A-Z Coping Skills

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Here's another A-Z Activity, like the A-Z leisure education game or the A-Z emotions.

Discuss with patients the importance of coping skills.  Talk about the difference between positive and negative coping skills.  Ask the group for some ideas of how they can postively cope with stress, anxiety, depression or relapse in their lives.

Give each participant a piece of paper.  Have them write the letters A through Z along the left hand side of the paper.  (Or you could have this done ahead of time if you'd like).  Then instruct the participants to come up with a positive coping skill that starts with each letter of the alphabet.  Remember to emphasize that we want to identify positive and not negative coping skills!  Be as specific as possible!!

For example:

A - Ask my friend Jane for a hug
B - Bake chocolate chip cookies
C - Call my sibling Joe
D - Deep breathing relaxation exercise
E - Exercise for 10 minutes

Continue for all the letters.  Have patients share some of their favorite or most creative coping skills.  Put the lists up somewhere that is easily visible in moments of stress, and practice trying new activities to find what coping skills work best for each individual.