Why pushing away bad thoughts can be constructive

Clearing the mind of anxious thoughts, rather than processing them, can sometimes be good for our mental health. This is evident from British research.In the late 1980s, scientists discovered something unexpected: People who were first asked not to think about white bears, and later asked to think about them, had more thoughts about white bears than people who were only asked to think about white bears. This led to the belief that blocking unwanted thoughts ironically makes them come back more often. As a result, some forms of therapy aim to improve mental health by recalling difficult experiences from memory and exploring them, rather than suppressing them. Now cognitive scientists Zulkayda Mamat and Michael Anderson from the University of Cambridge have discovered that some forms of thought suppression can actually be useful. They describe their results in the scientific journal Science Advances.

Empty space

“If you avoid a thought by doing something else or thinking about something else, yes, you tend to keep coming back to that thought,” says Mamat. “But we found that suppressing thoughts by making sure your mind is thought-free – for example by imagining an empty space, or imagining pushing that thought out of your mind – can be beneficial.”
The researchers recruited 120 subjects. They asked them to imagine future scenarios that could happen in their lives over the next two years. The participants were not asked whether they had been diagnosed with a mental illness, but the surveys they took did reveal some symptoms of one.

Negative scenarios

Each participant came up with 20 negative scenarios they were afraid of, such as losing a loved one, and 36 neutral scenarios, such as hanging out the laundry. For each scenario, participants had to provide a code word that could be used to evoke the thought.
In Zoom, Mamat and Anderson trained 61 of the participants to suppress negative thoughts and 59 of them to suppress neutral thoughts. They did this for 20 minutes a day for three days. During each training session, the researchers showed participants the code word to evoke a thought about a scenario. They then asked to block thoughts of the event. Then they presented a new code word.
Immediately after the last training session, 90 percent of people who suppressed fears reported that the imagined events had become less vivid in their minds. About 75 percent of those who suppressed neutral thoughts reported the same.

PTSD

Participants also self-reported the extent to which they had symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety, in pre- and post-training surveys. Among participants who scored high on PTSD symptoms before training, those who suppressed negative thoughts had a 16 percent decrease in the severity of their symptoms after training. Those who suppressed neutral thoughts saw a decrease of only 5 percent.
Even among people who reported symptoms of depression before the training, suppressing negative thoughts reduced their scores more than suppressing neutral symptoms.
The studies also found that people believed that suppressing negative thoughts, but not neutral thoughts, improved their well-being. The beneficial effects on mental health measurements persisted up to three months after training.

Paradoxical effects

Even if the results are confirmed in larger studies, suppressing some thoughts could still be harmful, Mamat says. 'There are thoughts that you have to think about, that you have to process and that you have to deal with. But there are also thoughts about the future that you can't do anything about, and it might help to suppress them.'
“The idea that attempts to suppress negative thoughts have paradoxical and detrimental effects is quite common among researchers, clinicians and the general public,” says psychiatric researcher Isaac Fradkin of University College London. “This study convincingly contradicts this.”

What this means in your daily life?

The initial step towards having a more positive self-talk is to recognize the negative self-talk habits you may have. Take note of when you are being self-critical or putting yourself down, and observe how it affects your mood and behavior. Identify if there are certain situations or people that trigger negativity within you and think about what you can do to change the conversation.

It’s not you, it’s your brain

First, the important thing to realize is that we are pre-programmed to think negatively. Our reaction to people and situations is usually based on our brain  processing incomplete information. We can’t read minds or accurately predict the future, but our brain sure likes to fill in the blanks. And usually, it is with tabloid-grade fiction.Do you ever notice that no matter how much someone may compliment your work, it can only take one piece of criticism to totally make you down on yourself? Another way our brain tricks us is that it filters out the positive information, leaving us to only focus on the negative. This is part of that filtering process in your brain that is gaslighting you into thinking that you are going to get fired.By detaching your being from your brain, you are recognizing that you are not your thoughts. The act of dissociating ourselves from the deceptive thoughts in our brains  is the first step towards overcoming these automatic negative thoughts.The next step is identifying the common types of negative thoughts, so we can recognize and take steps to separate ourselves from them. 

There are 7 types of these “automatic” negative thoughts that come like a knee-jerk reaction to situations: 

1. Assuming In some regards, we have to make assumptions to live our lives. If someone puts a call on our calendar at 9am, we assume, without needing further confirmation, that this person will be there. Or, we assume if we leave our house during rush hour there will be a lot of traffic, so we should give ourselves extra times. Those assumptions are fine – it is the assumptions we make  about other people’s opinions of us that really are the lying enemies we need to confront. This person didn’t email me back, they must not like me. My boss didn’t like my awesome idea for a product – he has it in for me. My significant other seems preoccupied – it definitely is something I did. 
2. Should musts and oughts These thoughts are the insane demands we make upon ourselves and other people in our relentless pursuit of perfection. That saying only belongs in a Lexus ad. Thoughts like, I must lose 10 pounds immediately. My kid should be getting an A in every class. My co-worker ought to have double-checked the calculation before sending it to the client.
3. Fairy tale fantasy Where we have a certain vision of how our lives should be and what things we should have, and anything short of that is unfair. Especially when we see other people who have those things and compare ourselves.  Like, why am I not Kate Middleton?
4. People pleasing This kind of thought generates from the primal desire that we all have to seek validation. Validation makes us feel safe. Any senses of insecurity in relationships usually comes from a lack of validation we are seeing from the other person. The irony is even if that person tells us we are fantastic all the time, that primal need for validation is insatiable, and we will feel insecure anyway.
5. Overgeneralizing Very similar to assuming, but this is when we take a conclusion based on one event and make that an across the board truth. Like, I messed up a presentation, therefore I suck at my job. I struggled during my morning run – I am so out of shape Or, everything is always your fault. Or, someone else is always to blame. This is a common pattern that people with a victim complex often fall into. 
6. Polarizing A close cousin of overgeneralizing is polarized thinking. These are black and white, all-or-nothing type of thoughts. Someone is either for you or against you. You are either first or you’re last . I call this the “Ricky Bobby thinking”
7. Catastrophizing Worst case scenario; you get some abnormal medical test results back, and you are convinced that the doctor will tell you have cancer during your follow-up visit that you have cancer. Or if you don’t nail that job interview, your entire career will be over and you will be slinging fries at the local burger joint. Or believing that just because a plane recently crashed, now you can’t get on a plane. 

Some practical ways to deal with negative self-talk

• Once you have identified your negative self-talk patterns, try to challenge them. Ask yourself questions such as “Is this thought true?” or “What evidence do I have to support this thought?”
• Instead of dwelling on negative self-talk, try to reframe your thoughts in a more positive manner. For example, instead of saying “I can’t do this,” say “I haven’t figured it out yet, but I’m capable of learning and improving.”
• Be kind and compassionate to yourself, just as you would be to a good friend. Recognize your strengths and accomplishments, and acknowledge the progress that you have made. Celebrate all of your wins, no matter how small they may seem.
• Use positive affirmations to shift your mindset towards more positive self-talk. Write down and repeat statements such as “I am capable and deserving of success” or “I am strong and resilient” to yourself regularly.
• Surround yourself with positive people and influences that support your growth and well-being. This can help you reinforce positive self-talk and cultivate a more positive outlook on life. Remember, you are capable of adopting a more positive self-talk and mindset with practice and patience.

More cognitive behavioral strategies to transform your inner dialogue

Here are the steps can learn through cognitive behavioral therapy to deal with these automatic thoughts. Generally, the resources have similar themes, and give a series of steps to deal with the thoughts. 

1. Label. By identifying the thought and giving it a name, i.e., catastrophizing, you are taking away its power. By doing so, it’s easier to distance yourself from the thought and recognize that this thought is probably not based in reality. Sometimes I even personify it, to highlight its ridiculousness. “There’s that catastrophizer again!”
2. Challenge First, ask yourself what core belief is captured by the thought you just labeled. Let’s go back to the example I gave earlier – you believe, based on what negative piece of feedback, that you are getting fired. The second step is to challenge this by asking, “What evidence do I have that this is true?” Usually, the evidence is pretty pathetic.  As a lawyer, I like to ask a third question – “Would my case get thrown out of court?” The answer is usually yes. 
3. Redirect – Where focus goes, energy flows. What you focus on and your pattern of focus, shape your whole life.” Refocus your thoughts in the direction of gratitude. For example, if you are upset with a co-worker who is perpetually late, try to focus on their good qualities, like how they always help you on your assignments even if that means they stay later. If you feel down about yourself, remember one of the greatest accomplishments or moments in your life. Something even as simple as redirecting your attention to the present moment can help clea the clutter. That’s why meditation is so important to clearing our mental clutter. Read my post on meditation to find out why it is an excellent fitness habit. The more you meditate, the better you will get at identifying and detaching from your thoughts.

_{^{Source: decide.act.ooutlook change.fit life; Lili Kazemi.}}