Thought Block Paradox: what is it and how does it affect us?

What is the Thought Block Paradox, and what does it tell us about emotional management?

Try not to think about what you want to avoid thinking about. Has your partner left you? Do you have to avoid eating chocolate? Do you want to stop smoking? Stop thinking about it. Make sure you don't think about it at all.

Recommending doing everything you can to not think about something you don't want to think about is one of the worst pieces of advice you can give. Simply trying to free your mind from the thought you don't want to have makes you think about it, paradoxically.

That is the paradox of thought blockinga strategy that, instead of achieving what we want to achieve, provokes the exact opposite situation and with even more force. Let's see it.

What is the paradox of thought blocking?

Let's start by doing an exercise. Don't think about white bears. Throughout this article, dear reader, do not think about white bears at all. Try to avoid thinking about white bears at all costs and make sure you don't think about them by keeping an eye on any ideas related to white bears that may come to your mind.

Trying not to think about something in particular is often a task with bad results, as we end up thinking about it even more in the end.. We can call this the paradoxical effects of thought suppression or, also, the paradox of the thought block. Whether we like it or not, the simple fact of trying not to think actively about a particular thought is, in itself, actively thinking about that same thought, which sabotages our attempt to suppress it. In short, trying to avoid a thought makes us less able to control it.

This phenomenon is something tremendously common in our lives. How many times have we tried to avoid thinking about something that worries or frightens us? For example, if we are trying to quit smoking, how many times have we actively tried not to think about smoking? And how many times have we ended up doing so, despite actively trying to avoid it? It is a technique so common and, at the same time, so unhelpful that science has not been able to resist demonstrating how unwise it is.

History of the concept

The first studies on active thought blocking begin in the 1980's, although Sigmund Sigmund himself was the first to study the concept.although Sigmund Freud himself had already anticipated it at the beginning of the century, but speaking of "repression" instead of "suppression of thoughts". Daniel Wegner was one of the first to scientifically address the phenomenon, defining thought suppression as the deliberate act of trying to get rid of unwanted thoughts from the conscious mind.

Wegner himself relates this paradox to his theory of the ironic process in which he explains that when we try to suppress a thought we activate two cognitive processes. On the one hand, we try to create the desired mental state, that is, the one in which we do not find the idea we do not want to think about and, in addition, we occupy our mind with other unrelated ideas as distractors. But on the other hand we have to make sure that the idea does not appear, watching if it comes back, and the simple fact of being aware of the "forbidden" idea makes it appear and we think about it.

Wegner's research showed that blocking a specific thought in an active way usually leads to thinking even more about it, giving rise to what has been called the "rebound effect".This is known as the "rebound effect". As this effect is just the opposite of the effects desired by the person who carries out the thought blocking, not thinking about the thought or carrying out the problem behavior, this strategy has been blamed for contributing to obsessions, dieting failures, difficulties in quitting bad habits such as Smoking or drinking.

It has not been at all difficult to replicate this phenomenon at the experimental level since it is enough to tell a person not to think about something for him to fall into the trap of thought blocking. No matter how hard he tries, he does not get rid of his problematic thought, it is as if he were adding fuel to the fire, but without knowing it. No matter how hard I try to make it fade away, all it does is make it even stronger. Remember not to think about white bears? Don't think about them...

Thus, there is widespread acceptance and scientific evidence that gives it strength that that thought blocking is not a good strategy to control our mind, since it feeds the thoughts that we are thinking.It feeds intrusive thoughts. This has been linked to mental disorders, especially anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, mental conditions in which there are recurrent ideas. Asking the patient not to think about them makes them think even more, which can aggravate their condition.

Blocking unwanted thoughts and behavior

Thought blocking is not only not a good strategy to avoid thinking about a thought or memory, but it is also not very useful when trying to avoid performing a certain behavior. For example, when trying to stop smoking, eating junk food or any other behavior, this strategy is often used, thinking that if you do not think about it you will not want to do it as much. The problem is that the opposite effect is achieved, thinking about the behavior to be avoided and having even more desire to do it.

For example, if I am on a diet and I have been told not to eat chocolate, which is my favorite food, I will have to make an effort not to eat it. In order not to have so much desire to eat it, I will do my best not to think about it but, if I tell myself "don't think about chocolate", I will do my best not to think about it. not only will I think about chocolate, but I'll have more desire to eat it and more risk of temptation.

And this case of chocolate is just what the group of James Erskine and colleagues saw in 2008. These researchers asked a group of participants to suppress thoughts related to chocolate, and then they were asked to perform a task seemingly unrelated to this first instruction. After performing it, they were offered food of different types. The participants who were part of the group that had been told not to think about chocolate ended up eating much more of this sweet than those in the control group.

Another experiment also by Erskine and colleagues in 2010 evaluated the effects of asking a group of smokers not to think about smoking and how this influenced the total amount of cigarettes they consumed. Participants were asked to record in a diary for three weeks how many cigarettes they smoked per day. In the second week the instructions were given: one third were asked to actively try to think about not smoking, another third were asked to actively think about smoking, and the remainder were told nothing, with the common instruction to all participants not to alter their normal behavior.

Surprising as it may seem, in both the control group, which was asked nothing, and the group that was asked to explicitly think about the idea of smoking their number of cigarettes smoked per day hardly changed. In contrast, it was seen that in the group that was asked not to actively think about smoking smoked more than they had done during the first week of the experiment.. In other words, asking someone not to actively think about a behavior to avoid or the idea associated with it causes them to do it even more.

Conclusions and recommendations

Since trying not to think about something makes us think about it even more, it is clear that thought blocking is not a good technique for getting rid of obsessions or unpleasant ideas, nor is it a good technique for avoiding behaviors. Its effects are clearly counterproductive, and it is best to keep the mind occupied with other thoughts without actively thinking about not thinking about the idea to avoid.

Whether it is avoiding thinking about white bears, smoking, eating chocolate or drinking alcohol, trying to avoid thinking about such ideas by telling ourselves "don't think about X" is not helpful. The best that can be done, as long as it is neither an obsession nor a pathological behavior at extreme levels (e.g., "don't think about X"), is to avoid thinking about it. e.g., alcoholism) is to think about what you are doing, keep your mind occupied and, should the unwanted idea appear, let it pass.

Of course, if the problem goes further and it is impossible for us to detach passively from the idea to avoid, the best thing to do is to go to a psychologist who will offer us effective techniques to remove the unwanted idea. who will offer us effective techniques to remove the obsession or to stop the behavior we want to get rid of. Of all the techniques that will offer us there will be techniques that serve just for what the blockade of thoughts is done, that is to say, to avoid thinking about an idea in concrete, only with the advantage that effectively we will not think about it. Keeping the mind occupied is usually the best of the options.

Bibliographical references:

• Abramowitz, J.S., Tolin D.F. & Street, G.P. (2001). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Clinical Psychology Review, 21: pp. 683 - 703.
• Erskine, J.A.K. (2008). Resistance can be futile: Investigating behavioural rebound. Appetite, 50, 415–421.
• Erskine, J.A.K. & Georgiou, G.J. (2010). Effects of thought suppression on eating behaviour in restrained and non-restrained eaters. Appetite, 54: pp. 499 - 503.
• Erskine, J.A.K., Georgiou, G.J. & Kvavilashvili, L. (2010). I suppress therefore I smoke. Psychological Science, 21: pp. 1225 - 1230.
• Freud, S. (1990). The psychopathology of everyday life. London: Norton. (Original work published 1901)
• Wegner, D.M. (1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts. New York: Viking/Penguin.
• Wegner, D.M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101: pp. 34 - 52.
• Wegner, D.M., Schneider, D.J., Carter, S. & White, T. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53: pp. 5 - 13.