Given that disturbing actualizing thoughts refer to events that have already happened or that may happen in the future, we can do nothing to intervene on them, therefore, we must focus the coping strategy on their content and how to control them.
One way to do this is through other thoughts, that is, we must think about them (use a cognitive process to confront another cognitive process). If you want to know how to control negative obsessive thoughts we invite you to continue reading this PsychologyFor article.
Coping strategies lead us to focus on the mental mechanism of metacognitiondefined by developmental psychologist JH Flavell as: ““the knowledge of one’s own cognitive processes, the results of these processes and any aspect that is related to them.”, that is, thinking about what we are thinking and how we do it. Metacognition involves a set of intellectual operations associated with the knowledge, control and regulation of the cognitive mechanisms that intervene in a person collecting, evaluating and producing information; To do this, it shapes what we pay attention to and the factors that enter consciousness, as well as the evaluations of cognitive content.
The problem created by Updating disturbing thought is that when it emerges into consciousness it takes control of the mind and demands all the attention on it. PPA can present as a recurring thought in an obsessive-compulsive disorder and make treatment very difficult.
However, we must not forget that the PPA emerges driven by the emotional system that is autonomous, which makes it difficult to control with mere will or through other contradictory thinking. One way to overcome this difficulty is to replace the PPA in our conscious mind with another thought that is accompanied by a positive emotion that counteracts the negative emotion of the PPA (the excitement about something is the most effective emotion to counteract negative emotions).
People with a tendency to obsessive thoughts
To know how to recognize disturbing thoughts, we must understand that individual differences also affect their appearance. One thing to keep in mind is that not all people have the same ability to control negative obsessive thoughts<
In this sense we can ask ourselves, as does the clinical psychologist Adrian Wells (2009): What causes one person to be able to ignore these thoughts while another sinks into deep and prolonged discomfort? Wells’s proposal is that metacognitions are responsible for healthy or pathological control, and he maintains that what determines the emotions a person experiences and his control over them does not depend merely on what he thinks, but on how he thinks about that.
People become trapped in emotional distress because their metacognition gives rise to a particular way of responding to internal experience (disturbing thoughts and emotions) that maintains the emotion and strengthens negative ideas (for example, in people affected by an anxious state). or depressed, attention remains fixed on the PPA in the form of rumination, thus reinforcing these states and making their improvement difficult).
It is, according to Wells, a pattern or style of thinking called Cognitive Attentional Syndrome (SCA), which is made up of the following processes:
Rumination
Worry
Fixed attention
Negative coping behaviors or emotional self-regulation strategies
Neural explanation of obsessive thoughts
Likewise, but from a scientific perspective, neuroscientist Michael Anderson points out that a factor that intervenes in the different ability of people to control PPA is the amount of the neurotransmitter GABA (the main chemical substance that inhibits signals in the brain).
In a recent study published in Nature Communications, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, he discovered that the amount of GABA in the hippocampus served to predict the ability to suppress thoughts. According to Anderson: “The more GABA you have, the better you will control your thoughts.””. In other words, if the prefrontal cortex contains the ability to slow down the mind, the amount of GABA in the hippocampus will be the determinant of the effectiveness of the brain’s braking (a “stop” command from the prefrontal cortex suppresses the activity of the hippocampus).
How to identify disturbing thoughts
1. Cognitive evaluation
If the update is for the memory of a past event, we should contrast whether the content of the disturbing thought really coincides with the real event and/or its consequences (veracity test), or, on the contrary, contains important gaps, errors or distortions that could influence the negative meaning. that we attribute to him. To do this, questions such as:
Could there be different interpretations for that event, other ways of seeing it?
Has it really had the consequences that I attribute to it?
Could I have acted differently?
Contrasting content with reality can offer two options:
Thinking about certain facts: The thought describes a past event and/or its consequences that accurately reflects the reality of what happened.
Thinking about distorted facts: The thought does not faithfully correspond to the reality of the event that occurred, it is distorted by uncertain information or unfounded beliefs of the person that masks the real event; or, although it represents and describes a true reality, it attributes improbable or disproportionate negative consequences to it.
If the update is by anticipation of a possible future event, it would be necessary to evaluate the probability of the feared event happening and its possible consequences, as well as assess their significance, since it is likely that an exaggerated probabilistic inference has been made about it. You have to ask yourself: why am I so sure it will happen? Would it be so horrible if it happened?
2. Emotional evaluation
When a Updating disturbing thought We experience an emotional reaction to those memories of the past or ghosts of tomorrow that threaten our present. It involves identifying the emotions it awakens (anger, sadness, frustration, fear, guilt, etc.) and analyzing whether this emotional reaction is justified, that is, whether its intensity, duration and frequency is proportional to the importance and real consequences. of the event.
3.Ranswerbehavioral
Observe if the PPA drives us to inappropriate behavior due to the context (alcohol, drugs, violence, decay, social isolation, etc.). It must be taken into account that there is always a relationship between the disturbing thought, the emotional state and the behavior, so that each component will affect and be affected by the other two. A consequence of this relationship is that by acting successfully in the cognitive and/or behavioral aspect, the intensity and/or frequency of emotional activation is reduced.
This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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