You Have Issues…I Just Know It

So, everybody uses defense mechanisms, right? Correct. It’s your minds way of protecting yourself, and therefore they are a good thing; unless you rely on them extensively. On learning about this subject I became fascinated at looking at people I interacted with and seeing what they used. People tend to gravitate towards one or two.

I might have taken it too far when once when someone stood there getting mad at me and the thoughts in my head were, “Is this displacement or is she really mad at me?”

I’m only going to mention the ones I’ve seen the most in real life …

1. Displacement

You’re mad at your teacher but you’re taking it out on me. Or maybe you’re stressed. Note to self: don’t take it too personally and when the tables are turned remember this when I’m yelling at you =)

2.  Suppression

You consciously try to forget something because it is too unpleasant to think about. Unfortunately, if you do this then you could also be suppressing your emotions associated with the situation. You are not dealing with them and they wont just go away. You will walk around with them. Possibly forever. Just saying…

3. Projection

Self preservation of the ego (not Frued’s ego…okay, only psychology lovers will get that). You like to blame your mistakes on other people. It's not me, it's you. I’m going to assume this also means your locus of control is external. It’s not good because you could hurt a lot of people.

4. Rationalization

I love this one. We create our own logic. Example: I would totally date him, but wait…he didn’t ask me out! Whatever, he probably is an immature kid. It would have been disastrous. Boy am I lucky he didn’t ask me out. :P

5. Withdrawal

You’d rather not interact with the world. For whatever reasons you find the interaction unpleasant. Call it self-isolation, which actually leads you to withdraw even more. Down the lonely path we go…

Note: Anti Social is someone who doesn’t care about society so just because someone doesn’t socialize doesn’t mean they’re anti social. Common misplaced word. I was often called anti social in my childhood…no worries, I wasn’t. I was simply self-sufficient.    

6. Identification

You lack self confidence and need your peers or some form of a group for you to be part of. I usually think of those poor young people who are trying so hard to get into the cool group. 

Just thought you all should know you probably overuse one and therefore you have issues (that's good news for those of us who would like to try and diagnose you). It’s okay, just don’t forget you are a unique human being…just like everybody else.

Leanne