#Anxiety #DefenseMechanisms We all have thoughts, feelings, impulses and memories that can be difficult to deal with. In some cases, people deal with such feelings by utilizing what are known as defense mechanisms. These defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological responses that protect people from feelings of anxiety, threats to self esteem, and things that they don't want to think about or deal with.1 The term got its start in psychoanalytic therapy, but it has slowly worked its way into the parlance of everyday language. Think of the last time you referred to someone as being "in denial" or accused someone of "rationalizing." Both of these examples refer to a type of defense mechanism. So What Exactly Is a Defense Mechanism? Most notably used by Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to protect against anxiety. 2 Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind against