Denial

Denial - Denial is the practice of believing or imagining that some painful or traumatic circumstance, event or memory does not exist or did not happen.

Most people find themselves in denial in everyday living situations, particularly in handling threatening situations, grief or loss. This is quite normal not to face reality - or pretend it does not exist, as one struggles to cope with difficult circumstances.

Non personality-disordered individuals (Non PD's) are prone to developing patterns of denial as they struggle to deal with the immense challenges they face in their relationship with a personality-disordered individual.

Denial is one of the one of the classic five stages of grief.

The 5 Stages of Grief - The 5 Stages of Grief - Denial, Bargaining, Anger, Depression and Acceptance - were first introduced by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross to describe a process which many people go through when dealing with a significant tragedy or loss.

Examples of Denial:

The following are examples of statements Non-PD's may use which may indicate they are in denial:

• "It's not that bad. Most of the time we're really happy."
• "She's rough on me but she really cares about the kids."
• "I feel like I have a connection with her like no other. "
• "She's had a hard life."
• "She's been working hard on our marriage lately"