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Lecture 47- Defense Mechanisms-II — Transcript

by SWAYAM BHU · 2,612 words · 420 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:16Namaskar friends. This is lecture two of
0:19module 10 of the stress management
0:22course and we are continuing with
0:25defense mechanisms as means to reduce
0:29stress.
0:31Let us see what we have in our package
0:34today.
0:35Today we are going to talk about four
0:38defense mechanisms which are known as
0:41avoidance,
0:43conversion, denial and identification.
0:50So the first one is avoidance.
0:53Avoidance simply means we try to escape
0:57from unpleasant situations, thoughts or
1:01people whosoever act as a stressor for
1:05us.
1:07So what happens that we may feel
1:10stressed due to presence of people due
1:14to entering into one or the other
1:17situation or maybe in presence of some
1:21objects.
1:22So the best way to avoid a stress or
1:26reduce a stress to remove those
1:29particular stresses from our environment
1:32and if we cannot remove them from the
1:34environment we try to keep ourselves
1:38away from them. This is the basic idea
1:42of avoidance behavior.
1:46This particular avoidance behavior is
1:49clearly observed in people suffering
1:52from PTSD that is posttraumatic stress
1:55disorder where trauma has occurred due
1:59to a particular stressor. So what
2:02happens that in later life people are
2:06quite committed to avoid all those
2:10stress genenic situations which can
2:13trigger the feeling of anxiety. Again
2:17the same happens in phobia and panic
2:20disorder also. In phobia, the feeling of
2:24a stress or anxiety is associated with a
2:28particular stimulus and the individual
2:31is so determined to avoid that stimulus
2:34that he or she simply refuses even to
2:38see the picture of that phobic stimulus
2:41or to talk about it. Complete avoidance
2:45is found. Similar things can be observed
2:49in individuals for a variety of social
2:52stressors as well.
2:56So what happens? Suppose we have
2:58witnessed a very bad car crash.
3:02The witness,
3:04the person who suffers from the sight
3:08and the feeling, the overwhelming
3:10feeling of that car accident, watching
3:14people dying because of that will simply
3:17avoid driving in future. Or he can move
3:22to the next level and avoid traveling by
3:26car or by road from one city to the
3:29other. Because on highways the number of
3:32accidents are many more as compared to
3:35what we find within the city due to the
3:39speed limit. Okay. So we simply try to
3:43escape from the situation or we try to
3:46not enter to it at all which is known as
3:49avoidance. This gives you a short-term
3:52relief but what happens that in the long
3:54term uh you put a lot of restraints over
3:59yourself that I don't want to do this I
4:01don't want to do that and you simply
4:03make a tight boundary around yourself
4:07making a small comfort zone and avoiding
4:11a large number of social situations and
4:14activities which you are supposed to be
4:18a part of in your later life.
4:21So emotional avoidance can be there
4:24means I try to avoid or suppress the
4:28emotions
4:30which are unpleasant to me which causes
4:33pain and agony to me. So if I'm feeling
4:36bad, I will simply try to avoid it by uh
4:40going out having some kind of fun
4:42activity uh doing some shopping or
4:45anything like that. Cognitive avoidance
4:48can be there. Oh, I just don't want to
4:50think about it. Okay. Try to keep it
4:54away from my uh conscious mind. I I can
4:58make myself busy and over busy with a
5:01number of activities simply in order to
5:05avoid a particular thought or idea which
5:09frequently comes to mind and cause me a
5:12lot of stress. Behavioral avoidance can
5:15be there where I start avoiding people
5:18or situations which are potentially
5:21stressful.
5:24This can lead to short-term reduction of
5:27anxiety. If I don't interact with people
5:29I find difficult to interact with. If I
5:32do not enter into situations which are
5:34potentially stressful for me. If I
5:37engage myself in many other activities
5:40so that I have no time left to think
5:44about the actual problem of my life or
5:48to remember something bad which has
5:50happened to me. I'm engaged in
5:53avoidance. This will be relieving for a
5:57moment but of course not in the long
6:00run.
6:01Alternative could include problem
6:04focused coping, emotional expression,
6:08mindfulness training and acceptance of
6:11one's life events.
6:15Then comes the technique of conversion.
6:18Conversion means changing the form of a
6:21particular thing. So what happens that
6:25when we are emotionally overwhelmed with
6:28uh feelings which are uncomfortable for
6:31us, which are negative for us, which are
6:33painful for us, we try to simply convert
6:37them in physical forms
6:40and it may result in conversion
6:43disorder.
6:45Conversion disorder means physical
6:48expression of psychological problems.
6:53These conversion disorders differ from
6:56psychosomatic illnesses. You know, we
6:59have been talking about psychosomatic
7:01illness a lot in our earlier lectures.
7:04And when I talked about them, I told you
7:07that whenever a person is exposed to
7:10chronic stress, it may activate the HPA
7:15axis or the sympathetic adrenal medula
7:18axis changing uh leading to changes in
7:21the physiology of the person. Therefore
7:25he or she may develop problems like
7:28hypertension, hypoglycemia,
7:30coronary heart diseases, amma, uh skin
7:34diseases and many more.
7:37Then how does conversion disorder differ
7:40from psychosomatic illness? There is a
7:43main difference. In conversion disorder
7:46you will find symptoms but no reasonable
7:50biological basis for those symptoms.
7:54For example, I feel palpitations all the
7:58time. It causes me a lot of problem if I
8:02feel palpitation. But if I go through
8:06diagnostic testing through ECG, through
8:09ecoardiograph or any other kind of
8:12advanced test,
8:14none of the dimensions or functions of
8:17my heart is going to be deranged. So in
8:21report everything is all right but I'm
8:24suffering from the symptoms intense
8:26symptoms. This is conversion disorder.
8:29And if somebody develops coronary heart
8:32disease due to chronic exposure to
8:35stresses and the person undergoes
8:38diagnostic tests. You will find changes
8:42in the physiology of that organ. You
8:46will find deranged markers in the blood
8:49reports in the echoc cardiogram or you
8:52can find the change in frequency in ECG
8:54records. That is the basic difference
8:57between conversion disorder and
8:59psychosomatic illness. Both are due to
9:03stress but they are not the same. In
9:06conversant disorder you can find
9:08symptoms mimicking to almost all kind of
9:12known health problems that too without a
9:17reasonable physiological basis that can
9:21be detected through diagnostic testing.
9:25Got the point? I hope it is clear now.
9:29So conversion disorders
9:32are also referred to as functional
9:34neurological symptom disorder. Okay. And
9:37it manifest physical symptom without or
9:40clear physiological or injury related
9:43explanation. This is what I was
9:46explaining just now. So uh there can be
9:50symptoms of paralysis, seizures,
9:53blindness, deafness or any other kind.
9:57Okay.
9:58And again you won't be able to find any
10:02uh genuine basis for that. Treatment
10:06options for this kind of symptoms
10:08include cognitive behavior therapy or
10:12other form of psychotherapy which mostly
10:15focuses on katharsis that is expression
10:19of the pentup negative emotions which
10:22are causing these kind of symptoms. But
10:24of course here also you have to be very
10:27careful because you cannot make the
10:29patient feel that the symptoms that he
10:33or she was feeling were actually
10:37uh were not emerging out of
10:39physiological basis.
10:42If you tell them this thing directly, if
10:44you try to convey this thing to them, it
10:48will be very damaging to their
10:50self-esteem and they try to uh make more
10:53and more arguments in favor of their
10:55symptoms. So instead of communicating it
10:58directly even in CBT and other kind of
11:01psychotherapies
11:02uh the these therapies are projected as
11:05an alternative treatment that okay if
11:08you are not uh feeling relief through
11:11traditional medications come to us this
11:13is an alternative type of healing
11:15mechanisms which can work better with
11:17you or a combination of therapy and
11:20medicine will definitely work in your
11:23case. Okay.
11:25The next um defense mechanism is denial.
11:29Denial means not accepting the reality.
11:32What I'm feeling, what I am watching,
11:34what I have in my mind, I will rather
11:36say that no, I don't have such feelings.
11:39I don't have such thoughts or this
11:41particular thing is not at all
11:43problematic for you, for me. Even if I'm
11:46suffering so much just in order to
11:49maintain my self-esteem, in order to
11:51maintain my image in the eyes of other
11:54people, I may sometimes come up saying
11:56that no, this is something very uh
11:59obvious. This is something very minor.
12:01I'm not at all stressed due to it
12:03although I am. This is called the denial
12:06behavior. I'm not ready to accept the
12:08reality at least in front of others and
12:11in extreme cases even in front of me. If
12:15I have certain thoughts which are highly
12:18unacceptable. If you go through the
12:20books of psychopathology, you will uh
12:23get to read certain cases where people
12:26have ideas which were very harmful to
12:29their near ones to their relatives and
12:32when they start realizing that they have
12:34this kind of ideas in their mind it was
12:36highly damaging to their self-esteem. So
12:39what they started doing that no I don't
12:41have any kind of such thought and they
12:44were so firm in this belief that they
12:46were successfully able to suppress these
12:49thoughts in their unconscious mind which
12:52could reflect itself maybe in dreams or
12:55in some other forms. So this is not a
12:58final solution to the problem that
13:01somebody has but then definitely it
13:04gives them a temporary relief.
13:08So uncomfortable realities are not easy
13:12to be accepted and therefore people
13:15start denying them. The consequences of
13:18denial can include delay of treatment
13:21and a strained relationship. And in
13:24order to overcome denial, we must create
13:27a supportive environment and seek help
13:31which can uh console us which can give
13:35us a confidence that it is okay. It can
13:38happen with anybody. It has happened
13:40with other people also. We are not the
13:43only one who suffer from this kind of
13:45problem and the problem can be solved if
13:50appropriate steps are taken.
13:55The fourth defense mechanism is
13:57identification.
13:59Identification simply means adopting
14:03someone else's mannerism, someone else's
14:08identity in order to solve one's
14:10problems.
14:12Sometimes you may notice young children
14:15behaving in an elderly manner, talking
14:18like adults, behaving like adults,
14:22taking up their problems as adults do.
14:26This is known as identification.
14:30Most often children start mimicking the
14:32behavior of their parents and this is
14:34very obvious because those are uh
14:37parents are the most easily accessible
14:41adult figures available to them and
14:44somehow they become the role model of
14:46the child due to the great dependence of
14:48the child on his or her parents.
14:52So identification or introjection means
14:56internalization of the value system,
14:59internalization of the feelings which is
15:03shown by the significant adults.
15:06Uh
15:09this identification can be useful, it
15:13can be harmful at the same time. Why is
15:16it useful? If I have learned some
15:20appropriate coping mechanisms, if I have
15:23learned appropriate social skills from
15:26my parents, I have internalized all
15:29these efficiencies and abilities, it can
15:32help me in a great way to solve the
15:35problems of my own life. At the same
15:39time, if I have learned or internalized
15:43inappropriate behaviors like anger, like
15:46hostility, like aggression, this is
15:49going to aggravate my problem instead of
15:51resolving it. Most often what happens
15:55that children learn aggression by
15:57observing their parents. What happens
16:00when I'm not ready to listen to my
16:03parents? My parents start scolding.
16:06Instead of explaining the reason behind
16:08their commands, their instruction, their
16:11demands or their expectation, they
16:13simply orders me that to in a very
16:17straightforward and a strict manner. And
16:19not only that, they sometimes threaten
16:21me that if you fail to comply with my
16:24demand, I'm going to withdraw this
16:26facility of yours or I'm going to
16:28introduce this punishment
16:31or they may start screaming and shouting
16:34at me. So this will induce a fear
16:37feeling and I am compelled to comply
16:41with their commands. What a useful
16:43trick. The takeaway lesson is if the
16:46other people are not ready to listen to
16:48you, shout at them. Show your
16:51aggression. Show your anger. The other
16:54person will be taken aback and he or she
16:57will be ready to comply with your
16:59commands. That is why internalization
17:03although this is a basic process of
17:06socialization, it happens in every
17:08society with everyone. There is no one
17:10who has not internalized the value
17:12system or the behavior or the uh the way
17:16their parents think.
17:19One has to be careful in doing this
17:21internalization because internalizing
17:24inappropriate social skills, social
17:27behaviors or uh you know uh the feelings
17:31and the behaviors of parents, teachers
17:34or any significant adult could be very
17:37harmful. Children learn smoking or
17:40consuming alcohol by observing their
17:43parents. Whenever the parents get or
17:45especially the father is stressed he
17:48starts smoking. So gradually the child
17:52will also pick up that okay this is the
17:54way to reduce the stress. So next time
17:55if I am stressed I must also do the same
17:59thing. It may improve the situation for
18:02me. So internalization
18:04is not basically bad. This is an obvious
18:06process natural process ingrained in the
18:09process of socialization. If a child
18:12does not internalize the value system,
18:15the norms, the social traditions and
18:18conventions, he or she will not be able
18:21to develop an identity which is similar
18:24to his or her own community, which
18:26belongs to his family traditions. But it
18:29has to be adopted with caution with
18:33awareness.
18:37So uh this particular defense mechanism
18:40can serve the function of coping by
18:42providing a sense of control and
18:44security and enhancing self-esteem by
18:48identifying with successful or powerful
18:51individuals.
18:54This was all for this lecture. Let us
18:57see what we have learned till now. We
19:00have learned about avoidance coping
19:02which involves try to avoid the person
19:05situation and object which is
19:08potentially stressful for oneself.
19:12While it may offer relief for the time
19:14being, it usually worsens the situation
19:18by drawing the boundaries tight. So the
19:21person is not ready to come out of his
19:24comfort zone and that zone is not very
19:27big. The more we avoid the shorter the
19:30zone is.
19:32We also learn about the conversion
19:35mechanism where we convert the
19:38psychological distress into physical
19:41symptoms. Earlier this conversion
19:44disorder was known as hysteria. So if
19:47you talk about uh talk to your parents
19:50or people of uh older generations they
19:54may sometimes use the term hysteria or
19:56you might have read about this
19:58particular term in your books or you
20:00might have watched some movie in which
20:02this term was used. So this was the term
20:05used for conversion disorder only where
20:08we can have almost any kind of
20:12physiological symptom without a
20:15reasonable biological basis for the same
20:19and definitely it differs from the idea
20:22of psychosomatic
20:24illness.
20:26Then we talked about denial means we are
20:28not ready to accept the real emotions or
20:32social situation. We try to avoid the
20:37reality by denying it, refusing to
20:40accept it. And finally, identification,
20:43which is basically the internalization
20:46of a set of values from a significant
20:49adult available in our surroundings.
20:53This is a basic element of socialization
20:56process but it must be taken care of
21:00that the child or any other individual
21:04must not internalize
21:06an inappropriate
21:08behavior value or skill.
21:13That's all for this lecture. These are
21:15the references that you can go through
21:18for further reading.
21:22You can have a number of books
21:27from your library. Any of them would be
21:31a good choice for you.
21:33Thank you very much for your kind
21:35attention. Thank you.

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