Ironic Process Theory
You are in the middle of a movie and you are suddenly shown a man killing a bird.
You’re shocked.
You’re upset.
You don’t like thinking about people killing birds or animals.
So what do you do? You try to suppress this thought.
You keep telling yourself to think of something else.
Maybe rainbows in the sky or puppies playing in the garden.
But you soon find yourself again thinking about the very thing you are trying to suppress.
If something like this has happened to you, then what you experienced is called the ironic process theory also known as ironic rebound or white bear problem.
WTH is a White Bear
By reading this heading the first thing you imagined in your head is probably a white bear.
Now do me a favour and stop thinking about it.
Unable to stop? If yes, then why not try harder?
The very act of you trying to suppress that thought will act as a fuel to make you reimagine it or remember it more often.
Thus making the problem worse.
This is why it is called the white bear problem because once you try to go get it out of your mind, you reinforce its position.
Rumination & Pain
There are times where people read the symptoms of a particular ailment on the web and soon find themselves feeling those symptoms.
And to be fair to them, what they feel is real.
Real as in it exists in their mind but not necessarily caused by the ailment.
I remember a few years back I got scratched by a puppy I was trying to rescue.
I didn’t think of it much when it happened but a few hours later I realised that I could get rabies from it, if the puppy was infected.
I took my anti-rabies shots and things were fine that day.
The next day, I woke up and started reading about rabies symptoms.
In the days that followed every time I drank water, I started feeling as if my food pipe was being congested. Or when I would wake up from a nap, I would imagine that my jaw was starting to get loosen up or that I was having liquid discharge from my mouth.
I wanted to stop these thoughts so I started to give myself affirmations that they are not real. I kept repeating it every time it happened and soon it became involuntary.
This in-turn made my rumination worse.
It happened back in 2016 and I didn’t have rabies.
But the fact that I felt those symptoms without them actually being there is due to my act of trying to suppress these thoughts which manifested into somatic symptoms.
For me it was rabies, for you it might be something else.
And ironic rebound becomes worse when you are stressed.
So now you know why this happens.
Memory and Ironic Rebound
The one useful thing about the ironic rebound is that it can make things stick in your memory for a long time. You can actually use it build a better memory.
Let’s do a quick experiment - try memorising this string of digits (726523446355336)
Now try recalling it in order.
How many did you get right? Most people can’t get more than 7.
Here is another way to do the same thing. Read the following sentence and visualise it:
Stabbed by George right in her eyes, Jill pulled the knife right out her socket.
Now repeat it a couple of times.
Now try forgetting it or suppressing it.
Now write it down.
Count the number of letters in each word and you have your number.
Which of these was easier to remember and if you had to recall this number in a couple of days, which one do you think will give you better results?
I would wager that it is the sentence instead of raw numbers.
When you create a memory you want to actively suppress, you’ll remember it better in the long term.
Tackling Ironic Rebound
Think about it this way, it is a problem because you are trying to fight it.
Firstly, you need to accept that you are not going to get rid of these thoughts. Especially the ones that are against your values or morals.
The easiest way to manage this is to accept that it is going to be there.
Having impulses of eating a pizza when you are trying to cut weight? Try accepting the fact that craving for pizza is normal and that they don’t have to define your state of being.
So that’s it! Let me know your thoughts by replying to this email.
Just FYI, if you are having a hard time managing the rumination on negative thoughts then you might have mental health issues like OCD or Depression. So please consult a medical professional. I personally have Pure OCD and chronic depression for the past 12 years and I would not have been able to manage it without professional help.
So please don’t hesitate to get professional help.
Thanks for reading.