Defusion
Defusion, or 'Cognitive Defusion', is the ability to step back from thoughts to notice the process of thinking (rather than being lost in the content of thoughts). It is an important step in taking thoughts less literally, and be more flexible in thinking.
Defusion from ACT
From an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) perspective, Defusion is considered one of six core processes that helps us think and behave flexibly.
Defusion is the ability to step back from our thoughts, feelings and urges (rather than getting lost in them). It is a key evidence-based process. Here is an ACT informed Defusion exercise to try.
Defusion mindfulness: Noticing and Naming
Defusion is one of ACTs mindfulness based processes. Therefore it has a large cross over with other mindfulness practices. Two key mindfulness practices that help us understand and learn defusion are noticing / observing, and naming / describing.
To find out more, and to try out some practices, of noticing and naming, and observing and describing, go here.
Know your thinking habits
Thinking habits are something it helps to know about, and to be able to defuse from.
It’s helpful to think about the past and future, use mental shortcuts, and analyse problems. But when these processes get out of hand, they can become unhelpful. Noticing and naming our thinking habits can help. The first step is awareness—being able to name broad thinking patterns. By grouping thoughts into “genres,” we can step out of the endless stream of content and notice the process of thinking. This gives us more choice in what we do next, before thoughts start to overly influence our emotions and actions. By noticing what the mind is doing, and staying open to thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, less helpful thoughts may have less impact. Below is a list of common thinking styles. These are sometimes called “automatic thoughts” or “cognitive biases.” They’re automatic because they show up frequently and can run in the background. They’re biases because they can colour how we see ourselves and the world. These patterns aren’t wrong, but if we get caught up in them without awareness, they can start to shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions in unhelpful ways.
As you read through the list below, ask yourself: How often do I experience this kind of thinking? How caught up do I get in these kinds of thoughts?
Ruminating on the past: Not being present because you are reviewing the past.
Thinking about the future: Not being present because you are focusing on the future. In anxiety this can include 'what if...?' thinking, anticipating problems.
Analysing / problem solving: Spending a lot of time lost in thinking about how to figure out issues.
Mind reading: Imagining we know what other people are thinking, or getting caught up wondering what other people are thinking.
Fortune telling: Trying to predict, or thinking we know, how the future is going to turn out.
Catastrophising: Jumping to catastrophic interpretations when something unexpected or unwanted occurs, or making disastrous predictions about how things are going or how they might turn out.
Evaluative thinking: A habit of judging things, or ourselves, in terms of being good enough, or not. Of meeting certain standards (often self-imposed) or not.
All or nothing thinking: Also known as Dichotomous, or ‘Black and White’ thinking. Things are either all right or all wrong. This is very common in perfectionism.
Shoulding & musting: Always thinking, or saying “I should, I shouldn’t, I must, I have to, I can’t…”
Personalisation: Taking all the blame, when other people, or factors, might have played a part.
Over-generalising: Something goes wrong, so we start thinking that everything goes wrong all the time.
Magnification: Magnifying the things that go wrong or things we think are wrong about ourselves.
Minimisation: Making anything that goes well, or successes we have, smaller by thinking or saying “it was easy”, or “anyone could have done it”. Not giving ourselves any credit for some of the good things we do.
Mental filter: Only seeing evidence that fits with the idea we aren’t good enough. Not letting in other information.
Disqualifying the positive: Thinking positive events are down to chance, not our efforts.
Labelling / judging: Telling ourselves “I’m … [ugly / stupid / lazy / disorganised / boring / pathetic / slow…. etc]”. Usually these judgments and labels aren’t nice. However getting caught up telling ourselves “I’m … [amazing / incredible / fantastic / perfect … etc]” can also cause problems.
Emotional reasoning: This thinking style is about getting caught up in emotions and looking through the logic of emotions. For example, being angry about something that happened at work, and that anger influencing what we are thinking about our friends or family or partner. Or thinking something bad is about to happen because we are feeling nervous.
Now you have taken the time to read through this list, take note of the common thinking styles that come up for you. Choose one at a time, and spend a day noticing and naming it when it comes up. Remember, we all experience these kinds of thoughts, and it isn’t about getting rid of them. It’s about getting better at noticing them, and 'defusing' from them, so you can see them earlier, and not get so get caught up in them throughout the day.
If they continue to be issues for you, other processes may help, including acceptance, reappraisal, emotion regulation, and problem solving.
Milk: A defusion experience
Like many things in therapy, experience can be the best way to understand things. This milk exercise is a fun and interesting way to understand defusuion.
One way that defusion has been explained, and expereinced, is that it 'deliteralises' language. What doe sthat mean? Defusion can help to make words less 'literal', and therefore less able to trigger old memories and associations. Thhis can be a helpful thing sometimes, especially when certain words and thoughts trigger old, and unhelpful, reactions.
To do this exercise, simply repeat the word mild, quickly, as many times as you need to before it starts to sound very odd, funny, or weird to you. When you get there, you will have had a brief expereince of what it means to defuse from, and deliteralise, language.
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For a video about this, go here:
If you try the additional exercise in this video, focused on defusing from more difficult thoughts, I recommend starting with thoughts that are not the most difficult thoughts you tend to have. Instead, in the beginning, choose thoughts that are a bit challenging for you, not the most challenging.
