RE from a New Member : I believe the key is to let yourself experience.......

[Guest guest]

hi

i am a new member here. I wish i could read everyones posts as all these posts

r full of so much valuable information. Unfortuanely i am able to do merely a

couple a day, but today i came across 2, one by vcferrara and the reply by

P. Forsyth.

Since i am sorta new to Act, just been a year, i had a few questions:

thank you vferrara i loved reading ur post. However i did get a bit confused

with the begining part. Perhaps it's coz of the limited knowdlege i have about

this therpay, but i wanted to bring it up..

<<< We can diffuse thoughts all day and night, but if we keep it up on the mind

level, and are never willing to experience the feelings that these thoughts are

there to protect us from experiencing (because you believe you can't handle

them), then you are going to be living with this mental suffering forever...it's

always going to be looming in the background, big or small>>>

To me when ACT talks about defusing thoughts, it is NOT implying diffusing

thoughts, BUT still having it on the mind level where it is always looming in

the backgroud. This way infact would not be defusing em but be more like efforts

to supress/rid/change/rid/restructure em...hence not letting urself even

experiencing the feelings/emotions that come with the thought.

When a negative thought comes in, it is IMMEDIATELY followed by a (unpleasant)

feeling/emotion/sensation. We catch the unpleasant feelings/emotions/sensations

right away, becoz there is a neg. self evaluation/ judgement fused to it,

However where we struggle is trying to catch the underlying negative thought

that is causing this.

ACT teaches us how to do this. Catch it in flight.

Defusion in ACT is not just defusion of the negative thought BUT also defusing

urself from the self-evaluation and judgement that comes with feeling the

unpleasant sensations/emotions.

So if u diffuse urself from the thought, u r never disfusing urself from the

feelings/emotions, infact u r simply distancing urself from the thought,

evaluation and judgement , so u can allow those feelings/emotions/sensations to

come and go, experience them for just what they r ..i.e. simply unpleasant

feelings/emotions/sensations....

Hence DEFUSION in ACT is more like

Learning to perceive thoughts ( & images, beliefs, emotions, memories) as what

they r, not what they appear to be and allowing them to come and go without

struggling with them

Asking urself is that thought helpful to u, helps u move in the right direction.

Asking urself does the thought really need any more attention or action

getting some distance from those neg. thoughts

Not view our thoughts as our reason whether to do or not do some action.

Aim of diffusion: it is merely to change our relationship with our thoughts and

not to suppress/control/get rid of our thoughts.

If i have misunderstood ur first paragraph, i apologize. And i could be wrong

parts of my undertstanding of ACT .

like I mentioned ,i am new to this group, and fairly new to this form of

therapy. But am not new to anxiety.

Infact i have always called myself an Anxiety Sufferer but after having gone

thought ACT & MBCT , i now like to think of myself as An Anxiety Embracer

and now my favorite mindfulness exercise is

" Welcome Anxiety, my old Friend:-) "

wasalaam