Introduction
In my first year at the university, I got robbed point-blank while I was walking late at night with a friend. We were lashed and kicked around before we agreed to their demand of surrendering our phones. Luckily, we left the scene with only small bruises and torn shirts. After retreating to my haven, my apartment, all that was running through my mind was how the robbery could have gone a different way and favored me. I imagined how when they would have attacked us, we would surprise them with mind-blowing martial arts. In my head, I imagined disarming them within seconds and using their weapons against them. I also imagined how they would run cowering in fear back to the darkness they had emerged. Fantasy was my defense mechanism in this case. The thought of being invincible to my enemies helped me become calm and feel safe despite being alone in my apartment. It also helped me deal with the trauma (Utah Psychology).
Main text
In my high school years, I lost an election to be voted in as a class president by a landslide. I was so ashamed of my failure and lost trust in my friends for voting against me because I thought It was them I would count on the most during that momentous event. After the release of the election results, I faked sickness and went to the home without anyone being aware, so that I could be by myself in a secluded environment. I thought that when I was alone that nothing adverse would happen to me because there was no one around to betray me. After a few hours in isolation with this kind of thinking, I felt like I belonged in solidarity, and indeed at that time, it seemed to make sense. I repressed the memory of my failure down in my thoughts. Repression and isolation was my defense mechanism at that time. Repressing the memory made me believe that if I did not remember the incident, then nobody would (Cherry). Up to this day whenever the story re-surfaces, I walk out of the discussion.
During my final year in high school, I had a friend who was deeply humiliated in front of the whole class. The class was prepping for an exam that would occur the next day, and everybody was doing their own thing (some students were reading, others sleeping, others making jokes, and others running around). Then suddenly a loud fart was heard, the class went into a deep silence then everybody burst into all sorts of laughter. My friend, who was sleeping, woke up from slumber, up from her seat, and walked out the door in humiliation. Whenever anybody tried to ask her if she knew what she did, she would respond that she had no idea. Denial was her defense mechanism (Granieri et al.). She assumed that if she denied the accusation against her, then there was no humiliation to suffer from the other students, this worked for her pretty well. She went back to socializing with people a short while after. I saw this as just a defense mechanism because days later, I found her laughing with others about the incident and saying that it is merely human nature meaning that she knew and accepted what had happened before.
Works Cited
Granieri, Antonella et al. “The Relationship between Defense Patterns and DSM-5 Maladaptive Personality Domains.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 8, no. 1926, 2017.
Utah Psychology. Defense Mechanisms, Descriptions and Examples of Different Types. 2019.
Cherry, Kendra. How Does Repression Work? 2019.