Cognitive Fusion: What It Is, How It Affects Us, And Disorders That Cause It
People who experience cognitive fusion do not differentiate their cognitions from reality, that is, they believe that their thoughts are reality.
Thus, these cognitions create great discomfort in those who experience them in their own skin, since it is believed that all the thoughts that arise, which cannot be controlled, refer to present events or that will inevitably happen in the future.
This confusion between reality and thought can appear in subjects with mental disorders, as occurs with patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In this article We will see what cognitive fusion consists ofwhat types there are, which subjects it can affect, how to detect it, and how to mitigate or treat it.
Cognitive fusion is defined as the non-distinction between reality and thought; Where it occurs, the subject believes that thinking something entails that such thought actually happens or happens. In this way, the individual stops valuing other variables that can influence behavior and only takes thought into account; this is the only absolute truth for him.
Thus in cognitive fusion The person only values one possible truth and this is the one linked to the subjective interpretation of reality. through your thoughts, beliefs, values… If these thoughts become negative, we will enter a loop in which we will not be aware of reality and our way of acting will only be based on our interpretation, disabling and altering our functioning.
How does this type of thinking affect us?
As you can deduce, this type of thinking affects the person in a negative way, since when it occurs in us we are acting according to what happens in our mind and not according to what is truly real; therefore, The subject may stop doing things or alter his or her behavior due to factors or beliefs that do not have to happen.. We see how this thinking becomes pathological, presenting itself in mental disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Let’s give an example to better understand the concept: imagine the situation in which a subject thinks he is useless and does everything wrong. If cognitive fusion were to occur, the belief in this thought would be such that it would really define itself and believe that the reality is that it is worthless without taking other variables into account and despite having indications that contradict that idea.
We therefore observe the dysfunctionality of this cognition that limits uscreates discomfort and prevents us from doing things or achieving goals that we could achieve in other circumstances.
Types of cognitive fusion
It was the author Adrian Wells, known for proposing the metacognitive model that takes into account people’s cognitions about their cognitive processes such as thinking, who proposed different types of cognitive fusion. Wells expands on the proposals made by psychologist Stanley Rachman and recognizes the existence of three fusions of thoughts.
1. Thought-action fusion
The first type would be the thought-action fusion; this raises the belief that having certain thoughts inevitably leads to the commission of the action. Put more clearly, “if I think I am going to do something this thing will happen.” For example, there are mothers who have thoughts of harming their children, and they interpret such thought as a reality that will happen, as if it were a premonitory thought.
2. Thought-event fusion
Another type is thought-event fusion. In this case, it appears the belief that having a thought will cause an event to happen or that this event is taking place in the present or has already occurred. An example of this kind of cognitive fusion would be believing that thinking we have cancer means we really have it.
3. Object Fusion
Finally, object fusion generates in the individual who suffers it the belief that thoughts, feelings, memories, or properties can be transmitted through objects. In this way, we believe that by touching an object that has something bad (such as being contaminated), we will acquire this property, we will become contaminated.
How to detect cognitive fusion?
In order to reduce cognitive fusion, it will be necessary to first detect it and be aware of it. For this purpose we can evaluate different factors that will help us identify it.
These psychological areas that we must analyze are the following: identify the rules that govern our behavior (implicit rules behind how we act, what we believe or feel); and the reasoning that leads us to act or think in such a way (on many occasions this will appear as a justification for our behavior or what judgments we have and how these affect our lives).
Other areas that we can take into account are: how we perceive or how our past affects us, if we have remained stuck in this time and how this fact affects us, or if we constantly live thinking about the future (it is typical that subjects with cognitive fusion always live aware or worried about what may happen).
Finally, This cognitive impairment also influences the construction of the “I”. It is normal to have thoughts about how we are, but we must pay attention to whether we establish these self-beliefs as something rigid or as the only truth.
In what disorders do we observe cognitive fusion?
This dysfunction in thinking occurs in different disorders; it may be that subjects with different diagnoses present both cognitive fusion.
So, has been observed in personality disorders (TP), pathologies that affect the personality of the individual, who shows stable and unhealthy, poorly functional thinking and behavior.
In individuals with this pathology it has been seen a direct relationship between the severity of your symptoms and the presence of cognitive fusion. Thus, we observed that subjects with more severe PD are those most likely to reveal thought fusion.
Another mental disorder where this type of thinking is also present is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). These patients show obsessions (which are ideas, thoughts, that are presented repeatedly and maintained in the mind of the affected person) and compulsions (which are behaviors or mental rituals that the subject performs with the intention of reducing the anxiety and discomfort that they generate. obsessive thoughts).
In patients with OCD, it happens that they believe that the obsessive thoughts they have are real, that they are linked to reality. Thus enter a pathological loop where obsessionswhen interpreted as real events, generate in them a discomfort that they try to reduce by carrying out compulsive acts that only solve the problem for a short period of time, in the short term, but then they perpetuate it, causing the anxiety and therefore the discomfort of the patient increases.
Treatment
Given the affectation and discomfort that this thought entails, we will try to reduce it, and the way to do so would consist of doing the opposite process, which is known as cognitive defusion. This helps the person recognize and distinguish between thoughts, feelings, and memories.
This process is neither easy nor quick, the individual must work and practice the different techniques to finally achieve their goal. Thus, different strategies have been used to achieve the defusion of thought.
1. Make the thought explicit
If we make the negative thought explicit (formulate it as a statement), that It will help us to be more aware of it and perceive it for what it is, just a thought.. In this way we will try to make the subject differentiate thought from reality.
For example, if we return to the situation where the mother has thoughts of harming her child, she should express the thought as “I am not a bad mother, I do not have to harm my child.” We see how we contradict the idea of believing we are a bad mother and raise the possibility of not carrying out such behavior; this belief is not reality and is avoidable.
2. Exposure to thought
Exposure is one of the most used techniques to combat and treat intrusive or negative thoughts. This It consists of not trying to eliminate such a thought and allowing it to arise to verify that such a thought is not fulfilled.; It will help the subject to realize that thought is not reality and that thinking something does not mean that it will happen. Facing the thought will be the only way to verify that it is not real and it is illogical to conceive it as true.
3. Downward arrow technique
This is a strategy used to understand and thus be able to confront the dysfunctional beliefs behind negative thoughts. In this way we can begin by asking ourselves more superficial questions to finally uncover and be able to work on the cause, the belief, that generates these negative thoughts.
You may be interested: “The downward arrow technique: what it is and how it is used in therapy”
4. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a technique that aims to pay attention to present experience and accept it. In this way, we focus on our thoughts without trying to control or modify them, we will simply let them pass. Thus, we will ensure that the subject is more aware of what he thinks and classifies it as such, as internal cognitive processes produced by him that may have no relationship with reality.
