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Thought-action fusion
Category of painful thinking or beliefs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Thought-Action Fusion (TAF) is the tendency for individuals to assume that certain thoughts either increase the likelihood of catastrophic events (likelihood-TAF) or imply the immorality of their character (morality-TAF).[1][2]
In more technical terms, TAF is a polyseme defining false beliefs or self-confusing mind wandering about a biased and painful association/fusion between subjects' spontaneous thoughts and imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities.[3][4] These imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities generally express harmful actions/behaviours (e.g., compulsions) that subjects appraise as highly possible, even though they have never existed so far.[3][4][5]
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Causes
The main causes of TAF are (one or several) hold false beliefs that mind-wandering episodes involving cognitive/interpretation biases have generated, from specific patterns of intrusive thoughts.[3][4][5] Besides, a high level of negative affectivity is a mediator in the statistical relations between TAF and the existence of psychological pains (e.g. anxiety, depression and shame), or some mental disorders.[3][4]
Examples
An ADAA webinar highlighted several examples of TAF,[6] such as:
Categories
The two main categories of TAF are the:
- Likelihood TAF, i.e. anxious and false beliefs (e.g. magical thinking) assuming that specific intrusive thoughts would trigger the (thought) harmful events in the future;[3][5]
- Moral TAF, i.e. uncertainty-evoking and false beliefs that specific intrusive thoughts about religiously or ethically/morally inappropriate behaviours, are as reprehensible or shameful as actually performing the intrusive thoughts' content.[3][4]
Diagnosis
Simple interviews with specific health professionals (e.g. psychologists, psychiatrists) allow diagnosing TAF; there also exists a reliable psychometrics/estimator which is the: thought-action fusion questionnaire/scale.[7][8]
Disorders
TAF happens in the anxiety disorders (e.g. GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorders (e.g. pure O) and eating disorders (e.g. anorexia); it generally worsens the mental disorders' severities or outcomes, irrespective of the treatments.[3][9][5]
Treatments
The main medial treatments for TAF are the cognitive-behavioral therapies,[3] but mindfulness therapies like the acceptance and commitment therapy may also help.[10][11] Moreover medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may increase the psychotherapy efficiency,[12] by alleviating the psychological pains the TAF induces—see section on Causes.
See also
References
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