Defence mechanism, a word all of us have heard before, refers to behaviours, feelings, thoughts and emotions that we pick up to reduce anxiety. Sigmund Freud believed that people were trying to either deal with or avoid anxiety. He introduced the term defense mechanisms, which are used by people to reduce anxiety by distorting reality. A few of them are as follows:
1)Repression- When a person completely dismisses the anxiety producing event from their conscious mind*, it refers to repression. The person represses the event in such a manner that they are not aware of the details and can’t recall it happening. For eg: Rita witnessed her dog running into a car and ultimately dying but she is unable to recall the event.
When people say “I don’t know why I did this”, it usually is due to repression. The memories which are repressed still continue to influence the individual.
*(conscious mind: feelings, emotions and thoughts we are aware of)
2)Denial- Denial refers to the refusal to accept the situation. They altogether deny the reality. For eg: Sarah refuses to admit that she is addicted to alcohol. Priya denies that she isn’t suffering from depression.
3)Reaction formation- Reaction formation refers to converting unwanted thoughts and feelings into their opposites. For eg: Shreya dislikes Matt but still acts friendly with him so that he doesn’t come to know her true feelings. Ricky doesn’t like going to parties but he tells Matthew he loves parties and finds it cool.
4)Projection- Projection refers to attributing your unacceptable qualities to others. For eg: Kiran talks bad behind her best friend’s back as she fears that her best friend does the same. Harry wants his son to excel in golf as it was one of harry’s ambitions that he couldn’t fulfil himself.
5)Rationalisation- Making unreasonable feelings or behaviour reasonable refers to rationalisation. For eg: Samantha does badly in her job interview and justifies it by saying that she likes her current job. Raman fails his exam and justifies it by saying that the teacher did not like him.
6)Sublimation- This refers to converting unacceptable impulses into rational and acceptable ones. For eg: Sam was bullied by his peers for not being capable of getting good marks. But instead of fighting with them, he started studying hard to prove them wrong.
7)Displacement- It refers to redirecting your emotional reaction from the rightful recipient onto another person or object. For eg: Nancy had a stressful day at work and got scolded by her boss. After she reaches home, she ends up taking it all out on her family. Raj got reprimanded by his father but since he couldn’t say anything to his dad, he took it out on his best friend.
8)Regression- Regression refers to reverting to an earlier stage of development in which a person’s mental age is below the current one. For eg: After a stressful day, Priya slept wearing a unicorn onesie while hugging her teddy bear and sucking her thumb.
These defense mechanisms are pretty unhealthy but some of them such as sublimation allow us to function normally. It is important to be aware of your feelings, emotions and behaviour. Identifying if you are using a defense mechanism is an important part of it. We should adopt healthy practices to deal better with everyday stress. Proper diet, exercise, positive attitude and thinking, meditation, relaxation techniques, good social support etc help reduce stress.
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Psyche Trail 
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