It is our instinct as humans to wish to protect ourselves and that is where our defense mechanisms come into play. Often throughout our developmental years we are inclined to develop individual defense mechanisms to combat pain and anxiety. The purpose of those defense mechanisms is to guard us from the pain related to these feelings. Unfortunately, in doing so, we sometimes limit the sentiments which can be a part of our healing processes.
As soon as you might be born, you start to develop certain strategies that make it easier to take care of stress and mental anguish. Your defense mechanisms often feel like a survival tool. Especially in youth, it is crucial to have defense mechanisms in place to deal with each psychological and existential pain.
However, as you grow up, these strategies may harm you relatively than make it easier to. In fact, defense mechanisms can do more harm than good in the long term.
Some defense mechanisms are worse than others, so at the tip of the day it's essential to be clear about what each defense mechanism is, the way it got here about, and relating to the fore. Understanding these essential aspects will make it easier to combat the restrictions created by defense mechanisms.
There are many defense mechanisms and no two defense mechanisms are the identical. Each person deals with their very own pain and fears in their very own way, and this includes developing unique defense mechanisms.
However, there are some general defense mechanisms that, while they could vary from individual to individual, essentially follow the identical formula. These defense mechanisms include:
- refusal: Refuses to just accept reality
- Repression: Preventing disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious
- Projection: Projecting your thoughts or beliefs onto one other person
- Shift: Redirecting an impulse to a helpless alternative goal
- Regression: Return to an earlier stage of development
- Sublimation: Transform offensive emotions into productive and socially acceptable behaviors
- Rationalization: Creating a less threatening event or impulse by examining the facts
- Reaction formation: Behavior that’s contrary to what one thinks or feels
- Introjection: Copying one other person's personality traits
- Identification with the aggressor: Adopting similar behavior toward a more powerful or hostile person
If you continue to don't fully understand these defense mechanisms and the way they work, listed here are some concrete examples:
- refusal: An individual may refuse to just accept their partner's infidelity or the illness of a loved one.
- repression: An individual may suppress traumatic experiences equivalent to bullying, domestic violence, and other traumas.
- projection: An individual may project their feelings of hatred or contempt onto one other person and think that that other person hates them as a substitute. This will likely be since the person projecting feels that hate is unacceptable.
- shift: Someone indignant about an event outside the household may come home and punch a wall or take out their aggression on their members of the family.
- regression: When someone is threatened or afraid, they could revert to an earlier stage of their life. This can often be seen in individuals with dissociative identity disorder who’ve so-called alters who discover as children. Alternatively, children who’re anxious may experience symptoms equivalent to thumb sucking or bedwetting.
- sublimation: Someone might decide to channel their aggressive or unhappy energy into music, art, or sports.
- rationalization: During stressful times, an individual may develop logical reasoning of their mind about what happened and why it happened. This could include labeling a stressful or traumatic experience as force majeure.
- Reaction formation: LGBTQ+ people may adopt a robust anti-LGBTQ+ stance to combat their feelings and persuade themselves that they’re heterosexual.
- Introjection: An individual may admire someone, equivalent to an actress, actor, musician, or perhaps a member of the family or friend, a lot that they start to mimic their likes, dislikes, and personality traits.
- Identification with the aggressor: Someone who’s afraid of one other person may adopt similar personality traits to the attacker within the hopes of becoming more like them and avoiding negative consequences. This is analogous to Stockholm Syndrome, where a prisoner forms an emotional attachment to his captor.
There are also other types of defense mechanisms, including:
- Humor: Including self-deprecating or dark humor that illuminates an otherwise bleak situation
- Passive aggression: Express anger not directly, for instance through silence
- Fantasy: Retreat into your personal mind or protected space to avoid stressful situations in point of fact
- Doom: Offer to do something nice for somebody you offended to ease your guilt
There are definitely some advantages to introducing defense mechanisms. Although not all defense mechanisms are considered healthy, some defense mechanisms are higher than others relating to mental health.
For example, it is healthier to transfer your anger or other bad feelings onto an inanimate object than to take out your frustration on an individual or animal. Alternatively, screaming right into a pillow is healthier than, say, punching a wall or throwing a lamp.
When you utilize sublimation to beat aggressive thoughts, you might be also selecting to translate your thoughts and intentions into something beautiful, be it art, music, or sport. Participating in such hobbies also can increase your happiness.
Often defense mechanisms can do more harm than good. While these strategies can often provide immediate relief from an otherwise stressful or anxiety-provoking situation, defense mechanisms also can prevent you from reaching a deeper level of emotion. It can limit the best way you express your feelings to those around you. Defense mechanisms also can affect your relationships with other people, including your loved ones and friends. Ultimately, keeping your anger and aggression in check isn’t idea and needs to be addressed prematurely.
So while it's okay to carry on to some defense mechanisms, it's best to let go of those who serve to guard you from bad feelings or traumatic experiences. It might be difficult to offer up these coping strategies, especially if you happen to developed them as an adolescent and have stuck with them ever since, but when you recognize what your defense mechanisms are and once they emerge, you’ll be able to begin to exchange them with healthier ones replace actions and thoughts.
Although letting go of your defenses may mean confronting an addiction or having to offer up control of a situation, you might be one step closer to vitality and learning to live along with your feelings.