Going to therapy has become commonplace. With so many people struggling with depression, anxiety and PTSD, it only seems to make sense in a world where we are told that suppressing feelings, fears or anxieties can have detrimental effects on one’s mental well-being. But what if the idea of suppression was wrong? What if the real answer to solving these mental health crises isn’t to dig out the issues, and feelings and express them, but rather to actually suppress them? This startling take is currently roaring through the back halls of mental health practitioners everywhere, and being spoken about at their conferences and it’s all based on new research out of the University of Cambridge.
According to findings by Michael Anderson, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, suppressing negative thoughts might, in fact, lead to improvements in symptoms related to anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Published in the journal Science Advances, Anderson and his co-author conducted a study involving 120 adults from 16 different countries. Each participant was tasked with listing 20 fears about potential future events, 20 hopes, and 36 neutral events, such as a routine visit to the eye doctor.
These fears had to be specific and recurrent sources of distress, not generic concerns like “I’m worried that aliens will invade Earth.” Participants then associated a word with each type of event. For instance, if someone feared their parents falling seriously ill with Covid, their associated word might be “hospital.”
Half of the participants were instructed to focus on one of their negative words for a few seconds without letting their thoughts wander into more distressing territory. The other half received a similar assignment, but with their neutral words.
“You’re instructed: If something pops into your mind, even briefly, to push it out,” explained Anderson. “Furthermore, don’t distract yourself. Don’t think about lunch.”
This exercise was repeated 12 times daily for three days. At the end of the experiment, those who had suppressed and blocked out negative thoughts and feelings reported that their fears were less vivid, and their mental health had improved compared to the group tasked with suppressing neutral thoughts. These results remained consistent three months after the study concluded.
Participants who had initially reported high levels of anxiety experienced, on average, a 44% reduction in their self-reported worries. For individuals with PTSD, their overall negative mental health, as measured by a combination of self-reported anxiety, depression, and worry, decreased by an average of 16%, while their positive mental health increased by nearly 10%.
“The individuals with the highest trait anxiety and the highest PTSD were the ones who benefited the most,” noted Anderson. “Interestingly, we did not observe any instances of negative symptoms increasing as a result of this intervention.”
Moreover, suppressing negative feelings and thoughts appeared to reduce the likelihood of participants’ mental health issues worsening over time.
Three months later, approximately 80% of the participants reported that they continued to apply the thought suppression techniques they had learned during the study to manage their fears. Anderson and his team actively sought signs of fears resurfacing or intensifying but found no evidence of this. This suggests that training the brain to block out negative thoughts may be a valuable tool for addressing anxiety, depression, and PTSD, both within therapy sessions and as a self-help strategy.
Anderson believes that once people are taught these techniques, they can apply them independently. However, Jan Wessel, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Iowa, cautions against immediate clinical adoption, stating that more research is needed. Nevertheless, he acknowledges the study’s encouraging findings.
The study challenges traditional approaches advocated by figures like Sigmund Freud, who emphasized talking through negative thoughts rather than suppressing them. Freud regarded repression as a defence mechanism that provides momentary relief but ultimately leads to subconscious influences. Anderson believes that Freud’s approach may not be suitable for the majority of negative thoughts.
However, it’s essential to note that some individuals may benefit from an opposing approach. Controlled exposure therapy, for example, can help reduce phobias or PTSD by gradually exposing individuals to their feared objects or activities.
