Stress and coping - Assignment Example

Stress and Coping Introduction: Although mental strength is extremely important for caregivers, challenging situations tend to affect their confidence at times. Certain psychological interventions and few specific behaviors can help caregivers to regain their mental strength. In one such instance, I had to attend to a 60-year old male that met with an accident which caused him complete paralysis of lower body due to vertebrae fracture and spine injury. This was highly stressful for me because I had to help this patient not only physically but also psychologically and emotionally.

The sudden loss that resulted in complete physical dependency on others made the patient very depressed and fearful. Support: Because this patient was personally known to me, I felt more threatened when my objective seemed highly challenging (Barkway, 2009). Primary appraisal of the situation seemed highly stressful; further, the harm-loss factor aggravated my stress because the patient had to be made to realize his actual condition and continued dependency. Educating the patient about future course of action was very challenging because he was already in depression because of the ghastly incidence that left him paralysed.

In this stressful situation, I had to apply cognitive control by using mental strategies to overcome my own fear and stress. I started coaching and counseling the patient regularly. I started talking to the patient about his past life, his achievements, and also showed motivational videos. I used more of entertainment strategies to help him forget his woes, at least for some time during the day. In conclusion, with the usage of cognitive and emotion-focused dealing by helping the patient feel better made me relieved from stress and eventually regained my mental strength.

ReferencesBarkway, P 2009. Stress and Coping. In Psychology for health professionals. Elsevier, Australia. (Ch. 10; pp: 176-199)