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Forms of denial
Forms of denial survivors might use to stop themselves acknowledging their abuse and its impact are:
 Minimising - (or the other extreme, exaggerating): 'It wasn’t all that bad.' 'You won’t believe me if I told you the truth.' |
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Avoiding: 'I don’t want to talk about it.' - (due to fear, pain, guilt and/or shame.)
Feigning ignorance: 'I don’t know about that.' 'I don’t know what you are talking about.'
Forgetting: suppression
Blaming others: scapegoating - (releases a person from taking responsibility).
Rationalising or intellectualising.
To progress along the road to recovery it is important to identify, acknowledge and address the various forms of denial which we have learnt to use.
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