JULY 2024 NEWSLETTER: Thought Defusion: Changing Your Relationship with Problematic Thoughts

What is thought defusion?

Thought defusion is a major concept used in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a type of therapy which aims to help people accept their negative thoughts, emotions, and experiences while helping them move towards their unique values and goals. To understand thought diffusion, we first must understand its opposite, thought fusion. Thought fusion is when thoughts, whether they are true or not, become so real to us that they become a part of us, and begin to influence how we experience our world. This can be especially problematic when the thought is negative or distorted; for example, “I am worthless” or “I am hard to love.” Cognitive defusion then, is the process of loosening the grip of these thoughts on our identity and creating some distance between ourselves and the thought. The idea isn’t to dismiss the thoughts completely, but rather to observe them more objectively, notice them rather than become caught up in them, and to let them come and go rather than holding onto them as absolute truths.

How and why does thought defusion work?

Try holding your hand up against your eyes. Your hand is all you see, right? Now, extend that hand out at arm’s length from your eyes. You still see your hand, right? But, you also see the world around it. In this exercise, your hand acts as a thought. When it’s against your eyes, it is fused to you, but when you pull it away, or defuse it from you, although you can still see it, you also see the bigger picture, and the thought probably doesn’t feel as all-important. Now, you might be able to work with this thought. This is how thought defusion works! 

Cognitive defusion can help us get a better understanding on how our thoughts affect us by making them less all-encompassing. It gives us a chance to look at them and decide for ourselves whether they are true or not. It gives us the agency and ability to let go of negative thoughts if they aren’t serving our well-being. This can be immensely helpful when dealing with thoughts related to anxiety or depression.

Techniques to Defuse Your Thoughts

There are many ways of defusing thoughts. Here are 6 techniques to help get you started. 

Thought Naming	Naming thoughts is the simplest form of thought defusion. It means you notice you’re having an unpleasant thought (“I’m terrible at everything”) and you name it (“That’s harsh self-criticism”). Then stop reacting to it and just let it go as it is, just as a thought. No more, no less.
Bubbling Thoughts	This can be a second step to thought naming, but it can be used on its own, too. When you notice an unpleasant thought, imagine a word bubble like the kind that words in a comic strip are placed inside. Then, put your thought in that word bubble. Finally, let it float away and disappear, taking the unpleasant thought with it.
Deleting Thoughts	If your thoughts fill up your mind, like too many open tabs on a computer browser, try deleting them. This means trying to think of the thought like a browser tab and you’re clicking on the “X” to close it. Then the thought disappears!
Saying Thank You for the Thought	Another approach to take when an unpleasant thought intrudes is to say “thank you” to your mind for it. Simply put, say something like, “Thank you for that thought, brain,” and follow that up with, “But I’ll be ignoring it today,” or something similar to dismiss the thought.
Repeating the Thought in your Silliest Voice	In this technique, repeat an intruding unpleasant thought over and over, either to yourself or aloud, in the silliest, most ridiculous voice you can imagine. Keep doing this until that thought becomes less and less serious to you!

References

https://www.choosingtherapy.com/cognitive-defusion

https://cogbtherapy.com/cbt-blog/cognitive-defusion-techniques-and-exercises

https://www.highfocuscenters.com/what-is-cognitive-defusion/

https://thepsychologygroup.com/defusion/

https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheet/thought-defusion-techniques

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy

If you would like to work on improving your relationship with your problematic thoughts, contact our office to help you schedule an appointment with one of our therapists.