms of SAD. And, new research from ODEON suggests, the “emotional weight” of the month doesn’t reach a single peak, as the debunked Blue Monday would suggest. Instead, the low mood many feel in the first few weeks of the year is felt pretty uniformly across January. Conducted with mental health charity Mind, the results of the survey suggested that people want to be around one another this month without the pressure of too much chat; a move they call “quiet coping”. How does January affect our mood? In this research, respondents said that for them, January was linked to tiredness and exhaustion (32%), lack of motivation (31%) and feeling flat or emotionally low (30%). Only 9% associate January primarily with sadness. 48% of UK adults say January makes them feel pressured to improve themselves or “start over,” even if they don’t really feel emotionally ready. 36%, meanwhile, …