Author: Mrs.Sasi Devi

Category: Mental Health

As a counselor for the past six years, we keep learning too. This month in our learning group we went back to the topic of Defence Mechanism. Revisiting the topic has helped me grasp it on a deeper level and moved me from basic understanding to processing. Understanding how these invisible shields work the first step toward clearer communication and healthier emotional lives is.

For the first time the difference between two of them Displacement and Repression became very personal and clear to me. Both are Defence Mechanism -the mind uses them to protect us from anxiety, guilt and pain that feels too big to face them at the moment.

        But these two work in opposite ways.

In Displacement the emotion is present, but the target changes. We know we are angry, but we express it to a safer person.

For example, a girl likes a boy, he rejects her and insults her. She cannot express her anger to him because she still has feelings. So, she goes home and starts fighting with her mother and her best friend for no reason.

In Repression the emotion itself disappears from consciousness. We push the painful memory or feeling so deep inside that we honestly say, “I don’t remember” or “It doesn’t bother me”. For example, a girl was in love for 3 years, the boy cheated on her. She repressed the pain and told everyone “Boys are all waste “,” I don’t believe in love”. But whenever she sees a couple, she feels irritated, gets headaches. Here the feeling is buried but avoidance is still there.

Displacement shows as overreaction. Repression shows as Under reaction and forgetting. Neither is a bad habit or a character flaw. They are the mind’s attempt to protect as in the short term. Problems start only when they become our only way of coping. The real conflict never gets resolved.

Simply noticing without judgement, writing down thoughts without filtering and talking to a trusted person or counselor in a safe place helps the buried feeling slowly come up with words.

As a society we often tell people to “forget it and move on”. But the mind does not forget. It heals only when it feels safe enough.