Thought-Action Fusion: trapped in our mind

 There are few things as annoying as an obsessive thought that constantly hammers our mind. When that thought embarrasses us, makes us feel guilty or horrifies us for the simple fact that it has crossed our mind, the problem takes on colossal proportions.

In fact, our mind can be our best ally or our worst enemy. In some situations, when we are on the ropes dominated by uncertainty, if we do not have the appropriate psychological tools, anxiety can completely overwhelm us. In these cases, anxious and obsessive thoughts can literally turn our life into a nightmare.

What is thought-action fusion?

Every day all kinds of thoughts go through our minds, some happy and some distressing. Generally we are able to filter the important thoughts at a given moment to pay attention to them, but sometimes we fail and some seemingly insignificant thoughts take over, replacing the rest, until they turn into an obsession. It is as if our mind takes on a life of its own and we cannot control it.

Thought-action fusion is precisely the tendency to believe that certain thoughts can become reality. We believe that simply having thought of something increases the likelihood of it happening, as if thinking that a loved one will get hurt could actually hurt them.

Usually the prospect is so distressing that we try to get the thought out of our mind. But the harder we try, the more it will get stronger because a Rebound Effect is produced . So we end up giving that fleeting thought disproportionate importance, to the point that it comes to dominate our mental activity.

The types of thought-action fusion

1. Probabilistic thought-action fusion. It is the belief that simply thinking about an event increases the likelihood of it happening. We may believe, for example, that if we think about a car accident, it is more likely to occur, in which case it is a thought-action merger with probability of its own. But we can also believe that by thinking that our brother has suffered a car accident, we are more likely to have one too, which is called thought-action fusion with other probabilities.

2. Moral thought-action fusion . In this case, we believe that thinking about an action or behavior is morally equivalent to carrying it out. For example, we believe that thinking about hitting someone is as morally wrong as actually hitting them. Therefore, the very idea terrifies us and leads us to complain and blame ourselves, as if we had. In our mind, we don't separate thought from action.

The 4 traits that make us more likely to suffer from this cognitive distortion

The phenomenon of thought-action fusion was discovered in people with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder, so psychologists initially thought it was limited to this area, but later realized that we can all be victims. of this cognitive distortion at some point in our life.

However, there are some personality traits that make us more likely to suffer from thought-action blending:

1. Hyper-responsibility . People who take on too many responsibilities, including many that don't match them, are often more likely to believe their thoughts may materialize because they tend to blame themselves for everything that happens.

2. Obsession with control . Even people who need to have everything under control are more likely to believe that their thoughts can become a threat, because they don't recognize that many of the things that happen are not out of their will.

3. Tendency to worry . Those who tend to get lost in the maze of worries are also more likely to develop thought-action blending, because they are unable to stop their thoughts. Instead, they feed them psychologically so that they continue to grow and become more threatening and invasive.

4. Low tolerance for uncertainty . People who do not tolerate uncertain situations well have a tendency to anticipate events, generally falling into catastrophic thought patterns that end up generating enormous anxiety, to the point of preventing them from differentiating thoughts from actions.

The thought-action fusion activates the feeling of threat and makes us feel tremendously guilty, causing us to fall into a vicious circle of anxiety and distress that greatly worsens our mood, as found by a study conducted at the University of Sussex.

How to stop the thought-action fusion?

First, we need to be aware that a thought, no matter how intense or terrible it may be, does not imply that what scares us so much is about to happen. Thoughts belong to the mental realm and their power to influence reality depends on our behavior.

On the other hand, we must be aware that we can control our behaviors, but we have very little control over the thoughts that cross our mind, so we shouldn't feel guilty about an unwanted thought.

Regular practice of mindfulness meditation will help us get rid of the intrusive thoughts that bother us. The key is very simple: don't cling to them. If we don't care about them, they will vanish in the same way they appeared because our attention is what feeds them.

A simple visualization exercise can help us let go of those thoughts. We should relax and imagine that our thoughts are like clouds and our mind is the sky. Some of those clouds are white and fluffy and even fun. Other clouds are black, large, and menacing. But if we limit ourselves to being mere outside spectators and don't cling to thoughts, they will eventually pass by, just like clouds. We just need to clear our minds, making sure we don't react emotionally.

During the day our mind records an average of 60,000 thoughts, so if we do not cling to some of them, sooner or later those that annoy us will disappear, giving way to others.

Sources:

Thompson, J. et. Al. (2013) Thought-action fusion across anxiety disorder diagnoses: Specificity and treatment effects. J Nerv Ment Dis ; 201 (5): 407-413.

Graham, CL et. Al. (2013) Aversive intrusive thoughts as contributors to inflated responsibility, intolerance of uncertainty, and thought-action fusion. Clinical Neuropsychiatry ; 10 (3): 30-44.

Berle, D. & Starcevic, V. (2005) Thought – action fusion: Review of the literature and future directions. Clinical Psychology Review ; 25 (3): 263-284.

Shafran, R. & Rachman, S. (2004) Thought-action fusion: a review. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry ; 35 (2): 87-107.

Rachman, S. (1997) A cognitive theory of obsessions. Behav Res Ther ; 35 (9): 793-802.