Defense, Survival, Strategy
Life is like a battle ground. We are continuously fighting bacteria and viruses around our environment and when they invade our body our immune system wages war against them. That is how we physically defend ourselves.
Our mind is not different. We have a mechanism to protect us when our mind gets hurt. That is our psychological defense system. As a child when we meet adversities in life that are distressful we learn ways to cope with it. In this process of learning and building our defenses we may require strategies which may relieve our discomfort but inhibits learning. One very common strategy used in our childhood to avoid discomfort is to withdraw or disengage from the unpleasant events. Since learning occurs through exposure and engagement, decreased exposure will cause deficiencies in learning and those deficiencies will leave a gap in our defense system keeping us vulnerable to adverse events in life. The mind thus can be left unprotected. Alternatively we can also acquire a defense system which is less effective and cause us to lose battles.
When the mind is getting hurt, defense system needs to be revamped to institute more effective defense strategies which will keep our mind in better health and in a good functioning order.