Coping With Stress: Denial as a Defense Mechanism - Essay Sample

Concept Definition:

Denial, as used in psychology, has been identified as the major defense mechanism used by people when faced with a stressful situation. It encompasses the act of trying to block our conscious from being aware of external events that we deem as highly stressful. People who are in denial fail to acknowledge a difficult situation, fear from facing the facts about a problem, or take for granted the consequences that may result from the issue. The majority of people tend to refuse to face a situation when they feel they might not be able to handle it. However, they fail to understand that burying their heads in the sand does not change reality but only allows them to pretend that the situation does not exist. At times, this may help reduce the impact of the stressful event. In as much as it may help reduce anxiety on a short-term basis, we cannot consider it as an effective way of dealing with the situation. When reality kicks in, the affected person will have to find other solutions to the situation. Therefore, denial can be considered a short term solution that may turn out to be more disastrous later. There is a high possibility of developing maladaptive behaviors that may ruin one's relationship with others when they adopt denial as to their coping mechanism for situations. We can't deny the fact that denial can be used to give temporary protection against tough situations, but when it drives someone to engage in harmful behaviors, it becomes a menace. The most unfortunate part is that it is usually hard for someone to realize that they are living in denial until the situation gets out of control. One way some-one can discover they are living in denial is when they fail to take responsibility for the choices they make and tend to blame others for their predicaments. Until they reach a point where they understand they need to change and learn to be honest with the choices they make, their thoughts, feelings, and actions, denial coping will prove to be a real disaster.

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Application #1:

When someone refuses to acknowledge the truth no matter how painful it may be, they are usually trying to cope with stress and the emotional conflict that comes with the painful situation. One can be in denial of anything that makes them feel vulnerable such as addiction to alcohol. Growing up in a suburb where alcoholism is a menace has taught me how negative denial coping by alcoholics can be. Every time I have a talk with anyone of them about addiction, they never admit that they actually have a problem. In most cases, they become violent while vigorously accusing me of judging them wrongly. This is connected to denial coping in that they do not acknowledge the fact that addiction is a disease that adversely affects them. Most of them are jobless because no one can hire them. They are deemed as irresponsible who may not be productive at work.

Application #2:

Every time I think about denial coping, my mind thinks about my Uncle, who lives in a nearby city. He has been adversely affected by denial coping to the point of becoming mad. It all started 2 years ago when he lost his wife after she succumbed to cancer. Till to date, he has never come to terms with the fact that his wife is no more. He still believes she is alive and with him and this has negatively affected his relationship with others. Denial is believed to be a form of repression that entails the brain being banned from remembering painful memories. It helps the victims not to think about the issue and, consequently, not suffer from the stress that is brought about by the situation. I once tried to talk to him about the issue only for him to label me a pessimist. I tried to persist and drive some sense into his mind, but he ended up becoming violent against him. At this point, I had to give up. At first, denial had helped him a lot because if it were not for it, he would have committed suicide. They really loved each other, and their separation through death was painful for him to bear. At first, he never acknowledged that she was no more and she would prepare breakfast for two: one of him and the other for his wife. He would not eat as she waited for her to join him on the table. He would then breakdown and cry when she fails to turn up. He still has her clothing in his closet up to date because he still thinks she will come back someday. Denial coping worked in his favor at first because it would not allow him to develop suicidal thoughts. However, as time went by, it started turning tragic especially when he started cutting links with other people and when he turned violent towards others. He lost his job because he could hardly concentrate at work, and he became an alcoholic.

Application #3:

Disease is another factor where denial coping is rampant. Some people usually refuse to recognize that something is not right, even when it is outright. It is believed that denial aims at protecting one`s ego from things that he cannot cope up with. Even with overwhelming evidence, the victim still believes that a situation does not exist because he might not have the courage to face it. In other instances, the victims may acknowledge the existence of the situation but fail to understand the importance of dealing with it while others tend to blame others for the situation. A good example is my eldest brother who has been recently suffering from chest pains and breath shortness. He usually waits for the pain to disappear and then goes on with whatever he was doing. As a family, we have tried to push him to seek medical help because we believe those might be signs and symptoms of a heart attack, but he has never seen the importance of it. He keeps on postponing and this has worsened the situation because the pains have become more frequent. Until when he realizes that the more he delays from getting help, the more the situation worsens; it has been very hard to convince him otherwise.

Author of concept: Wheeler, Sara, and Louann Lord. "Denial: A conceptual analysis." Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 13.6 (1999): 311-320. Chapter 1 page 5- 10