Education for the Family
Family Educational Resources from Willingway's Drug Addiction and Alcoholism Treatment Center
Defenses and their Role in Substance Abuse
Defenses are unconscious and automatic shields against a real or imagined threat to our self-esteem. These defenses block our getting close to others, as well as better understanding ourselves. Coming to recognize these blocks to self-discovery enable us to look behind them and discover feelings that would otherwise remain hidden. These defenses keep people at a distance and create the isolation and loneliness that is so much a part of many patient's lives.
Only by risking openness with others will we gain the insight necessary to change self-destructive behaviors and attitudes that prevent us from enjoying life to its fullest. If you're thinking about yourself or someone you love who may be struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction, do you recognize any of the following defensive behaviors?
• Agreeing - A way to get people to leave you alone
• Blaming or Accusing - Putting responsibility for your actions or feelings on another person or cause
• Complying - Conforming to someone’s wishes so they will leave you alone
• Denying - Refusal to accept something as true
• Evading - Avoiding answering directly or facing up to a fact
• Explaining - Giving reasons for, or why, in order to justify
• Generalizing - Being vague or indefinite to cover up something specific
• Intellectualizing - Being guided by intellect rather than by emotion or experience
• Justifying - Creating an acceptable reason for something that's been done
• Minimizing - Making something seem small and unimportant
• Projecting - Attributing your feelings to another person or thing
• Quibbling, Equivocation - Bickering to avoid committing to something
• Rationalizing - Providing plausible, but untrue, reasons for conduct or actions
• Silence - Not taking an active part and not expressing how you feel
• Switching - Shifting or changing topics from one subject to another
• Theorizing - Showing an acceptable or plausible reason why; supposing or speculating
• Threatening - Expressing an intention to harm or injure others so they won’t challenge or confront you
• Verbalizing - Expressing yourself in a wordy, empty way; talking without saying anything
• Withdrawing - Being unresponsive, not participating
Additional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Information
Be sure to visit the other resources available to you on this site, including the Signs of Addiction, Alcoholism Treatment, and Drug Addiction Treatment pages.
If you have a loved one at Willingway, please click here to login for more family information.