One of the best ways to handle stress including a major chronic stressor like PD, is to take a problem-solving approach. A problem solving approach to handling stress assumes that any situation, any stressor, can be made a little bit better by treating it as a problem that can be solved.
How do you generally solve a problem? Well, you strategize, you generate possible solutions, you try out those possible solutions in your mind and in real life situations and then you choose the one that works best for the problem at hand.
Now, no-one believes that problem-solving thinking like this is going to make Parkinson's disease go away. Rather the idea is that it will help you to handle the myriad of symptoms of PD with more aplomb, better reactions and better behaviors that prevent the symptoms from causing more harm. If you practice a problem-solving approach to each challenge PD throws at you, you will need to practice mental skills like planning, logical analysis, resistance to interference, long-term commitment to putting a plan in place and so forth. These are all excellent skills to practice and to keep sharp as you find the mix of coping strategies that are best for you and your situation. Among that suite of strategies you might consider including a problem solving approach to your PD symptoms.
Source:
Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 216–269.
