Course 3: PL 102 - Denial & Distractions (Discussion 3)

@GlenM

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

To me, denial means the unacceptance of an event. The nature of the experience plays a role as well eg: one could deny getting a good grade because they think they're not smart enough.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

I learnt that some actions outside the awareness are most probably learnt behaviour.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

I think wealth, social media and food. Wealth could be the most powerful because in today’s society everyone is running to get wealthier or to show off their wealth in some way or the other without ever checking in with themselves.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

~ Denial is a state in which a person tries to deny that there is a problem in their life that needs redressal because the problem feels too triggering and unmanageable emotionally.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

~ It is the fact that what operates outside of our awareness or the unconscious was deposited in our invisible backpack since our early childhood days till now. And that it tries to resurface at every opportunity. And that suppressing it has it's own pros and cons.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

~ For me the order would be :

(i) Online distractions, mainly social media

(ii) Food

(iii) Accomplishments

The most powerful distraction out of these is Accomplishments I would say, because Accomplishments are applauded and it seems to be a virtue or sign of success to the public eye. Accomplishments are appreciated and encouraged as something good, unlike the scenario with online distractions or food, which are known to be unhealthy for a fact.

How would you define denial in your own words?

Refusal to acknowledge something as true

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

It can be a behaviour that is learned and acquired

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Social media, electronics, essential needs like food and sleep

Electronics seems like it would have the biggest impact on lifestyle changes and how you interact with others

@GlenM

1. Denial is a defense mechanism that is useful sometimes to protect us but can be damaging if we stick there and not try to move on. The repressed feelings that we have, for example anger, turns into anxiety and we use defenses to cope, and be accepted by the social systems like family, friends and the society. We tend to avoid what is stressful and unpleasant and that's how denial is developed to help us manage those situations in our relationships but also generally.

2. Everything that we try to learn is something that our brain tries to adapt in and needs to process the information consciously. Once we have gained that knowledge, we start to move automatically and this comes out from our subconscious. This is also connected with the way that we try to behave. Instincts are in our subconscious and we need to accept the scary part of ourselves in order to not suppress these sides out of fear. Seeing these parts of ourselves as a threat causes anxiety. If we get to think and realize those sides, we can possibly overcome some of our fears and grow stronger. I find impressive how complicated the human brain is and that there are sides of ourselves that we may not even know.

3. The most powerful destructions are:

Food: Nowadays we have needs for food that is processed by food companies that make tests to create foods that cause us to eat more and more. This food is not covering the need for hunger but our need to feel good. It seems to work like a drug in our organism and has caused a big number of the population to become obese.

Online distractions: There are many pictures and information that capture our eye and our attention. The brain is not normally meant to process all this mass of information at such a short amount of time. We don’t find interesting things that used to like television and video games. This happens because people are comforted and have everything they need at the time that they need it because of the network.

Social media: There are pictures and ads that subconsciously push someone to overly consume by tracking their interests and sending the same message constantly.

I believe that the most powerful of the three is food and that’s because it’s one of our instincts and there is a biological dimension to this need that affects our brain directly. The fact that our ancestors’ eating habits affect our choices in food and the high percentage of it becoming an addiction makes it really destructive for the brain and damaging for the body when it becomes an addiction.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial is pushing away uncomfortable or unfamiliar thoughts, feelings, and situations. It is focusing on familiar and comfortable things, rather than facing and accepting the uncomfortable.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

Things that operate outside of awareness are usually learned. Once we learn something new, it moves to the unconscious, to make room for the next skill that we are going to learn.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

In my opinion, the top three distraction systems are: food, school, and social media. Out of these, I think the most powerful is social media since it can be very addictive. Although it can be helpful in many ways, I think the bad sometimes outweighs the good. It can cause people to obsess over how many likes/comments they’re getting and people tend to compare themselves to other people on social media.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial, in my opinion, is avoiding or not accepting the truth.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

That it takes time for that to happen. You have to, at first, concentrate and learn those skills, which can have it challenges. But once you have mastered it, then you can do it without a second thought.

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

Online distractions, food, and accomplishments. I feel that accomplishments are the most powerful distraction system. When you focus on what you can achieve, and what you have, it is much easier to deny/ignore all other problems you may be running away from.

@GlenM

1.How would you define denial in your own words?

denial means trying not to believe facts that you know are true deep inside, cause if you come to the terms of believing sth then you need to face it and as humans we don’t really want to face things that are not so sweet to us…

it’s somehow like having a car accident, getting out of the care taking your belongings and walking away to continue shopping or go seat in a restaurant, in that scenario you know inside that you have a problem but instead of taking that fact and trying to resolve the issue (waiting for police, etc) you are denying it and using shopping or eating as a distraction tho this won’t help you and at the end you need to go back for your car, leaving the accident site might even get you into a bigger problem

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

Human brain operates in a really awesome and superior way, putting things that you have already mastered to the unconscious mind to give you space to focus your consciousness on next biggest thing to master

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

for me personally it is internet and social media, just open tiktok, youtube or instagram and you can spend the next 4-5 hours watching videos personalized to make sure they will attract you…

in my family I have seen food and novels using as distraction systems as well

@GlenM

1.How would you define denial in your own words?

denial means trying not to believe facts that you know are true deep inside, cause if you come to the terms of believing sth then you need to face it and as humans we don’t really want to face things that are not so sweet to us…

it’s somehow like having a car accident, getting out of the care taking your belongings and walking away to continue shopping or go seat in a restaurant, in that scenario you know inside that you have a problem but instead of taking that fact and trying to resolve the issue (waiting for police, etc) you are denying it and using shopping or eating as a distraction tho this won’t help you and at the end you need to go back for your car, leaving the accident site might even get you into a bigger problem

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

Human brain operates in a really awesome and superior way, putting things that you have already mastered to the unconscious mind to give you space to focus your consciousness on next biggest thing to master

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

for me personally it is internet and social media, just open tiktok, youtube or instagram and you can spend the next 4-5 hours watching videos personalized to make sure they will attract you…

in my family I have seen food and novels using as distraction systems as well

@GlenM

1. Denial is a state in which you refuse to accept the truth, the facts, the reality either consioucly or unconsioucly.

2. That they can be learned.

3. Social media, Art and Family/friends. I think the most powerful is art. From my experience, art (in form of literature, films, music) can be the one to distract you the most because of positive inspiration it can have.

1. How would you define denial in your own words?

Denial, to me, is not readily accepting something that is happening to you or around you. It can be a person's choice to deny reality as a way to avoid an uncomfortable truth.

2. What is the most important thing you learned about things that operate outside of awareness or the unconscious?

It can be a learned behavior

3. What do you believe are the top 3 distraction systems? Which one of these is the most powerful and why?

#1 is mobile phones, #2 is the internet, #3 is unhealthy food. For me, all of them are very powerful.