How to Move on from Overthinking: Defusion

Oct 24

Have you ever noticed yourself getting stuck on a thought? Sometimes it will be a narrative about yourself (“I am a failure,” or “Nothing bad could ever happen to me.”). Sometimes it will be something you know could happen but likely won’t (“What if I throw up in front of other people at the mall?”). These kind of thoughts can often keep happening, even when they are not helpful. If so, you’ve experienced what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) calls cognitive fusion—a state where you're so entangled with your thoughts that they seem like absolute truths.

The good news is that even though you can’t stop the thought from starting, you can de-fuse from a thought and get unstuck from living in your own head. In this article, I will explain cognitive defusion, why it’s useful, how you can practice it own your own, and how I might be able to help you build this skill.

What Is cognitive defusion?

In simple terms, defusion means “unhooking” from your thoughts. It’s the process of stepping back and observing thoughts as they are—just thoughts—not facts, commands, or threats. Rather than seeing your thoughts as the truth, defusion helps you see them as mental events passing through your mind, like clouds in the sky.

Let’s play a little game.

Kids will often play with the concept of defusion with relatively low stakes versions of a game you can try right now: race car. Did reading that word generate the image of a race car in your mind? Okay, now please look away from this page and repeat the word “race car” either out loud or in your mind for thirty seconds. Set a timer if you need to. For real, give it a try! What did you notice after thirty seconds? For most people, repeating the same word over and over again, such as “race car” transforms the word into a set of sounds and its meaning is lost. That is defusion, the disconnection of meaning from thought.

Now, this is all easy enough in concept with benign words like race car, but when the verbal content is something like “I’m a complete failure,” during a rough day at work, cognitive fusion feels less like a game and more like a crisis. You might shut down, withdraw, or avoid taking action. Defusion offers away out, not by arguing your thought into submission or trying to correct it with positive thoughts, but by holding onto the thought until it becomes just another one of many ideas entering and leaving your consciousness.

Why do we fuse with thoughts?

Humans are wired for language. It helps us solve problems, plan ahead, and connect with others. Language is fantastic for supporting our engagement with the external world. However, language is not so useful when trying to solve an internal world problem like “How do I keep myself from feeling anxious about failing?” These internal world problems - in other words, problems that are personal to yourself - aren’t solvable in the same way. The language of your thoughts can’t stop other thoughts or feelings from happening.

I often don’t try to help clientsstop or suppress thoughts. We recognize that trying to control what you think often makes things worse. Defusion offers a healthier alternative: notice the thought, name it, and let it pass without getting pulled in.

How to practice defusion ACT uses a variety of creative exercises to promote defusion. Here are a few examples:

Labeling the thought: Instead of saying “I’m not good at this,” say “I’m having the thought that I’m not good at this.” This helps create a little space between you and the thought.
Silly voice technique: Repeat a self-critical thought in a cartoon voice or sing it to the tune of “Happy Birthday.” This makes the thought feel less threatening and more like just noise in your head (think back to our “race car” exercise earlier; the more you said the word “race car”, the less meaning it held).
Thanking your mind: When your mind offers an unhelpful thought, simply say, “Thanks, mind.” It’s a way of acknowledging the thought without reacting to it.

Defusion is not about ignoring reality or pretending everything is fine. Thee above techniques are about reinforcing the distinction between the external world and internal world. To reference the children’s game above, they are about turning racecar from a word generating responses in your mind into a bunch of syllables you can play with. Many people find the concept of defusion and its techniques hard to understand or apply. Askilled therapist (like me!) can help you figure out how to make defusion work for you. I have years of experience working to help clients defuse from their most unwanted thoughts and would be happy to talk about how we can make this work for you. Book a free 15-minute consultation with me. Whether your thoughts are self-critical, a result of trauma, or obsessive-compulsive, I’m here to help you work through them.