MENTAL HEALTH: Dealing With Emotions Ms. Mai Lawndale High School

Dealing With Emotions Some emotions are difficult to face because even after you handle it in a healthy way, you may still feel pain Many people develop ways to protect themselves from feeling too much pain Defense Mechanisms – hide unwanted feelings (people often don ’ t know when they are being defensive) Some people rely too often on being defensive because they do not want to face the real cause of pain

Common Defense Mechanisms Repression Rationalization Compensation Projection Idealization Daydreaming Regression Denial Sublimation Displacement Reaction Formation

Repression (the most basic one) Painful thoughts or feelings are repressed or pushed away from conscious thought Allowing situations to pass without expressing your feelings

Rationalization Making excuses for a behavior An attempt to preserve self-esteem and avoid feeling guilty People rationalize by making up a reason for something because the real reason is more difficult to face Facing reality and being honest about your feelings are betters ways to build self-confidence

Compensation Covering up faults or weaknesses by trying to excel in other areas People feel insecure or expect too much of themselves, so the compensate For example, becoming a class clown in order to hid fear of being unpopular, or wearing clothes to attract the opposite sex, or becoming a stellar student to hide the bad family background

Projection Seeing your own fault or feeling in other people, even when they do not have them Justifying your behavior because you think that someone else may be feeling a certain way about you, even when they do not

Idealization Admiring someone so much that they seem to be perfect This prevents you from seeing others as they really are For example, worshipping movie or music stars who are perfect in your eyes and do not have any faults Idealization helps you set goals, but can also lead you to expect too much from other people

Daydreaming Creation of make-believe events that seem more pleasant or exciting than real world People often daydream to escape the frustration or hurt of difficult situations Daydreaming can help give you ideas for achieving your goals, but is hurtful when it substitutes reality

Regression Acting less maturely than you usually would People regress by throwing tantrums instead of expressing emotions maturely People often act in this way because they feel neglected and want attention Everyone likes escaping back to childish behavior sometimes, but it is more helpful to deal with disappointment and seek attention maturely

Denial Refusal to recognize reality People in denial behave as if something is true, when in reality it is not Denial helps protect people from facing unpleasant facts they cannot accept yet Denial is most often used to avoid feelings that should be dealt with

Sublimation Replacing undesired impulses with acceptable behavior People sublimate when they have strong angry feeling and instead of hurting someone, they do something else more productive It channels energy that could be hurtful into a useful activity

Displacement Shifting the feeling about one person or situation to an object or another person People use displacement when they take out their anger or guilt on an innocent person It usually occurs when they feel unable to face the person who brought out the emotion, so they redirect it to others

Reaction Formation Acting in a manner opposite to the way they would act to hide true feelings For example, a person wants to make friends with someone else. But in the past, they have had a difficult time making friends. So instead of acting kindly towards the person, they act mean because they have a fear of being rejected

Checking Your Defenses Many people rely on defense mechanisms to help them cope with different situations in a healthy manner Other people rely on defense mechanisms too much and will likely experience more severe problems later on Understanding defense mechanisms helps you to recognize when you are using them Lowering your defenses may mean facing some difficult feelings

Practice What defense mechanism are they using? Eating a double cheeseburger and claiming that you have earned it after a long physical workout You model yourself after a professional athlete denying any faults in the person You are angry over someone ’ s comment, but you act as though what they say did not matter You refuse to accept the end of a relationship and continue as though you will eventually get back together RATIONALIZATION IDEALIZATION REACTION FORMATION DENIAL