Obsessions, in which you experience seemingly uncontrollable and extremely distressing thoughts, are a core symptom of OCD. Although a natural reaction for many affected people is to try and suppress these thoughts, research shows that thought suppression can actually make obsessions worse.
What is Thought Suppression?
Thought suppression is the act of trying to ignore or control thoughts that we find threatening or distressing. For example, when reminded of an embarrassing incident or a time when you were rejected, you might try to actively push away these thoughts by distracting yourself or trying to think about something else. Interestingly, however, research has shown that the more you try to suppress such thoughts, the more you will experience these thoughts (even if you don’t have OCD). As well, if you try to suppress a thought when you are feeling down, anxious or stressed, that thought then becomes connected to that emotional state. Consequently, the next time you feel down or agitated, you are more likely to experience the unwanted thought. And, when you experience the thought, your mood becomes worse.Thought Suppression and OCD
Given that distressing thoughts called obsessions are at the core of OCD, it has been suggested thought suppression may play a role in causing some of the symptoms of OCD. For instance, although we all experience strange, bizarre or shocking thoughts throughout the day, if you have OCD, you may be overreact to such thoughts by trying to suppress them, which only causes them to come back worse than before. Of course, this leads to more thought suppression, which leads to experiencing more distressing thoughts. For example, as part of a research study, people with OCD were asked to suppress their distressing thoughts some days while allowing themselves to have these thoughts on others. At the end of each day, they were asked to record the number of intrusive thoughts they experienced in a diary. Not surprisingly, people with OCD recorded twice as many intrusive thoughts on the days they tried to suppress their thoughts than the days where they let their thoughts flow freely.What Can I Do About Thought Suppression?
If you have OCD, getting away from thought suppression as a coping strategy can be difficult and it may be helpful to consult with a psychologist, psychiatrist or other mental health professional to learn some effective strategies. Specifically, a new generation of behavior therapies addresses thought suppression as part of their overall therapeutic strategy. Therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) work to build flexibility in thinking rather than trying to eliminate distressing thoughts like obsessions using a variety of mindfulness techniques, metaphors and life enhancement exercises. If you are interested in learning more about ACT or where to find an ACT therapist, be sure to look at the following resources:- Contextual Psychology - This is the official site for the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science and has lots of ACT resources for the public, including information, discussion groups, a search tool to find ACT therapists, recommended books and audio tapes for meditation, and centering exercises.
- ACT for Anxiety Disorders - This is the homepage for the book Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders. The site contains excerpts from the book that will give you a nice overview of ACT for anxiety disorders and it has a great list of websites and other online resources.
- Get out of Your Mind and Into Your Life – This is a self-help book written for mental-health consumers which explains the principles of ACT in an easy-to-understand format.
Sources:
Butcher, J.N., Mineka, S., Hooley, J.M. "Abnormal Psychology, 13th ed." 2007 Toronto, ON: Pearson.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. "Abnormal Psychology, 4th ed." 2007 New York, NY:McGraw Hill.
