Defense mechanisms are the body's natural anxiety-reducing response to any threatening circumstance(s) or feeling(s). Many alcoholics and drug users rationalize, justify, or deny their actions to other people, making it necessary for the counselor to identify these mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are different in terms of how primitive they are, however, their roots are similar since all of them unconsciously twist reality for the individual. Common defense mechanisms are:

1. Repression - in order to avoid hurtful feelings, improper impulses, wishes, and thoughts are detached involuntarily from the consciousness
2. Regression - the individual mentally goes back in time to a life stage where he/or she was happy, stable, and worry free)
3. Fixation - the individual needs to grow through the five stages of sexual development in order to reach maturity, yet he/or she becomes fixed at one stage because of either over-gratification or under-gratification of a particular need
4. Reaction formation - the individual responds to an impulse that causes stress and worry by acting out in the exact opposite manner. An example of this would be a person who wishes to use drugs and responds to this wish by heading an anti-drug campaign
5. Denial - the individual refuses to acknowledge the presence of a stress or worry in his/or her life
6. Projection - the individual blames the world for his/or her undesirable id-impulses
7. Introjection - the individual reflects the thoughts and behaviors of others unto himself/or herself
8. Intellectualization - the individual tries to focus on the "intellectual aspects" of a situation instead of letting himself/or herself feel (possibly upsetting) emotions
9. Rationalization - the individual attempts to come up with a logical or rational reason for something instead of the "real" reason
10. Displacement - the person "takes out" his/or her impulses on someone/something that is perceived as less threatening
11. Sublimation - the individual acts out his/or her unacceptable behaviors in a way that is socially acceptable
12. Undoing- the individual attempts to "take back" an unintentional behavior or comment that was hurtful to someone