Just a quick question

I was curious about the General Coping and Anxiety scores. If someone has a high general coping score does that mean they're like to have a high anxiety score? What reasons would there be for them being greatly different?

Thanks

Hey, RomanSunburn, welcome to PsychCentral. What an interesting question, I'd never thought of it like that.

One thing your question reminds me of is an incident I had where I was involved in a car accident; I wasn't in my car, it had stalled and I had walked to the gas station to call for a tow truck, etc. But someone ran into my car and pushed it through the intersection (it was at a light, a huge, heavy, Mercury Grand Marquis, in Park with its flashers on at a red light!) and totaled it.

I was coming from my therapists office where I was being treated for General Anxiety Disorder :-) and the car had had trouble starting in the first place and I'd had to go ask to use my therapist's phone to call and get my battery charged just half an hour before (and that was terrifying to me) and then the car stalled, and then this happened and meanwhile, I was due to be at my husband's work Christmas party (the first year we'd gone and I knew no one) in less than two hours and it was that far to get there, etc. Talk about anxious!

But I took care of each thing as it came up; called my husband, called the tow truck, went and dealt with policemen, etc. but then next several weeks I had all sorts of anxiety that my car would stall and driving past that intersection (in my "new" car :-) was heck even though it was an excellent, newer car than the one it replaced, etc. I commented to my therapist about that; how I'd done what needed to be done when it came up (General Coping) but then things were horrible after, what was with that? She explained that's how we're built; that we cope with the emergency (are the "hero") when it's happening and then when it's over and it's "safe" to fall apart, we do that.

So maybe that's what the difference is; day-to-day how well does someone cope with life whether they're anxious or not. Not everyone can cope when they're anxious but I have always done pretty well all the time. It must be teasing out the differences there, whether you can "think" under pressure so-to-speak. Does that make sense?

Thanks, Perna. That was actually a really helpful answer! Though, I probably shouldn't say "actually" cause it might make it sound like I wasn't expecting a good answer to begin with. All the same, it was really helpful.

I guess my problem is that I scored highly in both of them, so I have trouble discerning the two. And if I do something like where you went through the right steps calling your husband and the tow truck, etc, I think to myself "Well, that's how someone should be behaving so dont feel proud of yourself for it." It's a negetive way of thinking that doesn't help at all, but then, we all have our own issues we're working through.

Anyways, I really just wanted to say thanks for the reply and the time you took to respond and everything. I really appreciate it!

Hey RO =)
here's my scores
136 - lower than last time.

General Coping 71
Life Events 31
Depression 75
Anxiety 78
Phobias 92
Self-Esteem 58
Eating Disorders 45
Schizophrenia 30
Dissociation 50
Mania 50
Sexual Issues 25
Relationship Issues 0
Alcohol 0
Drugs 0
Physical Issues 83
Smoking Issues 0
Gambling Issues 0
Technology Issues 38
Obsessions/Compulsions 31
Posttraumatic Stress 92
Borderline Traits 50

It may very well be that the scores are reversed on the General Coping scale. That is, maybe lower scores indicate one's having fewer problems in this area.