How to Cope with Frustration

1. Identify the triggers that cause you to feel frustrated (such as other people, or systems being slow or unreliable).

2. Write down more fruitful ways of dealing with the issue or situation. For example, if your friend never arrives on time, you could say “I know that Amy is always late. The next time I’ll ask her to meet me half an hour earlier than the real set time.”

3. Deliberately counter any tendencies towards extreme, and negative, thinking. For example, when you find yourself thinking, “Sometimes I think the whole world is against me” try and counter that with something like “It’s just turning into one of those days. Probably I’ll feel much better tomorrow.” 

4. Remember that frustration is often born out of having certain fixed expectations (about other people and how the world works). In reality, things rarely match up with the picture in our head. Realize that things are the way that they are, and we don’t have much control over people or events.

5. Resist the temptation to think that you’re a victim – as frustration is just something that all of us must deal with. It’s how you choose to think, and then react, to what’s frustrating that makes the biggest difference to how you cope and feel.