As a retired psychologist, and a passionate UM fan, I thought I'd pass on a couple defense mechanisms I use to reduce my pain with a significant loss. The first I call "temporary detachment", which essentially means caring less or putting things into perspective. My thinking goes something like this: in the total scope of things, what really does it matter how a collection of 20 year old kids perform over 3 to 4 hours on a Saturday. I personally need to think this way only for 1 day, as the next day the pain seems to subside on its own. Also, I use this defense briefly as I want to care a lot over the long run. A second defense mechanism is used before the game, and it involves going into a game with very low expectations. Research has shown that the angst is much greater when high expectations are not met.
Reducing angst
- Thread starter grpsych
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