Understanding Cognitive Defusion
Anxiety and Fusion
Understanding fusion helps us understand cognitive defusion. People who have anxiety are more likely to become fused with their thoughts, emotions, and experiences than people without fear.
Fusion is the experience that helps you become immersed in a movie when you're watching it or a book when you're reading it.
However, if you are anxious, you need to be able to step back and distance yourself from your worried thoughts, sensations, and emotions.
Anxious people are less able to do this, which makes the feeling more intense. This causes them to want to avoid any experiences that might cause the feeling and sometimes can make their lives avoid, make anxiety worse, and make life hard.
What is Cognitive Defusion?
Cognitive defusion is a strategy I teach my clients to help with their anxiety. Below, I will share some of the ways to do this.
Cognitive fusion is a process whereby people with anxiety react to their thoughts as if they really represent reality. For example, someone with anxiety may respond to the idea, ‘Everyone is judging me’ or ‘The plane is going to crash’ as if this were an actual fact. In this way, anxious people respond to the mind's mental construction as if something dangerous is happening. Language dictates an anxious person's emotions, physical reactions, and behaviors. Cognitive defusion helps anxious people to detach from the language of their thoughts so they can choose behavior based on what's in their best interest, not based on what their anxiety language is dictating. When you practice cognitive defusion, you are less likely to be hooked in the anxiety cycle.
How Does Cognitive Defusion Help Anxious People?
Cognitive Defusion helps anxious ( and depressed ) people learn how to disengage from thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are holding them back from the life they want to live. The great thing about cognitive defusion is that it works immediately to decrease anxiety. It's usually one of the first things I teach my clients when they enter therapy. Although it's a core process in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ( ACT), and many people teach and talk about it, I learned this from Russ Harris, and mostly everything on this page is stolen from his workshop ACT MADE SIMPLE that I took in 2015 and his teachings. Check out his website here
How does Cognitive Defusion Help Adhd People?
Cognitive defusion is not only beneficial for managing anxiety but also plays a crucial role in supporting individuals with ADHD. People with ADHD often experience heightened emotional sensitivity and intense emotional reactions, making them more susceptible to cognitive fusion. This means they can become deeply entangled with their thoughts, believing them to be absolute truths rather than transient mental events. For instance, a person with ADHD might have the thought, "I always mess things up," and internalize it as a fact, leading to feelings of hopelessness and decreased motivation.
Cognitive defusion techniques help individuals with ADHD create a necessary separation from their thoughts and emotions, allowing them to observe these mental events without getting swept away by them. This process is particularly useful in managing the impulsivity and emotional dysregulation often associated with ADHD. By practicing cognitive defusion, individuals can learn to step back and view their thoughts more objectively, which can prevent them from acting on impulses or making decisions based on fleeting emotions. Techniques like the "Leaves on a Stream" exercise, where one imagines placing thoughts on leaves and watching them float away, can be particularly effective in helping ADHD individuals distance themselves from their internal dialogue. This detachment can reduce the power of negative thoughts, improve emotional regulation, and promote a more balanced perspective, ultimately leading to better decision-making and a more fulfilling life. Integrating cognitive defusion into ADHD management strategies offers a valuable tool for unhooking from unhelpful thoughts and embracing a more flexible, mindful approach to challenges.
What are the Goals of Cognitive Defusion?
The main goal of cognitive defusion is to CREATE SEPARATION. The more separated you are from your anxious experience, the less likely you will be to make bad choices based on your anxiety, and let it influence your life. Cognitive defusion helps you to step back from your experience and notice your :
- thoughts
- feelings
- emotions
- memory
- sensations
- urges.
You also want to practice doing this with curiosity and openness and then NAME what's happening.
Most cognitive defusion techniques include noticing and naming. When we are able to notice and name, we create separation and can unhook from what might begin to be a spiral of anxiety.
Confused about thoughts and feelings?
Thoughts are pictures and words.
Feelings are sensations in your body
Emotions and urges are a mixture of both
Russ Harris ACT made Simple 2015
Cognitive Defusion Strategies
Strategy 1 “Leaves on a Stream” Exercise script
Harris (2009) provides an excellent cognitive defusion exercise used in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy:
(1) Sit in a comfortable position and either close your eyes or rest them gently on a fixed spot in the room.
(2) Visualize yourself sitting beside a gently flowing stream with leaves floating along the surface of the water. Pause 10 seconds.
(3) For the next few minutes, take each thought that enters your mind and place it on a leaf… let it float by. Do this with each thought – pleasurable, painful, or neutral. Even if you have joyous or enthusiastic thoughts, place them on a leaf and let them float by.
(4) If your thoughts momentarily stop, continue to watch the stream. Sooner or later, your thoughts will start up again. Pause 20 seconds.
(5) Allow the stream to flow at its own pace. Don’t try to speed it up and rush your thoughts along. You’re not trying to rush the leaves along or “get rid” of your thoughts. You are allowing them to come and go at their own pace.
(6) If your mind says “This is dumb,” “I’m bored,” or “I’m not doing this right” place those thoughts on leaves, too, and let them pass. Pause 20 seconds.
(7) If a leaf gets stuck, allow it to hang around until it’s ready to float by. If the thought comes up again, watch it float by another time. Pause 20 seconds.
(8) If a difficult or painful feeling arises, simply acknowledge it. Say to yourself, “I notice myself having a feeling of boredom/impatience/frustration.” Place those thoughts on leaves and allow them float along.
(9) Occasionally, your thoughts may hook you and distract you from being fully present in this exercise. This is normal. As soon as you realize that you have become sidetracked, gently bring your attention back to the visualization exercise.
Strategy 2. Mind like the sky:
Let your thoughts come and go like clouds
Strategy 3. Your mind is like this:
-
- a “don’t get killed” machine
- a word machine
- a radio broadcasting “doom and gloom”
- a masterful salesman selling you bad news
- the world’s most excellent catastrophic storyteller
- a negative psychic
- a judgment factory
Strategy 4. Bullying Reframe
What’s it like to be pushed around or bullied by that thought, memory, or idea? Do you want to keep allowing that to happen?
Strategy 5. Curious and Describing
What does that thought look like? What is its size? What does it sound like? Whose voice is the thought in? Is it a moving or still thought? How loud or soft is the thought?
Strategy 6. Interested in Your Thoughts
That’s an interesting thought.
Strategy 7. Secondary Gains
When this thought shows up, if you go along with it, what benefits might you get from it? What might you be able to avoid or escape?
Strategy 8. Workability
If you let that thought dictate what you do, does that work for you in the long run? Does buying into it help you have a happy, rich, and meaningful life?
Strategy 9. Pragmatism
If you go along with that thought, buy into it, and let it control you, where does that leave you? What do you get for buying into it? Where do you go from here? Can you give it a go anyway, even though your mind says it won’t work?
Strategy 10. Problem Solving
This is just your mind problem solving. Your mind evolved to solve problems; this is its job. But some of those solutions are not very effective. You can assess whether your mind is doing its job well. Is the way your mind is doing its job giving you a rich, meaningful life?
Strategy 11. Computer Screen
Imagine this thought on a computer screen. Change the font, color, and format. Animate the words. Add in a bouncing ball.
Strategy 12. The Observing Self
Take a step back and look at this thought from your observing self.
Strategy 13. Insight
When you buy into this thought or give it all your attention, how does your behavior change? What do you start or stop doing when it shows up?
Strategy 14. Noticing
Notice what your mind is telling you right now. Notice what you’re thinking.
- I notice feelings of worry.
- I notice there is tension in my stomach.
- I notice I have the urge to go back to sleep.
- Aha, here it is again. A pain in my head.
- Aha, here it is again. Anxiety in my pain and stomach.
Strategy 15. Naming the Story
If all these thoughts and feelings were put into a book or movie, titled “The Something Something Story,” what would you call it? Each time this story shows up, name it: “Aha, there’s the XYZ story again!”
- Aha, here it goes again. The story of everyone will think I'm stupid.
I notice my clients have similar-themed stories. If you identify your stories, you can write them down to prepare yourself for them when they show up.
Strategy 16. Passengers on the bus
Click above to watch the video
Strategy 17. Mental Appreciation
You are doing a great job worrying mind! When the thought shows up, you can just thank your mind for the thought, and carry on with your day.
Strategy 18. Ask Yourself , " Who’s talking here: you or your mind?"
Strategy 19 . Learn and Practice Leaves on a Stream Exercise.
Strategy 20. Ask Yourself How Old Is That Story?
Consider how old the story you’re telling yourself is. Reflect on its origins and whether it still holds relevance or validity in your current context.
Strategy 21. Just Noticing
I notice that my mind is having the thought (feeling, sensation, memory, urge) that... Just this simple technique alone will often break the trance of the anxiety or stress.
Strategy 22. Buying Into Thoughts
I guess I am buying into the thoughts that something bad is going to happen. Recognize when you’re buying into negative or anxious thoughts and challenge their validity.
Strategy 23. Cell Phone from Hell
Imagine your mind is like a cell phone that keeps calling you. "Hello, this is your mind calling. Do you realize you need to keep worrying that something bad will happen?" This visualization can help you detach from the persistent worry.
Strategy 24. Sing It Out
Sing out your anxious thought until you are less anxious. This playful approach can help defuse the intensity of your anxiety.
Strategy 25. Silly Voices
Say your anxious thought in a silly voice over and over until you are less anxious. This technique helps to reduce the seriousness of the thought and alleviate anxiety.
Strategy 26. Say It Very Slowly
Say the anxious thought very slowly over and over until you are less anxious. Slowing down the thought can help you detach from its emotional impact.
Strategy 27. Repeat It Quickly
Repeat the anxious thought quickly over and over until you are less anxious. This rapid repetition can diminish the thought's power and significance.
Strategy 28. Write Your Anxious Thoughts on Cards
Write your anxious thoughts on cards and carry them around with you. This is both a form of exposure and a way to neutralize their impact.
Strategy 29. Words on the Screen
Imagine the words of the thought bouncing on a computer screen. Alter the font, text color, size, etc., to change the way you perceive the thought.
Note: None of these cognitive defusion exercises are my own. They are mostly derived from Russ Harris’s work in ACT Made Simple and Steven Hayes’s techniques.
Apps for Cognitive Defusion
Songify is an app for thought defusion. You can input phrases of thoughts that are anxiety-provoking for you, and the app will organize them in a way that neutralizes the phrase for you. Click on the word to be taken to the app!
Medical information obtained from this website is not intended as a substitute for professional care. If you have or suspect you have a problem, you should consult a healthcare provider.
Kristen McClure: Neurodivergent-Affirming ADHD Therapist and Coach with 30 years in North Carolina and South Carolina Offering virtual therapy and coaching services across North Carolina, including Ashville, Raleigh, Durham, Wilmington, Greenville, and more. Also serving major South Carolina cities such as Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, Rock Hill, and more.