Bipolar Mania defense mechanisms

CharlieRN · Mar 27, 2006

I need to identify the defense mechanism most used by patients with bipolar mania, and I'm having a hard time. If I was doing this for PSTD I could easily see how the defense mechanism may be repression, regression, isolation, or suppression, but I can't figure out how any of the defense mechanisms can be applied to manic individuals in general. Maybe for those who have experience with these patients, a certain defense mecahnism comes right to mind. ??? Thanks in advance for your help.

easy one. Denial. Manic patients tend to like being manic and while manic they may refuse to see anything wrong with their behavior. It is the depressive phase of Bipolar that tends to be uncomfortable. Itis only after manic episodes have made havoc of their lives that they see them as a problem. Even then they will have a hard time seeing it when they are manic.

nicuRN2007 · Mar 28, 2006

Thank you so much!

CharlieRN · Apr 5, 2006

Scrubs,

Denial is almost always the first defense mechanism any of us use when faced with the intolerable. Its the, "no this isn't happening" response. If it does not work the dysfunctional person finds someting more complicated. The healthy person faces the problem and either tries to solve it or adapt to the new reality. Most of us are somewhere between the extreams.

KR · Apr 18, 2006

Let's not forget anger, as one of the common defense mechanisms.

CharlieRN · Apr 21, 2006

Let's not forget anger, as one of the common defense mechanisms.

Yep. I comes right after Denial. "No! This is not happening to me!" followed by "Oh, sh*t! Yes it is happening to me and I'm P*ssed"