How Do Defense Mechanisms Affect Our Mental Wellbeing?
No matter the reasons, negative feelings, and emotions take a toll on our mental wellbeing. We find it hard to accept romantic rejection or job loss. Some traumatic experiences (for example, abuse and someone's death) are extremely hard to process and work through. To deal with stress, people subconsciously use defense mechanisms. A defense mechanism is a way to respond to an internal discomfort or an external conflict. The concept of defense mechanisms dates back to the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939). He noticed that some of his patients used to mentally distort external reality. They did it to maintain the balance of their inner world by reducing anxiety.
Defense mechanisms help us remain in a better psychological state. They can be very beneficial in the...