Coping- A survival mechanism

 

In the following section, I will try and establish a link of how our culture, society and environment helps to shape our coping skills. I will take it from a personal example. A few years back some of my stuff was stolen. I remember around that time, I was reading a holy book. However, what I had wanted to ignore was that I was doing so during my periods. After the burglary, I in deepest of consciousness ended up blaming myself for not adhering to the rules and by extension felt that I deserved the punishment.

Imagine the impact it would have had on my coping skills. It pretty much went for a toss and with it went my self-confidence, my self-worth, and my self-esteem. Suddenly the theft was not about the thieves, it was about Karma, my bad karma. It ended up in a cycle of shame and agony, which took years for me to come out of.

We find many such examples in day to day life. Every society has custom built practices that helped some unexplained motive which also varies from culture to culture. According to a legend in turkey, if someone chews gum at night, it changes into human flesh. In India, it is believed to be bad luck to trim nails after dark. Again, in the UK it is believed if you recite ‘rabbit-rabbit’ the first day of the month, you are blessed with good luck for the month.

These superstitions for one play a huge role in the way we see our actions affecting the outcome. It gives a false sense of our locus of control making it equally difficult to see the situation objectively. They also give rise to something called culture shock in event of cross-cultural exposure.

Now let us add political and environmental factors to it. Children in South Sudan or war-stricken areas will grow up to have severe stress disorder and anxiety issues. Trust issues, interpersonal issues, difficulty in seeking help, fears, and phobia will be common signs leading to difficulty in developing healthy coping mechanisms for children from those areas.

On reading a report on why Nordic countries, namely Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, continuously manage to top the charts of World Happiness Survey, I came across the finding that explained why these countries were at the top. Most of the factors to my surprise were state generated. Institutional quality and trust, Welfare schemes, low-income inequality, mutual trust and most importantly autonomy.

The political intent as I often stress upon along with cultural paraphernalia, constitute to a large extent in developing healthy coping mechanism. The absence or presence of one or more of each factor can lead to our generations living with a different sense of self.

When the culture identifies and 'teaches', failures or challenges as stepping stones to a bright future, the coming generations will be strong, confident and healthy to take on anything life throws their way.