Cognitive Fusion: When Thoughts Become Reality

Cognitive fusion is a mental phenomenon. It’s when the line between you and your thoughts blurs. In other words, you believe your thoughts and they become your reality.

This thinking pattern can cause you a lot of discomfort. For this reason, it is important to learn to distance yourself from your thoughts. Thoughts are often biased, irrational, or illogical. As such, reality and identity encompass much more than just thoughts.

What else do we know about this concept? How can we fight it? In this article, we explain this and share an exercise that can help you move away from cognitive fusion.

Cognitive Fusion: When Your Thoughts Become Your Reality

Hayes et al. (2011) mentioned the concept in an article by Ramos et al. (2018). They argued that cognitive fusion is “ the tendency to believe the literal content of thoughts and feelings ”, as well as “ the excessive or inappropriate regulation of behavior by verbal processes (rules) rather than by the contingencies of the environment. ”

When thoughts become reality

With cognitive fusion you don’t distinguish between what you think and the circumstances that make you think that way. For this reason, you act as if your thoughts are the absolute truth.

In fact, you forget to compare what you are thinking with the reality that made you think that way. For this reason, you cannot gain perspective on your own thoughts. In fact, you have “melted” with them.

Impact on behaviour

This thought pattern leads you to interpret your own thoughts as literal, which affects your behavior. You gradually begin to behave in accordance with these thoughts. It’s like they are your only form of reality.

An example of cognitive fusion

To better understand this concept, here’s an example. Suppose someone on the street had a panic attack, which upset him. Still, he managed to calm down and return home.

The next day, when he had to go out again, he started shaking when he tried to open the door. “ You’re going to have another panic attack, ” he told himself. “ Look, you’re already shaking .” So, without even realizing it, he has taken this thought as a reality that cannot be changed. That’s why he didn’t go out at all in the end.

Other examples

There are many other examples. Some may only concern you, while others may be due to external circumstances. Yet they all have one thing in common: the merging of your thoughts with yourself.

Cognitive Defusion to Fight Cognitive Fusion

Cognitive defusion is a technique that is part of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). It is actually one of the central parts of ACT. A fundamental part of this therapy is to help the person distance themselves from their thoughts.

The person who realizes that thoughts often don’t come true achieves this. Cognitive defusion techniques include exercises that the patient must perform. These exercises help them act independently of what their minds tell them.

Cognitive defusion to encourage acceptance

Acceptance is a key factor in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It is also key in other types of therapies and for certain conditions. It means accepting your pain, experiences, and your feelings. Cognitive defusion makes this process easier.

This is because cognitive defusion changes the way you perceive events. Moreover, the acceptance process helps you to distance yourself from these perspectives.

Clouds in the sky exercise

As we mentioned above, there are many cognitive defusion exercises. One is the clouds in the sky exercise.

This exercise will help you think of your uncomfortable thoughts and emotions as if they were clouds in the sky. While they may shield the sun for a while, they eventually pass. Your thoughts will do the same.

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to suffer from a mental disorder to experience cognitive fusion. However, it can undoubtedly disrupt your personal well-being. That’s why it’s important to become aware of what’s going on when it happens to you. Then you can get started.

Cognitive defusion is one of the most popular techniques for dealing with cognitive fusion. However, there are different types of therapy, and each therapy uses its own tools to help patients distance themselves from their thoughts.