Could repressing negative thoughts actually lead to improved mental health?

  • 📰 fmtoday
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 54 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 25%
  • Publisher: 72%

Health Health Headlines News

Health Health Latest News,Health Health Headlines

Contrary to popular belief that issues and feelings need to be addressed, new research suggests keeping them out of mind could be beneficial.

New research suggests that the accepted narrative of talking about and disentangling one’s issues may not be the only effective approach.

“The whole point of psychotherapy is to dredge up these thoughts so one can deal with them and rob them of their power. We’ve been told that suppressing thoughts is intrinsically ineffective and that it actually causes people to think the thought more.” Together with Dr Zulkayda Mamat, also affiliated with the University of Cambridge, he set out to determine whether it was possible to train people to suppress their negative thoughts.

The participants were then asked to rate each scenario according to a number of criteria – including the associated level of anxiety or happiness, or frequency of thought and emotional intensity – and then self-assess their mental health via a questionnaire. This enabled the researchers to detect, for example, those suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress.

Published in the journal “Science Advances”, this work showed that the events the participants tried to ignore were less present in their thoughts and preoccupied them much less, whether immediately after the experiment or three months later.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 5. in HEALTH

Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Health DG: Take preventive measures to reduce effects of haze on healthPUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Health (MoH) advised the public in areas with unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings to take preventive measures to r...
Source: theSundaily - 🏆 25. / 51 Read more »

MOH on alert for emergence of Disease X in MalaysiaPUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry (MOH) is on alert and is preparedness to face Disease X if it appears in this country, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan.
Source: staronline - 🏆 4. / 75 Read more »

Disease X: Ministry on alert for its emergence in Malaysia, says Health D-GPUTRAJAYA, Oct 2 — The Health Ministry (MOH) is on the alert with a high level of preparedness to face the possibility of Disease X appearing in this country, said Health...
Source: malaymail - 🏆 1. / 86 Read more »