For decades, the prevailing belief in psychology has been that confronting and processing unwanted thoughts is essential for mental well-being, while suppressing them is seen as maladaptive. This perspective, dating back to Sigmund Freud, has guided therapeutic practices and popular wisdom alike. However, recent research challenges this conventional wisdom, suggesting that selectively suppressing certain unwanted thoughts may actually improve mental health.
A recent study, published in Science Advances, indicates that training individuals to avoid dwelling on unwanted thoughts can have a lasting positive impact on their mental well-being, even reducing symptoms of depression for up to three months following the training.
The Power of Selective Thought Suppression
Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit conducted this groundbreaking study involving 120 participants from 16 countries. The cohort consisted of individuals with and without a history of mental health problems, recruited via social media and other channels.
Participants were asked to compile lists of 20 negative “fears and worries” that could potentially happen in the next two years, 20 positive “hopes and dreams,” and 36 neutral events. Each event was associated with a cue word and a key detail from the imagined scenario.
The training involved 20 minutes of thought suppression via videoconferencing. One group, labeled “suppress-negative,” was instructed to vividly imagine their negative events and then suppress any thoughts about them when prompted by the cue word. The other group, called “suppress-neutral,” was asked to vividly imagine neutral events. Participants performed these exercises 12 times a day for three days.
Surprising Results and Their Implications
Immediate post-training assessments revealed that participants who were instructed to suppress unwanted thoughts were less likely to recall the key details of the negative events, and these thoughts were less vivid. Notably, this effect was not uniform among all participants.
Three months later, the researchers conducted follow-up assessments, which yielded intriguing findings. Participants who had been trained to suppress their thoughts exhibited lower vividness and recall of the negative events they had been concerned about.
Remarkably, individuals with more severe mental health symptoms at the outset of the study experienced more substantial improvements in their mental health three months later, but only if they had been instructed to suppress their thoughts. Among participants with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), those who practiced thought suppression saw their mental health indices scores increase by nearly 10%, in stark contrast to a 1% decrease among those who did not suppress their thoughts. These mental health indices encompassed both negative impacts (e.g., anxiety, depression, worry) and positive impacts (e.g., enhanced well-being).
This research challenges long-standing assumptions about thought suppression and underscores the complexity of the human mind. While it suggests that selective thought suppression can yield mental health benefits, it is crucial to recognize that individual experiences may vary. Further exploration of these findings holds the potential to reshape our understanding of how we navigate and manage our thoughts for better mental well-being.
