Psychology and Stress

More than once I’ve heard this question: “I don’t get it. Every year the flu kills a lot more people than this coronavirus, and yet everyone seems to be panicking about corona. What’s with that?” That question is like asking, “Cars kill a lot more people than shark bites. How come people don’t sweat driving to the beach, but get panicky when they hear there might be a shark in the water?”

What is it about the coronavirus that scares people more than the annual flu? Let’s pose some answers, and see if they can help with coping. Before we do, let’s note that if you are anxious and afraid, it’s OK. Fear is an adaptive response to potential danger. If you accept the threat and your natural fear reactions as real, you will be more likely to remain vigilant, take precautions, and help reduce – not prevent – your risk of infection. Being afraid can be a good thing. Remember, fear can self-generate and strengthen. That is why acceptance of the reality of the situation is important because then you are more likely to use your fear in appropriate ways.

Back to our question: Why is the reaction to the annual flu less intense for some than to coronavirus? For one thing, the flu is familiar, predictable, and expected. You have experienced it before and know most people get through it OK. There is also the flu shot that gives many a sense of control knowing they have at least reduced their risk of infection. The coronavirus, however, is new, unpredictable, and unknown. Humans have no immunity and, as of now, there is no vaccine. That knowledge naturally intensifies fear.

Reactions to coronavirus are also more exaggerated compared to the flu because the former – but not the latter – has been politicized. Elected officials have injected their self-important agendas into the corona crisis. The result has been a flood of contradictory, confusing, and misleading information that has served to frustrate and anger the public.

Faced with this barrage of agenda-driven information designed to make you feel helpless and dependent on elected “leaders,” what should you do? First of all, whatever your political preference, take off the political goggles and think rationally. Suppose you have a severe, persistent stomach pain. Your neighbor says, “Appendicitis!” A family member says, “Gall bladder!” A friend says, “Diverticulitis!”

Who do you call for clarification, your local congressional representative? Surely not! You would call a professional medical provider. The coping lesson here is simple: Don’t listen to politicians, economists, or other laypeople when they expound on the medical properties and consequences of coronavirus. Tune them out! Listen to the medical professionals. Yes, you will hear words like “may,” “could,” “might,” and “we’ll have to wait until we have more data.” These words, however, do not mean the professionals don’t know anything; they mean that more test data are needed, and that you must think in terms of risk, not certainty.

Closely related to politicization is the spreading of conspiracy theories. There’s no conspiracy here folks. That message is for the weak-minded. The fact is, bad things can happen without human intervention. Contrary to what you may believe, humans do not have absolute dominion over the other organisms on this planet. Viruses have a way of reminding us of that. We are part of nature’s laws.

Politicization also carries the danger of making you think coronavirus is not that big a deal. Maybe not, but don’t bet your health on it. When it comes to coping with health threats, prepare for the worst. Never apologize for being vigilant and taking precautions to minimize potential threats to your health. Those actions are under your control. If you think they are best for you, take those actions.

The coping lessons? Accept reality; do not listen to false messengers with agendas; listen to the medical experts; accept your anxiety as normal and use it to help you plan rationally, and to make informed decisions to reduce – not eliminate – your risk of infection.

 

Posts on this blog often point out the importance of empathy in the coping process. When you’re stressed and upset, you struggle to find ways to deal with emotions like fear, anxiety, guilt, grief, jealousy, and others that seem to rob you of stability in your life. At this point in the coping process, you think it’s all about you, that you are the primary ingredient in your life recipe. Unfortunately, this self-centered emphasis makes coping difficult.

When you get outside of yourself and bring others into the picture, the coping picture brightens. Whether you reach out to others with problems similar to yours, or work at trying to understand the effect you are having on others, substituting an “other-oriented” – rather than “self-oriented” – focus will provide insight into your problem. This focus is what we mean by empathy.

When most people think of empathy, they think of sympathy. If you can understand how another person is feeling, you are more likely to feel sympathy toward them, and this feeling motivates you to help them. Maybe so, but in a coping context, empathy has a much broader meaning than feeling sorry for someone. When you use empathy to cope, you are acting with moral strength.

Suppose you’re 17 and being bullied by a kid in high school. Generally, you do all you can to avoid this kid and stay out of the way of her wrath. Problem is, avoidance strategies don’t work because they’re a form of denial. Successful coping requires acceptance of challenges facing you.

You talk to your folks and other adults about the situation and begin to form some possible explanations for why she’s bothering you. You ask around, seeing if you can get a feel for her family life, grades, anything that will help you figure out what she’s angry about and why she’s displacing that anger onto you.

All these actions form what we mean by empathy. You’re not looking to feel pity for her; you’re looking to understand her so you can stand up to her in the context of her issues, not in the context of your fear of her. Do you get it? Effective coping requires you to focus your actions around your values and your conscience, and to convey your moral principles to the oppressor.

A lot for a 17-year old? Of course, but we’re trying to illustrate the true dynamics of empathy. So, the bully comes up to you, pushes you and says, “Look, b***h, get out of my way or I’ll beat the s**t out of you!”

You respond, “Look, I get it that you’re angry at something or someone, but you have no right to take it out on me. Keep it up and I’ll file a complaint and I’ll win. But I’d rather talk about it and find how you can point your anger at who deserves it. But not at me. No more!”

The absence of empathy is denial. Empathy can be used to generate acceptance of what is going on, and assertiveness of what you can do about it. Then you can give the bully a choice because you have made yours. You have used empathy to produce acceptance, understanding, and a plan of action. Sympathy has nothing to do with it.

At the outset of WWII, as Hitler began to unleash his war machine in Europe, England’s Prime Minister Churchill argued with his senior government advisors about strategy: conciliation or prepare for war. Churchill had already shown empathy toward Hitler – that is, observed and analyzed him. He decided the German leader was a power-hungry sadist who would stop at nothing to attain world domination, and Great Britain had no choice but to prepare its defenses from an inevitable attack by Hitler. Churchill felt no sympathy for Hitler; instead, his empathetic analysis showed him that Hitler must be exterminated. Empathy, not sympathy, allowed Churchill to prepare his country.

 

Intelligence. If you’re like most people, when you run across this word you think of cognitive things like a good memory, large vocabulary, math ability, reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills – in general, you probably think of an intelligent person as someone who has a lot of knowledge in a variety of areas.

You probably don’t think of an intelligent person as one who is necessarily good at coping with stressors. Would you find the following comment contradictory? “Jim is one of the most intelligent guys I know, but he sure doesn’t know how to handle conflicts with others, or how to deal with anxiety! Put him in a stressful situation and he falls apart.” No contradiction at all, right?

Intuitively, most people separate cognitive abilities and coping abilities; the former deals with knowledge, the latter deals with emotions. In fact, in a 1964 paper, psychologists Davitz and Beldoch talked about emotional intelligence as different from cognitive intelligence. They linked the latter to cognitive abilities, but tied the former to effectiveness in social communication, especially the ability to empathize with others.

In the context of coping, your blog hosts use the term emotional intelligence to describe those who are “secure in their own skin.” These folks have healthy levels of self-esteem and feel empowered to be autonomous, independent, confident, and optimistic as they confront the challenges of daily life. Individuals with high emotional intelligence are good at accepting reality, taking responsibility for their actions, setting priorities, and navigating their way through the maze of stressors that regularly confront them.

Readers of this blog, however, will know that emotional intelligence is not the whole story when it comes to coping effectively with stress. Many people high in emotional intelligence appear to be pretty confident and secure – at least on the outside – as they tend to their needs. Unfortunately, they may leave a trail of human psychological carnage in their wake as they focus on their egotistical coping strategy that puts them at the center of it all. In their own minds they are coping well, but they do so with a lot of deception, manipulation, lying, cheating, and bullying.

“OK,” you ask, “if emotional intelligence by itself is no guarantee of effectively coping, what’s missing? What other traits are needed to use my emotional intelligence to cope in positive ways?” The answer to that question involves an intelligence that supplements Emotional: Moral Intelligence.

Coping with everyday life will be most effective when Emotional Intelligence is complemented by Moral Intelligence. How would we describe people with a healthy moral intelligence? They have values, standards, and a social conscience, which means they weigh their coping actions against the needs of others. “Embezzling money may be good for me financially, but others are going to suffer, so I choose not to embezzle.” That’s moral intelligence! If you have low moral intelligence, if you do not value others as dignified and worthy of courtesy and respect, you will have no problem cheating and manipulating them to satisfy your own greed.

Moral intelligence means having empathy for others, being able to understand how they are feeling. “If I insult and disparage others in the presence of their children, I may feel good, but I also show my total disregard for the pain I inflict on their offspring. As much as I dislike them, I will not disrespect them in the presence of their family.”

Here’s what we’re saying: You may have high emotional intelligence and feel really great about yourself. But if you have low moral intelligence and can only focus on you, if you must include yourself as the primary ingredient in your life coping recipe, ultimately your coping efforts will fail because you will leave behind a legacy of making others feel bad about themselves. Your legacy will be others who scowl at the very mention of your name.

Effective coping requires honest self-discovery and awareness of your strengths and vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, if you don’t work at translating that awareness into productive actions, you will have no anchor to reality. For some people, professional counseling, also called psychotherapy, can help in fostering the translation.

If you have decided to seek professional counseling, which may or may not involve taking psychiatric medications, there are a variety of actions you can take to prepare yourself and increase the likelihood of success. First, however, understand that you should enter counseling with a willingness to work hard to adjust your thinking and your actions. No one can wave a magic wand and change you; a counselor can make suggestions but in the final analysis, it is you who must do the work to produce improvement.

Also, remember that you want the counselor to provide straightforward, uncomplicated, easy to understand suggestions about your problems. Be wary of overly simplistic – that is, naive – explanations of your psychological problems (“You get angry too easily”; “You have an anxiety disorder.”), and a simplistic treatment plan (“You should take an anger management class”; “Get a dog.”).

When seeking counseling, it is important that you believe your decision to seek help will benefit you. That belief will be strengthened if you choose a provider who has trustworthy characteristics that make you comfortable. They can vary from client to client, but most people profit from counselors who are honest, sincere, warm, supportive, challenging, and who show empathy.

Always choose a licensed provider, and remember that there is a difference between psychiatrists – a medical doctor who can prescribe medication – and psychologists and counselors, who are trained in therapy techniques. These professionals perform the services they are trained to do. Most psychiatrists, for instance, will prescribe psychiatric medication for you, but you may not want – or need – to go down that road. For instance, perhaps you can’t sleep because you are anxious about your teenager who is in legal trouble. Medication may help you sleep, but it won’t provide you with a coping plan.

At the outset of counseling, you should receive a complete psychological assessment from a licensed psychologist or licensed counselor. After thoroughly discussing the results the provider may recommend that psychiatric medication be a part of your treatment plan. In this case, you should work with both a psychiatrist and psychologist because the combination of counseling and medications is more powerful than either treatment alone.

To increase the odds of successful counseling, here are some basic rules to keep in mind:

*If you are looking for a quick fix, whether a pill or some special technique, you are wasting your time.

*If you see a provider for more than six months without any noticeable change in your attitude or outlook, find another provider.

*Set specific and realistic goals that are manageable and under your control. These goals should be stated objectively to allow you to know when you are moving toward them.

*Break your issues down and address them one at a time. Do not overwhelm yourself with several treatment goals all at once.

*Begin with simple goals so you can experience success and begin to develop feelings of personal empowerment.

*Keep a daily written record of your actions and feelings, including the situations in which they occur.

*When you fail, do not dwell on the failure but examine what can be changed. The difficulty of the task, for instance, cannot be changed, but your preparation and effort can be.

*Focus on actions that bring you satisfaction. Act ethically and with integrity.

*Supplement your treatment with friends who treat you with respect, consideration, honesty, and fairness.

*Identify and challenge any irrational, self-defeating thoughts you have about needing to be some perfect “super-person” who is good at everything and loved by everyone. You are not in this world to live up to others’ expectations.

*Keep in mind that you are the one true expert about your life, and only you can decide if you are living it in a way that brings you satisfaction.

 

In her book, Leadership in Turbulent Times, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, describes how President Lyndon Johnson enjoyed tremendous success as a leader when confronted with domestic issues, but failed miserably when confronted with foreign affairs. On the home front, Johnson was motivated by several positive goals he set for American society: a tax cut, civil and voting rights, Medicare, and federal aid to education. When it came to Vietnam, however, he lacked confidence and was motivated by avoidance of failure – avoid defeat at all costs.

In this blog, we talk often about three requirements for successful coping: Acceptance, Accountability, and having a Correction Plan to modify actions that don’t work. Furthermore, this plan must develop from honest give-and-take communication with others and be based on empathy and respect for others’ positions. Johnson showed them all in his domestic strategy. As Kearns notes, 623 days after John Kennedy was assassinated and he was sworn in as president, Johnson had signed congressionally-approved bills for all of his major domestic goals.

How did he manage to have such success? First, he accepted the realities of Congressional power. Second, when confronted by blind alleys and political obstacles, he knew the responsibility was his to take charge of overcoming the obstacles. Third, knowledgeable about Congressional dynamics he devised legislative plans that involved an empathic appreciation of other opinions, honest communication with adversaries, and a willingness to compromise.

On the foreign front, however, Johnson had no proactive goals. Avoidance of disaster was his ill-framed objective. He turned to “experts” on how to stave off catastrophe, and he became dependent on their point of view. Overwhelmed by stress, he sought only to manage issues, not resolve them, a poor coping strategy. He mistakenly saw the North Vietnamese enemy as analogous to an opposition party in Congress, and he tried to treat them as such. When this approach failed, he looked for scapegoats to blame for the disaster unfolding around him. As realities piled on him, he took the one avoidance road left: He announced he would not run for re-election.

We note again and again how avoidance is a doomed strategy when it comes to coping with stress. Johnson was no different. He produced significant changes in society that radically improved the lives of Americans. But the damage inflicted on the country from his stubborn persistence in Vietnam was immense. As Goodwin notes, this realization would plague Johnson for the rest of his life.

How are you approaching the stress in your life? Are you the “domestic” Johnson or the “foreign affairs” Johnson?

 

You feel fear, anxiety, frustration, and you keep focusing on them. “Damn,” you tell yourself, “Why can’t I get rid of these emotions? They’re killing me. I need to calm down, relax, and manage myself better.”

Sure, there’s the ticket: avoid, avoid, avoid. You don’t like how you react to things so you look to deny who you are.

Your avoidance tendency is misplaced. Stress and emotions are not your issue. You must accept the fact that life is supposed to have some stress, and you can’t always control that fact. Marriage, Christmas, performance evaluations, having a baby, retirement, seeking a job promotion – all are stressful and require adjustment.

Should you avoid these things? Should you tolerate a mediocre job to avoid the stress of seeking a new and more challenging position? Should you avoid commitment in a relationship because you fear the stress of marriage? Should you resist ending an abusive relationship because you fear the stress of “making it on your own”? If you resist change and avoid stress will you be better off in the long run?

If you answer “yes” to these questions, you are avoiding life, not living it. Avoidance is a form of denial that says, “I’m going to ignore you, so please go away.” Denial and avoidance will not make stress magically disappear.

When faced with stress and the emotions that result, your best bet is to recognize your emotions, accept them as real, take responsibility for confronting the stress, and attack it by developing a plan of action that works within the boundaries of who you are and what you can control. Stress is not the issue; what you do about the stress is the issue. Your life’s road is not filled with obstacles; the obstacles are the road.

The human mind loves harmony and consistency, and when you feel stress and anxiety it’s often a signal that things in your mind are out of balance. For instance, George is the father of a 15-year old girl who has been arrested for shoplifting. George feels he is tolerant and shows understanding toward his daughter, is a reasonable disciplinarian, and a good source of parental guidance. And yet, she’s in trouble with the law! Now those things are not harmonious, and George is under a lot of stress as a result.

George decides his daughter needs counseling and medication, so he sets up an appointment with a psychiatrist. He also forbids her to hang out with a certain group of peers, and he monitors her social media activities. Unfortunately, nothing seems to work. His daughter remains hostile, uncooperative, agitated, and often downright nasty toward him. George struggles to cope as the imbalances in his mind continue to bring him considerable anxiety.

A major part of George’s problem, of course, is that he has trouble examining his role in his daughter’s behavior, and he doesn’t see how his actions contribute to her problems, many of which are a normal part of navigating the psychological and biological minefield that is adolescence. His approach to the problem is self-absorbed, keeping himself as the dominant element in the equation. He can’t find the empathic understanding to see things from his daughter’s perspective.

Then there’s Kevin, 56, a former construction worker who is widowed with two sons who are married and live 2,000 miles away. Kevin is on disability because of a work accident from several years ago. He spends most of his days at home watching TV, dwelling on how stressed and depressed he is. His self-esteem, self-confidence, and initiative are in the toilet.

He was once a burly, outgoing guy loaded with motivation, a can-do attitude, and a willingness to confidently take on any job at a work site. Then came his accident and his wife’s death from cancer. His behavior switched from “out of my way, I can handle this,” to, “I’m not much good anymore.” His mind lost its harmony and sent out SOS signals in the form of anxiety and depression.

Then one day came a call from Jim, a friend: “Kevin! I need help. I have to deliver for Meals on Wheels today but I pulled my back something terrible. I can drive OK, but getting in and out of the car is agony. Would you come with me and take the meals up to the door?”

Kevin was glad to get out of the house and said he would help. Turns out he had some unexpected and remarkable experiences when he delivered the meals. One woman yelled out when he knocked, “It’s open! I can’t get to the door very good!” She was in the kitchen and Kevin put the meal in the fridge for her. He started for the front door but she grabbed his arm and said, “Pray with me, please.”

Kevin returned to the car and told Jim: “I stood there holding her hand while she thanked God for me being there to help her. Prayed for me! I mean, no one ever thanked God for me!” Jim said, ‘Yeh, Gladys is a doll. Really makes it all worth it, doesn’t it?’”

And on it went as Kevin went to the front door at each stop. No one else prayed for him, but nearly every one of them said, “God bless you,” as he left. One old guy was on his computer, which surprised Kevin, and he printed out this page with inspirational sayings on it about the importance of taking care of your neighbor. He told Kevin, “ This is for you. You’re a saint for living these words. Thank you so much.” Kevin was speechless.

Kevin got home that day, looked around the house, and realized that he suddenly felt better than he had since his accident and his wife’s death. As Kevin told Jim later, “I picked up the phone and called the Office of Aging. Said I wanted to volunteer to deliver meals. The lady said great and added that they also needed drivers to taxi old folks around to their doctor appointments, take them shopping…wherever they needed to go. I said, I’m your guy, ma’am. Just tell me what needs doing and I’ll get it done.”

Ah, the rebirth of Kevin. The confident, can-do guy of old was back. What a beautiful thing to see. But what happened to bring on this rebirth? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Kevin’s mental harmony was restored as he stopped focusing on his emotions and how miserable he was, and started to focus on helping others. He took himself and his pity parade out of the equation, and allowed his mind to find the old can-do Kevin by focusing on others.

Is personal honor something that can help you cope with stress? I bet you don’t usually associate honor with coping. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say, “I’m having such a hard time coping with the stress in my life. I guess I need to be more honorable”? Probably never, right? Well, maybe it’s time to make personal honor a part of your coping plan.

What is honor anyway? The Cadet Honor Code at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY, reads simply: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”

The Honor Concept at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD states: “Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They tell the truth and ensure that the truth is known. They do not lie. They embrace fairness in all actions. They ensure that work submitted as their own is their own, and that assistance received from any source is authorized and properly documented. They do not cheat. They respect the property of others and ensure that others are able to benefit from the use of their own property. They do not steal.”

Honor. It’s easy to think of in military terms, and that is why the notion plays such a large role in the mission of our military academies.

But honor can also be an integral part of living your daily life because it will help you cope with everyday challenges. How so? Personal honor will help you to critically evaluate information that comes to you each day. Honor will also help you make a plan of action that will allow you to live your life interacting with yourself and with others in a way that helps you to avoid narcissistic actions, and look in the mirror with satisfaction at the end of each day.

“Wow!” you think, “That sounds great. But how do I make those things happen?” It’s simple, really. Just remember that effective coping rests on a tripod: Acceptance of what you do, Accountability for the consequences of what you do, and taking Corrective Action to improve the quality of what you do. Living a life of Honor will help you build that tripod as you critically examine your daily life.

To conduct a critical examination of yourself, consider some basic questions – ones that deal with honor – you might ask yourself on a regular basis:

“Do I try to deceive and manipulate others for my own selfish ends?”

“Do I care when I see others being deceived?”

“Are my actions based on selfish entitlement to gain unfair advantage of others?”

“Am I able to understand how others feel when they are troubled?”

“When I consider my actions toward others, do I ask myself how I would feel if I were at the receiving end of those actions?”

Keep in mind that you also have a right to challenge others so you can vaccinate yourself against excessive dependency on them. Thus, you should also ask “honor questions” about actions others direct at you:

“Do they try to deceive and manipulate me for their betterment?”

“Do they seem to care about my feelings?”

“Are their actions based on selfish entitlement to gain unfair advantage over me?”

“These things they ask of me…how would they feel if I asked the same of them?”

Asking such questions can engage you in the critical thinking required for resisting excessive dependence on others, and facilitating your self-actualization.

Effective coping with stress requires personal empowerment, independent thought and action, personal autonomy, empathy and sensitivity for others, and service to others. Blind obedience and dependency on others will make such coping impossible. In the final analysis, only you can challenge and judge yourself.

And remember: When it comes to effective coping, traits like honor, integrity, and character are always “in”; narcissism is always “out.” When you see the latter, whether in yourself or in another, reject it like you would any other poison.

Laura is 30 years old and periodically physically abused by her husband. She never knows when she will be hit, slapped, pushed to the floor, or thrown against a wall. There are other times when her husband is affectionate, helpful, and caring.

A part of Laura’s problem is that her husband’s behavior is unpredictable. Sometimes she is rewarded with kindness and warmth, but at other times she is yelled at, threatened, or physically attacked.

Psychologists know that such unpredictability can produce strong submissive behavior from victims. When you think about it, that makes sense: Victims become agreeable, polite, and solicitous toward “the enemy” in the hope of avoiding attacks. In short, they develop strong dependency actions in a desperate attempt to avoid harm.

This sort of dependency pattern is seen in many circumstances: The bullied kid on the playground tries to join his tormentor’s group; a kidnap victim admires and identifies with her captor; an abused child affectionately rushes to her abusive daddy’s side when he comes home from work; sex-trafficking victims make no effort to escape their “handler”; Laura displays the role of an adoring spouse.

Well-meaning friends and relatives who sense Laura’s problem often ask, “Why don’t you leave him?” Laura would like to end her marriage but she says, “I have no job and nowhere to go. Even if I did, he’d find me and beat me. And I’ll never go to the cops because he said he’d kill me. I’m just totally helpless.”

Laura does not see any options other than enduring the abuse and trying to avoid it. She sees her only hope as trying to stay at peace with her husband. She fears that if she runs, threats against her children and other loved ones will be carried out. She may also be uncertain about her financial future if she strikes out on her own. In short, she is completely dependent, helpless, and at the mercy of her spouse.

Similar dynamics are at work in cults, authoritarian governments, and terrorist groups. Like the abusive husband, the cult leader has a firm hold over followers because the leader has destabilized them. The leader controls information and tears down psychological anchors like family and social norms, convincing followers that they are helpless to act without the leader’s guidance. Combining flattery, deception, and coercion, the effective cult leader forms a trauma bond with adherents: “Only I understand your pain and can relieve it; you can depend only on me. There’s nowhere else to turn but you can count on me.”

But let’s return to Laura. What is she to do? What actions can she take to break free? She has no control over her husband’s behavior, and being nice, subservient, and trying to placate him simply don’t work.

There are alternatives for Laura, but without help she can’t see them. “Without help.” That’s the key. Only with the help of others can she muster the strength to plan her escape using resources available to her. She can contact women’s resource centers and legal aid organizations for advice on how to proceed. If children are involved, she can contact child protective services. She can get an attorney and involve the police. She can call on friends for support, and discover the strength in numbers and resources available to her.

As a general principle, remember that when you feel you have no direct control over the source of your troubles – and often you don’t, whether it be a spouse, criminal, supervisor, or acquaintance – there are always options available to you that allow you to exercise control through other agents. The key is to develop a plan that includes those options, a plan that focuses on specific aspects – financial, personal safety, legal — of situations to attack, making sure you have resources backing you up. To do so, you must reach out and develop a social network of people who are committed to helping you.

The one thing you must not do is descend into apathy, ambivalence, and dependency. You must determine your “circle of control” and, operating within that circle, fight! Otherwise, you may eventually fall victim to depression. The best antidote to depression is action. The key, however, is to understand that actions must not be obvious to your tormenter, who is stronger and holds all the cards in the “home arena.” An effective plan will involve deception, subterfuge, trickery, and clever maneuvers that take you outside your persecutor’s circle of control, into arenas where you have supportive resources and more control.

Why would humility be an important part of coping effectively with stress? The answer is simple: Psychologically, humility involves much more than simply admitting your mistakes and weaknesses; much more than not allowing yourself to be an egotistical braggart when you do well. Yes, such actions are a helpful part of coping, but they serve you best when you allow the humility coping circle to play to completion.

What exactly is the humility coping circle? Imagine five progressive actions placed around a circle. First, humility encourages you to admit that you should not be the primary ingredient in your life recipe. That is, life is not all about you; there are always others involved. Second, this admission can help release you from your personal pity parade, give you a sense of freedom that is uplifting, and instill you with an optimistic spirit. Third, continuing the progression around the circle, strengthened with your new-found positivity, you will be more likely to “share yourself” with others who are also fighting stress in their lives. Fourth, sharing your struggles with others not only requires you to talk to them, but it also requires you to listen to and learn from them. Thus are the seeds of empathy planted in your mind.

That brings us to the fifth and final phase along the humility coping circle, the actions that close the circle: Talking to, listening to, and learning from others will inevitably show you the essence of effective communication: Optimistic Empathy.

The circle is now complete. Can you see it? You begin with reducing a focus on yourself as the center of it all, and end with an empathetic understanding of others who are wrestling with similar life challenges as you are. But now, released from the prison of self-absorbed ego, you are able reach out to help others because you understand their plight. Purged of considering yourself special and deserving of pity, you cope with your stressors by helping others with their difficulties. And you also enjoy the benefits because you are participating in the fullness of the human experience.

As Mike Church and I said in Using Psychology to Cope with Everyday Stress:

“Empathy. We usually think of it in terms of helping others, but it’s more. If you have been previously victimized or are presently dealing with emotional upheaval in similar ways as another, who can understand their plight more than you? The true human beauty of empathy, however, is that both the giver (you) and the taker (the other) reap the psychological benefits. There is no more effective therapy than empathetic service to others. Whatever your plight, you are not alone in your difficulties. The best way to facilitate your ability to cope is to make sure that, as you travel the road to finding personal satisfaction, you leave no one behind.”