Hooked On Radiation: Conscious Uncoupling From Troublesome Thoughts.

“When we’re no longer trying to run, hide, or control our thoughts and feelings, we begin to see them in context, as part of an experiential whole. In this way, it becomes easier to accept that we are not defined by our self-deprecating mantras, controlled by our limiting beliefs, or at the mercy of our emotional process.” Alex Stitt – ACT for Gender Identity - (p.35)

In this month’s blog I take a look at another process of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) called Defusion.

Defusion is the capacity to step back or unhook from our thoughts and the narratives that drive them. When we are fused with our thoughts they tend to dominate our behaviour; there’s no space between them and our feelings. When we defuse from our thoughts we are more able to respond to them in a flexible way.

Defusion and present moment awareness are the two key processes that help us to “open up” to and “be present” with the direct experience of being alive. Our values and the committed actions we then take, move us towards “doing what matters” and all of these build a meaningful and fulfilling life.

Defusion isn’t about deciding whether our thoughts are positive, believable, true or accurate. As ACT Therapist and trainer, Russ Harris points out, in certain contexts “positive thoughts can be really unhelpful and negative thoughts can be really valuable.”

We’re more interested in what happens when we fuse with a thought and whether what we then do takes us towards or away from the life we want to lead. I often ask people I work with “is the thought helpful or unhelpful?”  and if the person can see a thought is unhelpful, we’re on the way to defusion…

 Defusion exercises can be a lot of fun… the basic structure we work with is:

 1.     You notice the presence of a thought;

2.     You ask “what happens if I fuse with the thought and get hooked into it….where will that take me? How will it help me or move me towards the life I want to lead….?” In ACT jargon this is often referred to as workability.

3.     We loosen our grip on, or unhook from, the thought using defusion tools, if we are willing to. If we’re not, that’s OK too, at least we’re now more aware of what we’re doing.

4.     We take action.

Defusion - How To Do It.

A really straightforward defusion exercise is the “Noticing” exercise. Bring to mind a thought that’s currently causing you stress/distress or upset. A common one that shows up is “I am a bad/terrible person.” Repeat the thought in your head for a minute or so and notice what happens to your mood/feelings.

Now repeat the thought again preceded with the phrase “I am having the thought that (I am a terrible person.”) Keep this going for a minute or two and then notice what happens to mood/emotions.

Finally, try again with the same thought, but preceded with “I notice I am having the thought that (I am a terrible person.”) for a minute or so, and see what happens.

Alex Stitt, (a Genderqueer mental health counsellor specializing in gender affirmative therapy and LGBTQ+ identity development, using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy),  works with this even more creatively.

They invite their clients to continue expanding; moving from “I am a terrible person” to:

“I think I am a terrible person”

“This is me having the thought I am a terrible person”

“This is me sitting in a room/on Zoom, having the thought I am a terrible person”

“This is me sitting in a room/on Zoom on the second floor having the thought I am a terrible person.”

“This is me sitting in a room/on Zoom on the second floor, in East London, having the thought I am a terrible person.”

“This is me sitting in a room/on Zoom on the second floor, in East London, in England, in the UK, having the thought I am a terrible person.”

“This is me sitting in a room/on Zoom on the second floor, in East London, in England, in the UK, in Europe, on the planet Earth, hurtling through space, having the thought I am a terrible person.”

As Stitts points out in their discussion of gender affirming ACT, defusion exercises like this (and there are many more) “demonstrate how the more cognitions we add to a chained sequence of thought, the less emotionally raw it feels, challenging our all encompassing absolutism.” (p.102)  

A second consequence of carrying out defusion exercises is to expand our awareness of the process of thinking itself. We may still believe we’re a terrible person (or a part of us might), but suddenly there’s all this space around the thought and there’s another part of us that can see that too. There’s room to manoeuvre.

What if it’s an unhelpful story that’s showing up?
What if we could build a different relationship to that story?
Could we (gasp!) change, rewrite or read the story in a different way?
How would that change our chosen behaviours?

With defusion (and mindfulness) we learn to observe the process of thought and thinking. We also start to see how things might be more flexible/workable than we thought. We start to connect with the observational, thinking, and somatic self. Stitts writes:

“if the thinking self is an unreliable narrator, then the somatic self is an unreliable audience…” (p.105).

If we can work with this, we can create psychological space and flexibility, reduce distress, and integrate this with our lived experience of being in a body.

Defusion exercises can often offer a real “light-bulb moment” in therapy. When people realise that there’s a different way of dealing with thoughts, it can lead to incredible behavioural change. Defusion quite literally changes lives.

If you feel that this might be something you want to investigate further, feel free to contact us at Rhizome Practice and see how we can help you to start living a life worth living, rather than a life that’s pushed around and limited by unruly, bullying thought processes.