What is Cognitive Defusion?
Do you have negative thoughts? Well, if you have a brain, then the answer is a resounding yes! It turns out we all have negative thoughts. A LOT of negative thoughts. In fact, research suggests that as many as 80% of our thoughts are negative. So why doesn’t everybody constantly struggle with depression and anxiety all the time? It’s because we can filter helpful thoughts from unhelpful ones in most situations. There are numerous CBT interventions to work with unhelpful thoughts. The most common are identifying CBT cognitive distortions and engaging in cognitive reappraisal.
What is Cognitive Fusion?
Sometimes though, we get stuck on a negative thought for whatever reason, even though it isn’t helpful. This is what the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy literature calls cognitive fusion.
Cognitive Fusion refers to the entanglement of thoughts with one's identity, where individuals become overly attached to and dominated by their thoughts, hindering psychological flexibility. When our thoughts tightly bind us, we experience cognitive fusion, making it challenging to detach from them. In this state, thoughts dictate our reality, preventing a distinction between ourselves and our mental narratives.
For example, if you have thoughts like “I’m unlovable” or “I’m ugly” (which most people have from time to time), and these thoughts cause you to delete your profile from a dating app despite yearning to be in a romantic relationship, that’s cognitive fusion.
What is Cognitive Defusion?
Cognitive defusion is the process of loosening the grip of thinking on identity, promoting psychological flexibility by creating distance from thoughts and fostering mindful observation. Cognitive defusion facilitates a more objective perspective on thoughts, empowering individuals to relate to their mental processes with greater openness and adaptability, key elements in achieving psychological flexibility.
Cognitive defusion in ACT is:
Encouraging an objective examination of thoughts instead of immersion in them.
Cultivating the skill to observe thoughts without becoming entangled.
Embracing a mindset that allows thoughts to naturally come and go, without the need to grasp or cling to them.
Rather than ruminating about a thought until you feel miserable or allowing one of these stray unhelpful thoughts to influence your behavior, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy teaches us cognitive defusion techniques to have the thought without becoming fused to it. Rather than trying to eliminate the thought (which is impossible) or fighting with the thought (which is itself miserable), the trick in cognitive defusion is to see the thought as merely a thought and let go of struggling with it. Cognitive defusion is often a central component in CBT for anxiety as well as CBT for Depression.
How Does Cognitive Defusion Work?
Cognitive defusion techniques derive from mindfulness practices designed to detach from the content of the mind. Rather than seeing the world through distorted or unhelpful thinking, defusion is about seeing the thoughts themselves. Watching the thoughts, not watching the world through the thoughts.
Cognitive defusion is similar to hearing a radio playing in the other room when you’re reading a book. If you’re engrossed in the book, you’ll definitely hear the radio, but you won’t be listening to it. That’s similar to the experience of defusing from a thought. You know it’s there. You haven’t gotten rid of it. But you don’t get hooked by it. You allow thoughts to come and go without being overwhelmed by them.
Defusion is really about changing our relationship to our thoughts by observing them rather than engaging them. According to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, it’s not the thoughts that are the problem; it’s what you do with them.
When we work with our therapy clients using Acceptance and Commitment therapy, we make use of metaphors to help people understand what cognitive defusion is. Here are some of the metaphors we might use in therapy:
Watching a river from the banks rather than being caught in the current.
Getting unhooked by a thought that has hooked you.
Noticing thoughts coming and going like noticing clouds drifting through the sky.
Cognitive Defusion Exercises
Notice It
When you notice you’ve been hooked by a thought, such as “That thing I said was so stupid,” unhook by taking a step back from the thought and say or think to yourself:
“I’m noticing a thought that what I said was stupid.”
Take another step back and think to yourself:
I’m noticing I’m just having a thought that what I said was stupid.”
Take an even further step back by thinking to yourself:
“I notice I’m having just another thought about being stupid,” or even further back with “I’m noticing I’m having just another judgment.”
The effect of this intervention can be likened to watching a 3D IMAX movie in the front row: It’s hard not to feel your heart pounding during action sequences. But when you move to the back of the theater and take off your 3D glasses, it’s not nearly as triggering or compelling.
Slow It Down
Using the same unhelpful thought from above, imagine hearing the thought on a record player that is about to stop. Slow down the thought until the words are just a series of sounds: “Thhhhhhhh – aaaaaaaaat thhhhhhhhhh-iiiiiiiiiii-nnnnnnnnnnnng Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ssssssssssss-aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid waaaaaaaaaaaaa-ssssssssssss sssssssssst-uuuuuuuuuuu-pppppppppppp-iiiiiiiiiiiiiid.”
Hard to read? It’s even harder to think. By slowing down the thought, you stop struggling not to have it and instead change how you’re thinking it, loosening your attachment to the content.
Sing It
To the tune of Happy Birthday or any other song-- the goofier, the better. Singing doesn’t get rid of the thought. Remember, that’s not possible. Singing the thought helps you change your relationship to it. You still have it, but it’s no longer in charge. You are.
Thank Your Mind
Whenever an unhelpful thought rears its head, rather than getting hooked by it or trying to suppress it, thank your mind for having the thought. After all, negative thoughts are there to help you avoid problems; they’re just not always terribly effective at it. “Thank you, mind!”
Goofy Voice
Imagine, or better yet, say the unhelpful thought in a goofy voice. See how seriously you take your mind when it’s jabbering on like Donald Duck or Bugs Bunny.
Smile at the Thought
Rather than spending all of your mental energy battling the thought, make peace with it by smiling at it but not engaging with it. You can use the half smile technique with this exercise.
Benefits of Cognitive Defusion
This technique can be used to help with numerous psychological problems. Cognitive defusion is found in CBT for social anxiety, CBT for self-esteem, and CBT for GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), to name a few. In our therapy practice, we have found that practicing these cognitive defusion skills regularly whenever we become fused to an unhelpful thought, eventually, we develop a profound understanding that thoughts are merely thoughts, not reality.
As we develop familiarity with this idea, we become more and more able to let unhelpful thoughts go, defusing from them when they arise, eventually no longer needing cognitive defusion techniques at all. By learning to see thoughts as thoughts rather than reasons to suffer, we shrug them off and get on with our lives. We are able to do what matters most, even when our thoughts tell us otherwise. In our therapy work, we find cognitive defusion most effective when combined with other cognitive behavioral therapy techniques.
Learn more: Cognitive Defusion in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
If you think you or someone you know would benefit from working with a professional using cognitive defusion or any of the other interventions from ACT or cognitive-behavioral therapy, click the links below to learn more or schedule a consultation.
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