Does distraction have a place in ACT ?
Hi,
I have been reading Steven Hayes book "Get out of your Mind and into your Life". The overall concepts relate strongly with my own struggles with anxiety and panic attacks.
Although I agree that the path to healing lies in facing and accepting thoughts,feelings etc. What I have noticed is that although I am willing to accept my anxiety feelings if they keep going on for hours and hours I start to get impatient with them and the struggle sets in.
The book recommends setting a time limit to the amount of time you fully expose yourself to your feelings - but feelings don't just switch off after the time limit.
In these situations what would be the ACT response ? Personally I find I need do soemthing (like go for a walk or watch a movie) I know these are distractions to avoid the feelings but what is the alternative ?
Thanks
Mervyn
Distraction
I guess we spend most of the time in distraction anyway so being distracted is pretty natural - it's okay.
And maybe look at it the other way around - what is at the centre of what you want to be about? It seems like getting caught up with the stuff in your mind and struggling can be a distraction from that. We all have distractions, and they're okay.
What do we do with distractions?
One way is to accept that they are there - not necessarily getting into them or making them the centre of our lives, but acknowleding them and then returning to our life.
Another way is to distract ourselves from our distractions - of course the trouble with that is that we might still be distracted and lose touch with our lives even more?!
Is this adding distraction to distraction?
Distraction part of ACT?
Its not distraction that's the issue - is it what is done cognitively with the distraction - film / walk etc --- is it correct to suggest if the focus on the detail (in the moment?) i.e. to distinguish (in a film) the details of the film - light / shade.\, set design / those errors the edit room missed, or if walking - to focus on one of the sense - i.e. sound of your foot steps, differing exhaust sounds - would these suggestions fall in line with ACT when considering the issue of distraction?
take your feelings for a walk
The thing I notice is that if I go for a walk my feelings show up there or watch a movie they show up there perhaps attending to them whilst doing what you value isn't distraction - it is part of living
Issue of distraction
I agree the feelings can show up even when you engage in other activities. I also agree that it is wiser to accept the feelings rather than internally try to push them away ,so I do make the effort to welcome the feelings as I walk etc. What I do notice is that the INTENSITY of the feelings is more manageable when you are engaged in activities you like. If you are just sitting with a negative feeling and there is nothing else to interest the mind the signal strength can become more intense and maybe if you had years of acceptance training you could handle it - but I think for most people it would be wiser to take a break.
I did get a response from Steven Hayes and he said :
"I agree that you don't need to have the "acceptance accelerator" down to the floor
all the time. It is OK to take breaks -- just keep your eyes wide and learn from how they actually work."