I talk a lot about denial because once denial of addiction has been conquered healing can take place. Denial is the biggest reason people do not give up addiction. Denial was first connoted by the man often called the father of psychiatry, Sigmund Freud. I actually looked up denial on Wikepedia which defines denial (also called abnegation) <as> “a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.”
What I really found interesting is that Wikepedia defines 3 types of denial:
- simple denial: deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether
- minimisation: admit the fact but deny its seriousness (a combination of denial and rationalization)
- projection: admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility by blaming somebody or something else.