What Is Denial and How Can You Stop It?
Having an idea of what denial is can help you to understand how it is treated. If you are wondering what to do about it, there are ways that you can work on it. One of the most effective ways to do this is to spend time with people who think differently than you are. Having a better understanding of how other people think can also help you to break out of the cycle of denial that you may have found yourself in.
Symptoms of denial
- Blaming others. It can be difficult for some to acknowledge negative feedback received from others and some do become defensive, as they feel attacked. However, blaming others without considering the feedback could be a denial response, that sometimes others point out the things we don’t want to see.
- Although rationalisations are a logical and health way of thinking, not everything can be rationalised.
- Comparing yourself to others is a negative mindset to have, it is true sometimes other have it better however you will never truly know if this is true because in the same way you may not disclose the deepest thoughts you have, others may not either.
- Denial is lying to yourself about situations, your own behaviours and experiences, telling yourself something different from what happened is how denial occurs
Options
The best way to combat denial might be to just acknowledge what you need to do. It’s not always easy to do, but you will be glad that you did. If you struggle to identify what has happened, it can help to speak to someone objective that is able to provide some insight you may not be seeing.
Another way of dealing with denial is to ask yourself if your friend was in the same situation or had the same behaviours and told her/himself the same things you’re saying, what would be your response? This enables you to be objective and see the situation differently.
