How to Cope | WDH Microsite

Remember to Check in With Others and Yourself

It’s important to explore healthy ways to cope. Remember, caring for yourself is a skill that takes practice.

Need Help Coping?

Here are a few healthy ways to deal with stress :

Get Creative: Exploring a creative passion can be a healthy outlet. For example, journaling can be a great way to sort through your thoughts and feelings. Putting things down on paper can help you get rid of everything that’s cluttering your headspace. So draw, write, color, and create.
Take a Break: Social media is a great place to connect with people and stay up to date. However, it’s important to recognize that consuming all of this information can make you feel overwhelmed and not everything you see on social media is real. Remember to take breaks to give yourself a mental rest.
Meditate and Move: Meditation and yoga can help you calm your mind and feel grounded. Doing things like stretching and going for a run or walk can release endorphins to help with stress and anxiety.
Get Rest: Sleep is an important part of brain development and helps with processing emotions. Marijuana and alcohol can disrupt your sleep cycle by suppressing your rapid eye movement (REM) sleep where you spend the most time dreaming. Your decreased quality of sleep can impact how you feel the next day. To get a better night’s rest, create consistency in your sleep routines—set a regular bedtime, avoid caffeine late in the day, take a warm shower or bath, shut off devices at least 30 minutes before getting into bed, close curtains, and listen to something soothing like nature sounds or calming music.

Feeling a Lot Right Now?

That’s okay. Recognizing and managing your emotions is part of helping yourself stay mentally healthy. Not sure where to start? Try some of these strategies:

Acknowledge Your Emotions: It may be tempting to ignore or cover up difficult feelings with things like alcohol or other drugs, but that only distracts from the problem. Instead, try to acknowledge and work through your feelings by writing them down. Or making a list of the things you can and can't control. This can help you process how you feel and understand what you can do about it in a productive way.
Set Small Goals: When things get hard, even small tasks can seem too overwhelming. If that happens, try breaking the problem down into manageable pieces. Focusing on one step at a time gives you small goals to accomplish and makes dealing with whatever life throws your way easier.
Practice Compassion and Gratitude: Practicing compassion and gratitude, both towards others and yourself, is an important part of developing a safe and supportive space. Compassion can come in many forms—like allowing yourself to take a break from things that stress you out or supporting the people you care about by reaching out and listening. Taking time to give gratitude also allows you to reflect on the good things in your life, even when times seem tough.
Engage Your Senses: Ground yourself by focusing on your senses. It’s easy to get swept up by anxiety and stress. When that happens, take a deep breath and focus on one or more of your senses. Taking it one sense at a time, list five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

How Do You Ask For and Give Support?

Connecting with supportive people can remind you that you don’t have to deal with things alone. Here are some tips for staying connected to your community and the people who are important to you:

Check-in and Share How You Feel: When people are going through difficult times, they can sometimes isolate themselves. However, it’s important to keep the lines of communication open. Meet in-person, video chat, call, send an email, text, or DM someone you trust to share your feelings and see how they’re doing too. Talking through the things that weigh on you is an important part of self-care and can brighten up someone’s day.
Give Back: There are so many ways in which you can positively impact the community around you. Donate to or volunteer for a cause that’s important to you. Join a group or a club that’s working toward something you believe in.

Stay Involved: College campuses offer many positive resources for students: friends, faculty, counselors, and coaches. Not in school? Look online for events happening in your community or consider joining a local club or rec league to stay connected and active.

Young latino man at a basketball street court using his phone in the night

Where Can I Find Help?

It can be difficult to know where to find help and support when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

We've gathered these resources to help:

Washington Recovery Help Line: The Washington Recovery Help Line offers anonymous, confidential help for those experiencing a substance use disorder or mental health challenge. The help line is open 24 hours a day.
Crisis Connections: Crisis Connections connects people in physical, emotional, and financial crisis to services. The crisis line is open 24 hours a day.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is now 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Lifeline provides confidential, free, 24/7 support to anyone experiencing a mental health, substance use, or suicidal crisis. Call or text 988 to talk with a trained counselor.
Check-in With Yourself: Young adult emotions & health: Check-in With Yourself is a free web-based program for young adults created by researchers at the University of Washington. The program offers an opportunity for reflection on how you are feeling and how you tend to cope, while offering personalized strategies for stress management, increasing social support, and addressing alcohol use.
A Mindful State: In response to COVID-19’s impact on emotional and mental health, this website was developed to provide a place for people to come together, share their stories, get some useful advice, and help each other build resilience.
Teen Link: Despite the name, Teen Link also provides free, confidential help to young adults like you. If you need someone to talk to, visit www.teenlink.org or call or text 1-866-833-6546.
Campus Support Services: We put together links for substance use and counseling support services on campuses across Washington state. If you feel stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed, these are great services to use during the school year.

County Designated Mental Health Providers: County level services are available to help anyone who may be in danger of harming themselves or others, or at risk due to a substance use or mental health disorder.