Understanding cognitive defusion
This website is intended to help people learn about the technique of cognitive defusion, its benefits, and how they can start practicing it to help their well-being.
What is cognitive defusion?
Cognitive defusion is the act of recognizing your thoughts and feelings for what they are - just thoughts or feelings - not truths, commands, or who you are. Simply put, cognitive defusion can help you separate who you are from what you think and what is true.
Another way to think about cognitive defusion is as the opposite of cognitive fusion. Cognitive fusion, a term developed by the creators of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, refers to the tendency to perceive our thoughts as the objective truth.
For example, someone might think to themself "I'm always going to be lonely", and because they think that, they think it must be true. The opposite of this - cognitive defusion - is the act of taking a step back from your thoughts and acknowledging that they might not be true. So, thinking to yourself, "I feel like I am always going to be lonely, but that is just a thought. It doesn't mean it is true."
An example of cognitive defusion in practice:
Cognitive defusion is a process that can be used in many different situations. To illustrate this, we will see how Maria used cognitive defusion to navigate a stressful work situation.
During a busy workday, Maria loses track of time as she's working on a project due tomorrow. Deep in thought, she suddenly realizes she's 15 minutes late to a meeting with her boss. When she arrives at the meeting, her boss tells her that her lateness is unacceptable.
After the meeting, Maria finds herself thinking, "I can't believe I forgot about our meeting... I'm such a moron"
Maria decides to try to use the new technique she learned about, cognitive defusion, to handle how she feels in this moment
Maria takes a moment and recognizes the thought she just had: "I'm such a moron". She also recognizes all the negative emotions she's feeling—anger and shame. She says to herself, "I am not my thoughts, and my thoughts are necessarily true. Just because in this moment, I think I am a moron, doesn't mean I am one." She imagines the thoughts she's having right now drifting away like clouds in the sky. Soon, she finds that the intensity of the shame and anger that she's feeling is getting smaller, and she's able to move on with her day.