Defense Mechanisms Paper
Defense Mechanisms Paper
26 October 2016
By: Kathleen Sullivan
Mental Health
Ms. Fenlon
A defense mechanism is a coping skill learned to help deal with stress. Defense mechanisms can be beneficial and harmful to people. When defense mechanisms are used constantly to deal with stress the stress is not being evaluated by a person and can actually make a stressful situation worse. Facing stress head on and using defense mechanisms consciously can sometimes alleviate a stressful situation. Two defense mechanisms I find myself using sometimes are projection and conversion reaction.
The defense mechanism of projection is when a person has a feeling or impulse and gives those feelings to another person. When this happens the person …show more content…
who is being projected the feeling or impulse of another person never actually felt the feelings at all. This false projection of feelings is usually done when the projector thinks their feelings or impulses are considered to be unacceptable to their own values or unacceptable to the values of others. An example of this could be a new nursing student telling a friend “My parents are worried about me being able to keep up with school, work, and my bills during school,” when actually the new nursing student is the one that is worried.
Conversion reaction is when a person has physical symptoms that occur because of their high anxiety level.
Without the stress present in a person’s life, then the physical symptoms they experience probably wouldn’t exist. Some symptoms a person can experience are nausea, headaches, heartburn, exhaustion, or bowel irritability. Usually the symptoms disappear after the stressful situation is over. An example of conversion reaction could be when a person gets sick to their stomach the night before a presentation which leads to them missing work and the …show more content…
presentation.
Projection and conversion reaction are defense mechanisms planned by unconscious thought and help eliminate unpleasant feelings the body may be experiencing. Three circumstances where I find myself using projection and conversion reaction is when I feel threatened in a situation, overwhelmed, or have anxiety from a stressor. I felt a little threatened when I was going to Mexico and leaving the United States for the first time. I had no clue what it would be like outside of America and was going on a trip with my boyfriend (not my family). During that time I had told my boyfriend on multiple occasions leading up to the trip that my mother was worried about my safety traveling out of the country for the first time. This is an example of projection because I was the one that was actually scared and just wanted to be reassured about travel safety before the day we traveled to Mexico. In the same scenario I also used conversion reaction because I was so nervous about traveling to Mexico that I got really sick to my stomach before boarding the plane and we almost missed our flight to start our vacation. Once we landed though my bowel symptoms ceased and I had a great trip.
Since nursing school started this year I have had a serious feeling of being overwhelmed and it causes stress in my life.
Each week we have at least four exams with some weeks being seven and two papers due. There is also just so much information that is required for us to learn in such a short amount of time. I might use projection when talking to my family about an upcoming week with a lot of exams scheduled by telling them that one of my friends in class is nervous about the material on the exam because the teacher didn’t spend a lot of time going over the topic in class. I am actually the one that is concerned about the material and hope that I know what I need to know when it comes time for the exam. When I get overwhelmed in this situation I also use conversion reaction in this scenario because the stress of learning all of the material will cause me to have a harder time focusing on studying. The result of this might be that I wasn’t able to learn the material that I needed to learn for the exam because I just couldn’t focus. I also might use defense mechanisms when I have anxiety which a great example of having anxiety is sitting in anatomy and physiology. Mrs. Keough uses sticks to call on people that are all different colors. My name is on a blue stick so whenever she pulls out a blue stick my heart rate increases and I get really nervous that she will call on me and I won’t know the answer. I also know all of the other students names in class that have a blue
stick. Projection might be used when I am telling my family about how class was by saying no one likes sitting through anatomy class because the teacher calls on people randomly. I also might use conversion reaction when the stick is pulled and I am worrying about being called on more than I am being worried that I will learn the information on the exam. The result could be that I didn’t learn the material and the anxiety would be eliminated with the disappearance of the sticks.
Projection and conversion reaction defense mechanisms have influenced my personality and development both positively and negatively. On the more positive note projection allowed me to communicate my personal feelings to people and get true opinions from people without fear of offending my own feelings. This helped me in development because it allowed me to understand how other people think in different situations. My personality was influenced by projection because I was able to make my feelings be accepted to myself and develop my own morals in a way. Negatively projection influenced my development by not being true to my own feelings and accepting responsibility for how I feel. The personality aspect was influenced because I may not have used appropriate therapeutic techniques in communication. Instead of using “I feel... “ statements I may have came across as using accusatory statements to others. Conversion reaction has influenced my development positively by using planning ahead as a technique to limit stress. Instead of being stressed the night before for an exam I could have read ahead the week before and am even more prepared for an exam than before. My personality has been influenced by allowing me to recognize the seriousness in some situations and not taking some matters lightly. Negatively conversion reaction has influenced my development because I have missed out on some important events that could help me gain perspective in life. My personality has also been influenced negatively by causing me more stress in comparison to before I used the defense mechanism. Missing out on events has also made it hard for me to connect with other students on the level of sharing experiences, which in turn influences my personality negatively. The vital part with defense mechanisms is knowing they have been used too frequently and actually end up causing more stress than there was to begin with. I use both projection and conversion reaction and did not notice how frequently I used these defense mechanisms. Projection and conversion reaction have influenced my development and personality both positively and negatively.
References
Gorman, L. M., & Anwar, R. F. (2014). Neeb's Fundamentals of Mental Health Nursing (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
26 October 2016
By: Kathleen Sullivan
Mental Health
Ms. Fenlon
A defense mechanism is a coping skill learned to help deal with stress. Defense mechanisms can be beneficial and harmful to people. When defense mechanisms are used constantly to deal with stress the stress is not being evaluated by a person and can actually make a stressful situation worse. Facing stress head on and using defense mechanisms consciously can sometimes alleviate a stressful situation. Two defense mechanisms I find myself using sometimes are projection and conversion reaction.
The defense mechanism of projection is when a person has a feeling or impulse and gives those feelings to another person. When this happens the person …show more content…
who is being projected the feeling or impulse of another person never actually felt the feelings at all. This false projection of feelings is usually done when the projector thinks their feelings or impulses are considered to be unacceptable to their own values or unacceptable to the values of others. An example of this could be a new nursing student telling a friend “My parents are worried about me being able to keep up with school, work, and my bills during school,” when actually the new nursing student is the one that is worried.
Conversion reaction is when a person has physical symptoms that occur because of their high anxiety level.
Without the stress present in a person’s life, then the physical symptoms they experience probably wouldn’t exist. Some symptoms a person can experience are nausea, headaches, heartburn, exhaustion, or bowel irritability. Usually the symptoms disappear after the stressful situation is over. An example of conversion reaction could be when a person gets sick to their stomach the night before a presentation which leads to them missing work and the …show more content…
presentation.
Projection and conversion reaction are defense mechanisms planned by unconscious thought and help eliminate unpleasant feelings the body may be experiencing. Three circumstances where I find myself using projection and conversion reaction is when I feel threatened in a situation, overwhelmed, or have anxiety from a stressor. I felt a little threatened when I was going to Mexico and leaving the United States for the first time. I had no clue what it would be like outside of America and was going on a trip with my boyfriend (not my family). During that time I had told my boyfriend on multiple occasions leading up to the trip that my mother was worried about my safety traveling out of the country for the first time. This is an example of projection because I was the one that was actually scared and just wanted to be reassured about travel safety before the day we traveled to Mexico. In the same scenario I also used conversion reaction because I was so nervous about traveling to Mexico that I got really sick to my stomach before boarding the plane and we almost missed our flight to start our vacation. Once we landed though my bowel symptoms ceased and I had a great trip.
Since nursing school started this year I have had a serious feeling of being overwhelmed and it causes stress in my life.
Each week we have at least four exams with some weeks being seven and two papers due. There is also just so much information that is required for us to learn in such a short amount of time. I might use projection when talking to my family about an upcoming week with a lot of exams scheduled by telling them that one of my friends in class is nervous about the material on the exam because the teacher didn’t spend a lot of time going over the topic in class. I am actually the one that is concerned about the material and hope that I know what I need to know when it comes time for the exam. When I get overwhelmed in this situation I also use conversion reaction in this scenario because the stress of learning all of the material will cause me to have a harder time focusing on studying. The result of this might be that I wasn’t able to learn the material that I needed to learn for the exam because I just couldn’t focus. I also might use defense mechanisms when I have anxiety which a great example of having anxiety is sitting in anatomy and physiology. Mrs. Keough uses sticks to call on people that are all different colors. My name is on a blue stick so whenever she pulls out a blue stick my heart rate increases and I get really nervous that she will call on me and I won’t know the answer. I also know all of the other students names in class that have a blue
stick. Projection might be used when I am telling my family about how class was by saying no one likes sitting through anatomy class because the teacher calls on people randomly. I also might use conversion reaction when the stick is pulled and I am worrying about being called on more than I am being worried that I will learn the information on the exam. The result could be that I didn’t learn the material and the anxiety would be eliminated with the disappearance of the sticks.
Projection and conversion reaction defense mechanisms have influenced my personality and development both positively and negatively. On the more positive note projection allowed me to communicate my personal feelings to people and get true opinions from people without fear of offending my own feelings. This helped me in development because it allowed me to understand how other people think in different situations. My personality was influenced by projection because I was able to make my feelings be accepted to myself and develop my own morals in a way. Negatively projection influenced my development by not being true to my own feelings and accepting responsibility for how I feel. The personality aspect was influenced because I may not have used appropriate therapeutic techniques in communication. Instead of using “I feel... “ statements I may have came across as using accusatory statements to others. Conversion reaction has influenced my development positively by using planning ahead as a technique to limit stress. Instead of being stressed the night before for an exam I could have read ahead the week before and am even more prepared for an exam than before. My personality has been influenced by allowing me to recognize the seriousness in some situations and not taking some matters lightly. Negatively conversion reaction has influenced my development because I have missed out on some important events that could help me gain perspective in life. My personality has also been influenced negatively by causing me more stress in comparison to before I used the defense mechanism. Missing out on events has also made it hard for me to connect with other students on the level of sharing experiences, which in turn influences my personality negatively. The vital part with defense mechanisms is knowing they have been used too frequently and actually end up causing more stress than there was to begin with. I use both projection and conversion reaction and did not notice how frequently I used these defense mechanisms. Projection and conversion reaction have influenced my development and personality both positively and negatively.
References
Gorman, L. M., & Anwar, R. F. (2014). Neeb's Fundamentals of Mental Health Nursing (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.