If you admit you are in denial, does that mean you are not?

Question

Being in denial is not accepting the reality of something, but by admitting you are in denial means you accept the reality you are trying to deny to be true, so surely you couldn't be in denial of it...

I suppose it's similiar to not being able to admit that you are insane... if you were, you wouldn't be able to admit it.

Answer 1

I think a person can be in denial but still see that they are.

Our thought processes go back & forth, that's the thing.

For instance, a person can be an alcoholic-- know they are an alcoholic-- and in their sober moments feel very regretful-- but still slip back into those patterns and habits that they wish to overcome.

The same thing is true when we act as though something hasn't really happened when we know it has. We have to rest ourselves from the pain of the full knowledge of that painful thought... hence we are in denial. But we still have more lucid moments when we realize that's what we are doing.

I♥♫→mia☼☺†

Answer 2

If someone admits to have been in denial (funny expression anyway; I can't think of a, say, French equivalent), then the denial ends with that.

However, insanity is much more complex than that. People can be seriously troubled and know that, or be seriously troubled and think they are not even human! It depends on what the problem is, how advanced it is and many, many other things.

Answer 3

I agree with the guy above me that it has to do with your level of sincerity.

It's possible to admit that you are in denial without actually believing it. For example, if someone tells you that you're in denial, you might agree with them just to get them to shut up. That doesn't really mean that you believe it or recognize it as a true statement.

However, once you come to the personal conclusion that you are in denial, I don't think that it's possible to simultaneously not be in denial. Being in denial means that you are denying that something is true. If you recognize the fact that you are denying that something is true, you are by default recognizing the truth in whatever it is you are denying. Once you recognize that truth, it's impossible to be in denial about its validity.

Answer 4

Are you and denial different?
Or is denial an aspect of your nature?
You either have, 'You' and denial or 'You' has denial in its nature. Arnt there things that you dont want to see as they are?
Death comes to mind.
But if denial is part of me as a fact how can i act upon it really?
It is not a case for acceptance nor denial, simple to observe resistence in oneself, which is denial.
So what happens if you admit you are denial?

Answer 5

Depends on the sincerity of the admittance.

AA has the first step...We admitted we are powerless over alcohol and that our lives have become unmanagable.

Thats admitting we were in denial, hence to inability to acknowledge the first step...Ah, to work the first step, Ah, To DO the first step...see its the level of sincerity in such an admittance.

Theres admitting and theres GNOWING. You can admit and still be fooling your self but once you GNOW, theres no more denial. If fact denial becomes impossible...

Answer 6

Not necessarily. I know that I have recognized my own denial in situations, flat-out admitted it, and gone back to being in denial as though none of that happened. I can't really explain it. Maybe I'm crazy...

Answer 7

Hey dude, your user name reminds me of a long ago good oriental friend I used to have back in the mid 90's. I wonder if you're that person. Now to answer your question, surely being in denial basically means you're lying to yourself of all reality. To me lying to yourself just seems so ironny and almost impossible unless you mentally trained yourself that you are a winner no matter what situation you're in. Yet your being ignorant of certain things obviously contradicts your belief of yourself being a winner no matter what situation you're are in or at. But that's not ironny in this case because you did not lied to yourself. But on the other hand your close friends or partner know who you are and everything about you, to me, this seems like you are in fact lying to yourself. It almost seems as if denial has to involve two parties to make this argument sound. This is always the case if you include religion and beliefs in the argument. On your last statement, it seems as if for instance you or I are insane, only the most virtue person can correctly identify himself as being insane if as the matter of fact that person in other to convince himself that he is insane that he has been diagnost as being insane by a qualified personel. What I am getting at is that we can't really know whether we're insane or not until we see that we had done something that qualified us as being insane. So the question is are we really in total denial if we are in fact ignorant of the fact that we are correctly insane. But on the other, if we did know that we are in fact insane and in the mean time we refuse to acknowledge it, which is down right insane, then I can agree to you that we are in fact lying to ourselves and others and that we are in total denial. In this last statement, I am convinced that if we did do something insane, by being virtuous, that we admit we were insane when we realized what we had done was insane, then "yes" we are no longer in denial by admitting to God ourselves and others that we did something insane. Good enough, yes?

Answer 8

You are half way there to seeing your denial,by admitting it, but at the end of the day it is up to the individual wether or not they are in denial.

Answer 9

Denial is an unconscious phenomenon (outside one's awareness). Therefore, one cannot admit denial while in a state of denial.

Answer 10

Admitting to denial is
1-a cry for help/a step to recovery
2-an excuse to continue being in denial

It depends if the glass is half empty or half full.