An ego mechanism that results in activation of defensive operations to protect the ego from being overwhelmed by an excess of excitement. The anxiety reaction that was originally experienced in a traumatic situation is reproduced in an attenuated form, allowing defenses to be mobilized before the current threat becomes overwhelming.<\/p>\n
Attenuated anxiety that functions as an early warning system for the ego. It derives from the normal capacity to anticipate a potentially dangerous situation and react to it by deploying emergency defenses before it becomes intense. Signal anxiety may progress to a full-fledged anxiety attack or even to a panic state if the early warning is not heeded or if avail- able defenses prove insufficient. A situation becomes traumatic when the influx of stimuli is too great for the psyche to master or discharge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An ego mechanism that results in activation of defensive operations to protect the ego from being overwhelmed by an excess of excitement. The anxiety reaction that was originally experienced in a traumatic situation is reproduced in an attenuated form, allowing defenses to be mobilized before the current threat becomes overwhelming. Attenuated anxiety that functions as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-s"],"yoast_head":"\n