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You Are Just Coping

Simon Reilly

Our unhealthy and unproductive habits aren’t just more comfortable than the idea of trying something new, but as we learned from the “Change or Die” article, they are coping mechanisms.

Look through this list of common coping mechanisms to see if you can spot any of your favorites:

  • Acting out: not coping – giving in to the pressure to misbehave.
  • Aim inhibition: lowering sights to what seems more achievable.
  • Attack: trying to beat down that which is threatening you.
  • Avoidance: mentally or physically avoiding something that causes distress.
  • Compartmentalization: separating conflicting thoughts into separated compartments.
  • Compensation: making up for a weakness in one area by gain strength in another.
  • Conversion: subconscious conversion of stress into physical symptoms.
  • Denial: refusing to acknowledge that an event has occurred.
  • Displacement: shifting of intended action to a safer target.
  • Dissociation: separating oneself from parts of your life.
  • Fantasy: escaping reality into a world of possibility.
  • Idealization: playing up the good points and ignoring limitations of things desired.
  • Identification: copying others to take on their characteristics.
  • Intellectualization: avoiding emotion by focusing on facts and logic.
  • Passive aggression: avoiding refusal by passive avoidance.
  • Projection: seeing your own unwanted feelings in other people.
  • Rationalization: creating logical reasons for bad behavior.
  • Reaction Formation: avoiding something by taking a polar opposite position.
  • Regression: returning to a child state to avoid problems.
  • Repression: subconsciously hiding uncomfortable thoughts.
  • Somatization: psychological problems turned into physical symptoms.
  • Sublimation: channeling psychic energy into acceptable activities.
  • Suppression: consciously holding back unwanted urges.
  • Symbolization: turning unwanted thoughts into metaphoric symbols.
  • Trivializing: Making small what is really something big.
  • Undoing: actions that psychologically ‘undo’ wrongdoings for the wrongdoer.

The above list of coping mechanisms is (c) Davis Straker, http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/coping.htm, and used with permission.

 This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008

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