I personally am fascinated with defense mechanisms and coping skills, however if its not your cup of tea I won’t be hurt if you click on.

In my last post I mentoned that defense mechanisms are methods of coping that we all use; they are necessary for our mental health. The purpose of defenses is to reduce anxiety in stressful situations so that we may continue to function and not be overwhelmed by the stressor.

Some common defense mechanisms are:

• Supression

• Denial 

• Rationalization

• Intellectualization

My last post gave an example of supression in Scarlett Ohara’s famous line from gone with the wind ” Ill think about it tomorrow at Tara”  great stuff, great conscious supression. (This is a skill !  I am working on it, unfortunately it doesn’t work for very long)

Today let me say a few words about denial.  You probably am familiar with this one because  it gets tossed around quite a bit in general conversation. As in “you’re in denial” often referring to alcohol use.  Its overused jargon  in that area. Anyway, denial is not what people sometimes think it is, ignoring a problem.

 Denial is actually refusing to recognize the possible consequences of ones own behavior or circumstances.

Thus the idea that someone won’t let themselves think that alcohol or cigarettes will hurt them. The old ” I know a man who smoked for 70 years and wasn’t sick a day in his life”.  Or perhaps, ” That will never happen to me” while engaging in some risky  behavior ( like STD or pregnancy and  unprotected sex). Denial is often identified as a stage in the dying process where the person is not willing to accept the inevitable. 

Of course denial can also be good, sometimes we need to take time to adjust to the inevitable and denial helps us out.