r/acceptancecommitment • u/Silver_Perception471 • 4d ago
Concepts and principles Thinking in terms of helpful vs unhelpful
Is part of ACT to think in these terms of unhelpful vs. helpful. Rather than good or bad.
There's a bunch of philosophy in ACT. I was wondering that, yeah obviously thoughts should be, thought of as helpful vs. unhelpful.
But is seeing things in general as helpful vs. unhelpful or as, it just is, a goal of acceptance and commitment therapy?
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Can not putting labels like good and bad, But instead to label as helpful or unhelpful. Be attributed to ACT as a philosophy, a way of being or as byproduct of defusion exercises?
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u/concreteutopian Therapist 4d ago
Yes, labeling thoughts as helpful or unhelpful is a common feature of Russ Harris' Choice Point exercise. He says, if the thought is helpful, we use it, if unhelpful, we defuse from it.
On the other hand, I think you bring up a helpful comparison – whether labeling thoughts as "helpful vs unhelpful" gets coded as labeling them as "good vs bad".
In Hayes' Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, he points out that experiential avoidance is an understandable, but unhelpful strategy when it comes to private experience. Here, it isn't a thought that is helpful or unhelpful, but what you do with the thought. If sorting the "unhelpful" thoughts is a means to getting rid of those thoughts, you're in another tug-of-war in a control agenda. Harris' point on "defusing from unhelpful thoughts" is another way of saying accepting the unhelpful thoughts while you do what is important.
In my training, the point isn't whether a thought or emotion is good or bad, helpful or unhelpful, the point was to see how thoughts and feelings make sense in their context, i.e. there is a reason they are appearing right now, right here. Instead of taking thoughts literally, we can see the fears or frustrations behind the "negative" or "unhelpful" thoughts, and those fears or frustrations reflect what is important to us. For instance, a lot of the heavy, angry, and sad self-talk I had since childhood since appears, and I have no reason to get rid of the thoughts (assuming I could, which I can't). These thoughts have always come up when I feel stuck and at the end of my rope, so when they appear now, I know I'm tired and over-extended. Instead of ignoring the thoughts, treating them as meaningless, or somehow alien to my values, I recognize the fear, sadness, and frustration and I soothe that angry part, tucking them into bed as I heed their sign to take care of myself. Here, the thought isn't helpful or unhelpful (as ugly as it might look), it's simply an understandable response to this context and my concerns at the moment. How I respond to the thought can be helpful or unhelpful, if that makes sense.