Dr Nisha Khanna is a leading psychologist in Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon in the NCR region, and across India, who helps people explore defense mechanisms to reduce anxiety through counselling. Her mechanisms to reduce anxiety include the initial grounding technique of Anxiety 5-4-3-2-1 plus other strategies. Dr Nisha Khanna, an anxiety doctor near me, uses various counselling techniques to help people treat anxiety. Her methods include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), Exposure Therapy, Relaxation Techniques, and Psychodynamic Therapy to reduce anxiety and its related concerns.

The unconscious techniques widely used to prevent a person from reducing anxiety are known as Defense Mechanisms. Repeated Ego Defenses may hinder a person’s ability to manage feelings.

In the psychoanalytic proposition, any group of internal processes enables the mind to bargain with unresolved conflicts to conceal from internal drives or passions that hang at a lower level of regard or provoke anxiety. It first arose from the work of Sigmund Freud. His daughter, Anna Freud (1936), later enumerated 10 of these. To avoid uncomfortable passions, feelings and anxiety, people use these defense mechanisms.

Denial involves disregarding admitting a threatening situation to cover themselves from inviting fear or anxiety. It is a Defense mechanism that manages distressing passions by disowning reality. Denial principally replaces the stressor or anxious feeling with some fictional fantasies. The
Denial Mechanism can be positive in situations beyond one’s control, where staying hopeful can help cope with serious illness. Whereas denial can stop a person from dealing with what bears their attention, it may be easier to ignore the bad habits of ordinary drinking than to hew to alcohol.
Anxiety doctor near me, like Dr Khanna, helps people to deal with such concerns.

Suppression removes disagreeable events from conscious memory by allowing the person to block uncomfortable passions, feelings, and impulses while remaining unaware that they are doing so. It is a picky forgetting to stop mindfulness of unwanted studies or recollections. Suppression means consciously pushing or ignoring emotions to reduce anxiety.

These repressed notions have been recurring themes in dreams and slips of the tongue. People repress their unexplained phobias that stem from traumatic events. Repression is familiar with suppression, which involves consciously avoiding passion and eagerly trying to forget it.

Projection occurs when we project inferior images of ourselves onto others. It involves attributing unwanted passions, motives, and studies to another person. A man who feels insecure about his manliness mocks other men for acting like women. One can face and overcome a protuberance by reflecting on tone and being honest with oneself about what makes one insecure and anxious.

Displacement is another defense mechanism to reduce anxiety that directs your passions toward a cover target rather than the real one. While replying to the source, our mind’s senses can be vigorous and dangerous. So, a person projects their superior person frustration onto a family member or someone involved in cross-burnings. Dr Khanna, as an anxiety doctor near me, observed that it’s common in families.

Reaction Formation is a cerebral defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously replaces a thought with its opposite, often expressed in an exaggerated or showy manner. A boy subconsciously is attracted to a girl. Still, he cannot face the reality of his romantic feelings, so he bullies her rather than showing appreciation or expressing his dislike. Dr Khanna, the anxiety doctor near me, shares that in relationships, people mostly use this mechanism.

Rationalisation occurs when one tries to make up respectable defenses for an inferior gesture. When one finds it challenging to accept, make up logical arguments. Explain God’s will as a reason for a natural disaster.

Another defense mechanism proposed by Anna Freud was Regression to reduce anxiety. In response to a stressful situation, a person’s act-out behaviours are rooted in an earlier developmental stage. For example, a child may begin to wet the bed after spending time at the dentist’s. Dr Nisha, the anxiety doctor near me, shares this with clients about how we deal with our anxieties in routine.

Identification is another Defense mechanism in which one tries to find someone different to deal with anxiety, or develops a behavioural pattern by observing others, admiring a hero, and trying to copy their life. Dr Nisha, anxiety doctor near me, highlights this beautifully during a counselling session.

Compensation occurs when one tries to compensate for areas demanded by getting superior in other areas. It’s said to pay for a real or imagined insufficiency with a specific gesture. A person with limited means may direct their investment into achieving more than what’s enough at work.
Dr Nisha, anxiety doctor near me, explains how people use these concepts in daily life.

Sublimation is turning socially inferior gestures or urges into respectable ones. Despite avoiding and denying emotions, sublimation involves channelling them into more constructive ones. For example, a very aggressive person may come as a mixed martial arts fighter. Dr Khanna, the anxiety doctor near me, thoroughly explained this.

Dissociation is a defense mechanism used to deal with excessive stress and reduce anxiety by emotionally blocking the pain to survive disturbing experiences. It’s mostly a result of traumatic events. Someone is shouting and using numbness as a technique, and shutting down is an example of dissociation. A psychologist like Dr Khanna, an anxiety doctor near me, can guide us about the same.

Introjection is a mechanism by which a person unconsciously adopts the positive or negative traits of people they like as part of their own personality. Take a stand against bullying, as you observed your sibling in childhood doing the same, or holding the hand of younger ones while crossing the road, as you watched your parents do so. Dr Khanna, the anxiety doctor near me, points this out during a counselling session.

Research indicates that maladaptive behaviour reflects an immature defense mechanism, whereas a balanced personality establishes a mature, conforming defense mechanism to reduce anxiety. Counselling or talk therapy, stress management, and medication help treat dysfunctional defense mechanisms used by Dr Khanna, an anxiety doctor near me.

Dr Nisha Khanna is a qualified psychologist. She is a senior consultant – counselling psychologist and anxiety doctor near me in Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon, in the NCR region and India, who provides online and face-to-face counselling for anxiety treatment. For details, visit Dr Nisha Khanna or call us at +91-9818211474