Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all

Post by 93po » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 3:00 PM UTC

danw1979 wrote: post #105

For a few years after the death of my baby daughter, I’d relive the events of that day pretty regularly, looking for some kind of meaning, pattern, lesson to be learned maybe. I’d also continually wonder what she’d be like now she was 3, 4 years old, etc. This was making me incredibly sad. Eventually, I just had to forget that day, forget her, stop thinking about what her life would have been like, and get on with en…

Post by jimkleiber » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 3:22 PM UTC

corethree wrote: post #91

jimkleiber wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the "someone who sees the truth of the world is more likely to be clinically depressed" is related to seeing a truth and not expressing it. Lately I've really been starting to wonder if depression is the opposite of expression. Or in other words, instead of pushing feelings/thoughts out (ex-press), we push them down (de-press). I can say from my experience when I feel very confident that I see what's happ…

No it's not specifically about what you're talking about. People are literally being delusional here. There's a ton science behind this phenomenon. You can listen to that podcast it's quite interesting. Basically they can do quantitative experiments where they have groups of people rate others about how attractive they are 1-10 and through this gather an average rating about someones attractiveness. Then they have th…

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 3:51 PM UTC

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…

Post by cf141q5325 » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 4:06 PM UTC

maxbond wrote: post #76

cf141q5325 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Post by whatyesaid » Fri, Sep 22, 2023, 4:25 PM UTC

WendyTheWillow wrote: post #132

whatyesaid wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're telling me to read a paper you haven't read yourself? COVID was not controlled for. A three month study says nothing about mental health which is intrinsically long-term: this decides to observe short-term effects. I am not even satisfied with the very definition of 'negative thoughts' which at least should fall under multiple categories and studied differently.

Cool; briefly, can you describe your credentials? Why should anyone care what you think about this study?