The concept of a defence mechanism

All of us, including anorexic, bulimic or obese individuals, need to control our external environment.  We need to control our internal environment (or psyche) too, but sometimes this is extremely difficult.  Perhaps we do not understand what we are feeling, or what has caused the feeling.   In order to create a balance in the psyche the individual copes with what s/he can manage best.  Most people will create balance in the external environment, or the world in which they live because this is easier to manage than the internal world of emotions.   For all of us, but certainly for eating disorders, if we feel out of control internally, we will try to compensate externally and this will manifest in our behaviour.  Behaviour, therefore, becomes the tapestry of the psyche and from it we can deduce what is happening on a deeper emotional level.  What you see on the outside is often not what the true picture is on the inside. That is, do not be deceived by what you visibly see!   The more out of control one feels, the more rigid the defense mechanism will become.  You cannot permanently change what is on the outside (i.e. behaviour) without working with what is on the inside.   That is, you need to understand emotions before you can change behaviour because emotions and feelings drive behaviour. 

The definition of a defense mechanism is:  

"A defense mechanism is an adjustment made, often unconsciously, either through action or the avoidance of action to keep from recognizing personal qualitiesor motives that might lower self-esteem or increaseanxiety".        (Hilgard & Atkinson, Introduction to Psychology, p 624)

The origin of a defense mechanism is always unconscious.  It is a psychological adjustment that our unconscious mind makes to assist us with life.   Often the adjustment occurs in the form of an action or the avoidance of an action.  This adjustment stops us from recognizing feelings, experiences and/or motives which would either make us feel better or worse about ourselves or which would increase our anxiety.

We all have defense mechanisms.  None of us can escape that.  The fact that we are unaware of the unconscious mind does not mean that it does not exist.  It is there, despite the fact that you are not always aware of it.  It is as if we live in the part of our minds that we are consciously aware of.  The part that we are unaware of is where we deposit our memories, feelings and experiences.  Sometimes we deposit them there because we do not want to know about them.  But, sometimes we are preoccupied with other thoughts or activities and do not have enough mind power to think about everything simultaneously.  The content of the unconscious mind always impacts on the conscious mind and the way that we keep the conscious mind separate from the unconscious mind is to create a barrier. This barrier consists of our defense mechanisms.   A few examples of defense mechanisms are denial, somatization, intellectualization, humour and acting out (i.e. in the form of behaviour such as rebellion, excessive exercise, food, etc). The defense mechanism of eating disorders is the excessive exercise, the food, the purging, etc.  This is their way of keeping what is in the unconscious mind from surging through to the conscious mind.

Defense mechanisms do not have to be intricate and they often manifest as basic behaviour. A common defense mechanism with students is "the tidy cupboard syndrome" during exam times.  Exercise can be a defense mechanism if it is used to avoid, say work.  I knew somebody who used to train everytime they were studying for an exam.  Everytime they were nervous, they would just go and put on their running shoes and run! 

Somatization is a very important defense mechanism for personal trainers to know about.  Somatization happens when someone presents his/her emotions into a physical form.  For example, the person who is constantly getting sore throats may be expressing a difficulty with communicating.  This may happen because the phsyical form may be more manageable than the emotional form of the experience.  Some people can only somatize because they cannot present their emotional life in any other way other.  A client who is constantly ill, or who manifests with many injuries may be somatizing.

Psychology looks at somatization as a mind-body split. Medical science often emphasizes the body to the exclusion of the mind and diseases such as Cancer, AIDS, etc are seen only as a physical problem.  More emphasis is now being given to the impact of the mind on the physical manifestation.  The mind and the body are not separate entities.  You are your mind, you are your body.  If you think about the body, you would not be able to see if you did not have eyes. You would not be able to drink water if you did not have a mouth and a hand to pick up a glass. Basically without our bodies we cannot actualize who we are.  This concept is particularly important for eating disorders which are all about distortions of body image and body experience.

How do individuals with eating disorders gain emotional control?  Even though you may be looking at the physical behaviour, such as excessive food, excessive exercise or bulimia, etc, what these individuals are trying to control is their emotions.  The anorexic controls her emotions by either not eating or by eating and then purging her food.  But she is not purging just because she wants to get rid of her food.  She is purging because she is trying to get control of something inside, something emotional.  She may also control her emotions through excessive exercise and compulsive behavioural patterns such as being obessively rigid about her routine, her clothes, her cupboards, etc.  The dynamic for this person is that she feels she has control over something that she can actually see or feel, that is, her body or exercise because she just cannot control or understand what is going on emotionally.

 

The bulimic, will eat, and then control the effects of over-eating by purging, fasting or over-exercising. Compensation is ongoing.  Compulisve behaviour is also part of the constant attempt to regain emotional balance, or equilibrium.  This may consist of behaviour such as hand washing, excessive exercise, tidiness, etc.  Being tidy and organized only becomes a disorder when it is so extreme that it interferes with one's life.   We all like to exercise, we all like to eat but it is how much we eat and what we do with it, how much exercise we do and how compulsive we are, that indicates the severity of the problem. For example, the severely compulsive person will be so busy tidying her cupboard that she may forget social engagements. 

The way that the obese person controls her emotions is simply to eat.  Eating in response to life is like a knee-jerk reaction for somebody who is obese.   When they have a problem, they just eat. They have never learnt to deal with the problem in another way.  They eat before they even realize what they have eaten and they usually only taste the first mouthful! 

The main point is that the issue for an individual with an eating disorder is never about food!  The emphasis is on the concept of symptoms versus causes.

The symptoms being the things that everybody sees, the low/high weight, the over exercise, the purging - that is the symptom which results from extreme behaviour.   The money market for eating disorders is always at the level of these symptoms. Very few programmes have the manpower or the desire to deal with the deeper causes because it is so expensive and so time intensive. 

People need to learn about optimum exercise and eating.  However, none of these behaviours will change without an individual having an understanding of the underlying issues - the psychological causes.

If you are working with specialist groups such as eating disorders, you will need to deal with them in a specialized way and will need the assistance of specialists. The input of the knowledge from this course will help you to work with the average person who needs basic education and information.  By the end of this lecture, you will know enough about the problem to enable you to identify who needs special care and how to refer to the appropriate professionals. Knowing your limitations does not minimize or undermine your role!  On the contrary, you will feel more confident and be more effective!

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