Defense Mechanisms

I think that I have a lot of repression which is when a person completely blocks a threatening idea or memory from their brain. Depending on the situation, I usually block the thing that is annoying me most from my mind so that I don't have to think about it. For example, with school, when I have a big test coming up in say Calculus, instead of stressing over the annoying test, I forget about it until the night or two days before and then on those days I take out my notes and study for the test. The worst thing, in my mind, is worrying about a test weeks in advance. Another example would be when say my sister takes likes my digital camera. Instead of starting a fight on the spot, I usually wait until I actually need it to get angry with her about forgetting the situation. In this case, I would say that nine out of ten times; my sister returns the camera thinking I didn't even know about and therefore we avoid the fight.

Another thing that I tend to do is rationalize things a lot. I tend to think that sometimes when I do things it isn't really bad or that it could be worse. For example, when I get a low grade on a test; instead of getting down, upset, and annoyed with the test/teacher; I would re-study the material on the test and tell myself that it was just a difficult test. In this case, I usually do much better on the next test because I have continually told myself that the first test was just hard and then I study harder for the second making it easier and allowing myself to get a better grade. It may not be the most effective way to think of things but sometimes reminding yourself that a situation could be worse helps you do better the next time. A lot of times I find annoying stuff happening to me-just the other day, I slipped on ice- but when I fell down and got back up; I thought to myself that it could have been worse. IT could have been worse if I wasn't able to get back up or had injured myself. This is why I tell myself that sometimes a situation could have been worse.