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Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

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Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#71

Post by [deleted] »

jongjong wrote: post #56
captainbland wrote: post #54

I suppose it wouldn't be that surprising. Mindfulness for instance teaches you to "let go" of thoughts - which is really just a gentle form of suppression. CBT encourages you to redirect existing negative thoughts in a positive/constructive direction - ultimately steering you away from or undermining the original negative thought - but does not encourage you to do a deep dive on it. Not to mention that Freud was a qu…

The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions. I'm a strong believer that you have to confront negative thoughts and resolve underlying issues as soon as they arise and not neglect them and tell yourself that everything is going to be OK. It's not going to be OK. Murphy's law; what can go w…

[deleted]

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#72

Post by shandor »

jongjong wrote: post #56
captainbland wrote: post #54

I suppose it wouldn't be that surprising. Mindfulness for instance teaches you to "let go" of thoughts - which is really just a gentle form of suppression. CBT encourages you to redirect existing negative thoughts in a positive/constructive direction - ultimately steering you away from or undermining the original negative thought - but does not encourage you to do a deep dive on it. Not to mention that Freud was a qu…

The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions. I'm a strong believer that you have to confront negative thoughts and resolve underlying issues as soon as they arise and not neglect them and tell yourself that everything is going to be OK. It's not going to be OK. Murphy's law; what can go w…

> The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions.

I guess the whole point, and better way of putting the original idea is to resolve the negative thoughts. If the thoughts are trivial, just suppressing them is mostly resolution enough, since trivial thoughts are most probably not going to come back.

If the underlying reason for the negative thought is major and has staying power due to reality (e.g. you lost your mother when you were young), I think it's probable that the thought pattern is not going to go away if the reality underneath is not resolved (e.g. to actually learn to cope with your loss).

Because eventually, reality will force you to confront these things at some point, because it's, well, reality. If you just keep suppressing these negative thoughts, they will just keep coming back and you're not really winning that much.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#73

Post by vasco »

jongjong wrote: post #56
captainbland wrote: post #54

I suppose it wouldn't be that surprising. Mindfulness for instance teaches you to "let go" of thoughts - which is really just a gentle form of suppression. CBT encourages you to redirect existing negative thoughts in a positive/constructive direction - ultimately steering you away from or undermining the original negative thought - but does not encourage you to do a deep dive on it. Not to mention that Freud was a qu…

The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions. I'm a strong believer that you have to confront negative thoughts and resolve underlying issues as soon as they arise and not neglect them and tell yourself that everything is going to be OK. It's not going to be OK. Murphy's law; what can go w…

A negative thought is just a thought, it's not like you need to actively not take care of real life things or errands. But if you find yourself thinking about death, or about how much your childhood sucked, or that you're good for nothing, you don't need to address anything about those thoughts.

The least time you spend on them the better, nothing good comes from dwelling.

I can't understand people that want to re-live or push through some negative thoughts "because it'll get better eventually". To me it seems like you're just making yourself numb, and it's got to be at the expense or something. You become so beaten down from them they don't hurt you anymore. I'd rather just not think about bad stuff, they come my away and I go away from them and I get to keep my "mental innocence". Why go through a long road when there's an immediate escape hatch?

Said in a similar way, I could prepare for bad things to come. I know my parents will die. Should I think about that non-stop and feel sad everyday I do it just so I'll feel less sad when they die? Sounds ridiculous.

I have zero desire to "understand" why some thoughts come sometimes, I just want to move past them as fast as possible.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#74

Post by manuelmoreale »

chmod600 wrote: post #58
jongjong wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions. I'm a strong believer that you have to confront negative thoughts and resolve underlying issues as soon as they arise and not neglect them and tell yourself that everything is going to be OK. It's not going to be OK. Murphy's law; what can go w…

Well, maybe or maybe not. A lot of the negative thoughts I have are somewhat fleeting, and if I revisit them the next day they seem pretty trivial and I could probably dismiss them sooner. Others might be more meaningful, perhaps a character flaw that you don't want to think about, but without really processing it it will never get fixed and keep causing more problems.

The fleeting part is essentially what certain types of meditation are all about.

Negative thoughts and emotions have to actively be fueled by something in order to persist.

And if you spend some time by simply observing those thoughts from a non judgmental stand point they’ll quickly disappear.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#75

Post by nazgul17 »

jongjong wrote: post #56
captainbland wrote: post #54

I suppose it wouldn't be that surprising. Mindfulness for instance teaches you to "let go" of thoughts - which is really just a gentle form of suppression. CBT encourages you to redirect existing negative thoughts in a positive/constructive direction - ultimately steering you away from or undermining the original negative thought - but does not encourage you to do a deep dive on it. Not to mention that Freud was a qu…

The trouble with suppressing negative thoughts in the long run is that, eventually, reality may force you to confront them all at once and under far more difficult conditions. I'm a strong believer that you have to confront negative thoughts and resolve underlying issues as soon as they arise and not neglect them and tell yourself that everything is going to be OK. It's not going to be OK. Murphy's law; what can go w…

I think there's an important difference between a negative thought about X and an introspective but emotionally more neutral thought about X.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#76

Post by maxbond »

cf141q5325 wrote: post #68
maxbond wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regularly dismiss thoughts that are distressing but not at all necessary to dwell on. For instance, sometimes when I'm working, a certain problem I'm having or technology I'm working with will remind me of some stressful work situation I've had in the past. There's no reason to relitigate some bullshit that happened years ago, so I do my best to set it aside. I'm not ignoring any important reality, none of that mat…

Thanks for the feedback. I think this boils down to your ability to determine what is beneficial to revisit and what isnt. I would argue if you are able to differentiate the two reliably and are further able to tell that >There's nothing further for me to learn from the situation its unlikely that you are suppressing anything. To be at that point you have to had dealt with it already and are just not getting hung up…

For sure. That is how I would generally use "suppress," I think that's the common conception, but the article seems to be using it more in the sense of shrugging something off; they're asking participants to refrain from imagining certain scenarios while presenting them with stressors.

I agree about language and it's been my experience that many disagreements boil down to using different definitions for the same term. Tangentially, I have a personal project that's a sort of "individual urban dictionary" to try and help people avoid such confusion, by enabling them to define their terminology and provide links to it, but it's on the back burner.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#77

Post by jl6 »

Where does suppressing negative thoughts end, and reality denial begin? There are many unpleasant realities that we must learn to cope with that cannot just be ignored or forgotten.

Credit card debt is a source of negative thoughts for many - and not just low-level grumbles, but genuinely distressing anxiety. People kill themselves over their financial difficulties. But having a debt is definitely not something we should encourage people to suppress, because it gets worse if left unattended.

It’s not just mundane realities like debt that are potentially dangerous if ignored. Should you try to suppress negative thoughts about pain, or worries about a growth on your skin, instead of seeking medical treatment?

What should we do with delusional or criminal people who believe something about themselves that is plainly wrong? Should a kleptomaniac seek to affirm their behavior, or should they confront themselves?

How can we tell the difference between the thoughts that are safe and healthy to ignore, and those upon which light should be shone?

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#78

Post by xyzzyz »

somenameforme wrote: post #60
phailhaus wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're stable and self-perpetuating, that doesn't make them better. There are plenty of abhorrent beliefs that also "stood the test of time".

Thinking about the fertility crisis facing most of the world has made me rethink the foundations of a 'good' society. People who have more education, income, intelligence, and secularity are simply not reproducing in anywhere even remotely near sustainable levels. So what's going to happen? These traits will naturally be removed from society, up until the point that this trend reverses. So we will essentially be defa…

> Because in some ways society really is a sort of expanding zero-sum game. When one group declines, another group defacto rises.

Yeah, in exponential processes, the exact value of the base matters exponentially.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#79

Post by m463 »

jl6 wrote: post #77

Where does suppressing negative thoughts end, and reality denial begin? There are many unpleasant realities that we must learn to cope with that cannot just be ignored or forgotten. Credit card debt is a source of negative thoughts for many - and not just low-level grumbles, but genuinely distressing anxiety. People kill themselves over their financial difficulties. But having a debt is definitely not something we sh…

> Where does suppressing negative thoughts end, and reality denial begin?

Personally I think that juncture is where procrastination lives.

Re: Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

#80

Post by mdp2021 »

jl6 wrote: post #77

Where does suppressing negative thoughts end, and reality denial begin? There are many unpleasant realities that we must learn to cope with that cannot just be ignored or forgotten. Credit card debt is a source of negative thoughts for many - and not just low-level grumbles, but genuinely distressing anxiety. People kill themselves over their financial difficulties. But having a debt is definitely not something we sh…

> How can we tell the difference

If you have to act upon it, think about it - in a strategic modality;

if running your mind about it is just wasting your energies, don't.

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