Why trying not to worry backfires

Why just trying not to think about a worry backfires

When you feel anxious, your thoughts become more focused on the things that make you feel that way. Its a natural reaction to try to push anxious or unpleasant thoughts out of your mind. This is known as thought suppression.

Thought suppression, trying not to think about something that causes anxiety or an unpleasant emotional reaction is understandable. Research has shown however, that thought suppression when you have an anxiety disorder like GAD or depression actually backfires. A good way to show how this happens is to do a quick exercise. The exercise is in two parts: Part 1: You have 5 minutes to think about anything you want to think about. You can plan a holiday, think about something lovely that happened to you recently, maybe your favourite memory or place. How you spend this five minutes is entirely up to you. You may think about a white polar bear. If the thought of a white polar bear comes into your mind, just make a note of how many times it does on a tally list. You can stay thinking about one for the entire five minutes if you want to, or just make a note and then go back to spending the rest of the time as you want to. At the end of the five minutes, answer the questions below: 1) Did you have any thoughts of a white polar bear? If so, how many are on your tally? 2) Were you able to think about what you wanted to during this time? 3) Did it use up all your energy and concentration when having the five minutes to think about what ever you wanted to? 4) Did you feel any different emotionally during the five minutes? If so, was this positive or negatively? Was the thought of the polar bear anxiety provoking in any way? Now, once you have completed part 1, it is time for the second part of the activity.

Part 2: You have another 5 minutes, but now you must not think about a white polar bear. Do everything in your power to push the thought out of your mind. If you do think of a polar bear, make a tally each time, then stop thinking about it in any way you can. At the end of the five minutes, answer the questions below: 1) How many thoughts of a white polar bear did you notice this time? How does this compare with part 1? 2) Were you able to think about what you wanted to during this time? 3) Did it use up all your energy and concentration trying not to think about it? 4) Did you feel any different emotionally during the five minutes? If so, was this positive or negatively? Was the thought of the polar bear anxiety provoking in any way this time? Research shows that when someone is anxious, the mind wants to prioritise attention to thoughts that link to feeling that way. So worries are prioritised. This is because it is what is known as mood congruent information. It is information the brain thinks that it should be paying selective attention to, over other things happening at that time. Studies have shown that trying to push these types of negative thoughts out of your mind has the opposite effect. Trying not to think about them is like ignoring an alarm clock. It grows louder and louder, to try and get your attention back. You end up with more of the thoughts getting bounced back into your mind. The emotion attached to it, how you are feeling, also goes up with it each time it bounces back in. If you do manage to suppress the thought, it takes all your mental energy. It can be exhausting and leaves no room for concentrating on other things. You also tend to have thoughts along a similar theme. So you manage to not think about a white polar bear, but think about a pink polar bear or a penguin, for example, but then your mind takes you back to the very thing you were trying to push out in the first place. So trying not to think about a worry, to suppress it, only serves to give more worries, more emotion and more impact on your symptoms as part of the vicious cycle. Instead, learning a helpful way to manage worries can ensure you can postpone your worries in a way that helps you take control of them, rather than them controlling you. Let’s look at how to do this next.