One of the common reasons that leads people to a psychologist is a feeling of chronic fatigue, lack of vitality and strength, burnout. Often this is not related to physical activity, health or living conditions, which suggests other sources. Looking for the reasons for this state in your psyche is a very right decision. There really can be many black holes in the psyche that absorb human energy. It is vital energy that goes into patching them up. I would like to draw attention to such energy eaters as unconscious mental defenses. Mental protection is certainly necessary and necessary. It is mature mental defenses that make us well adapted to life. For example, repression allows us to keep our forbidden desires in the unconscious. You can imagine how much mental strength this work requires. Defenses are good when the psyche uses them at the right time, in the right place and in the right form. But an immature psyche is forced to use primitive defenses that require massive energy expenditure. This is a whole series of comprehensive primitive defense mechanisms built by the psyche, which once at the very beginning of our lives helped us mentally preserve ourselves. In adult life, they are sometimes ineffective and simply waste energy pointlessly. For example, denying something very painful. To avoid pain, the psyche does a huge unconscious job of denying these intolerable feelings. Mental defenses are unconscious. A person adapts and adapts to life and society, but does not realize what defenses he uses from unconscious desires, feelings, conflicts, and anxiety operating in the psyche. And if, to adapt, the psyche resorts mainly to primitive defenses and uses them for other purposes, then we have very little strength left for life. The good news is that it is possible to detect pathological mental defenses and change them, thereby regaining your vital energy, and with it the joy and taste of life.