Exploring and Responding to Extreme and Unusual Beliefs

We all have distressing thoughts from time to time. Maybe we’re remembering something traumatic that happened to us in the past, maybe we’re worried about something terrible that could potentially happen to us in the future, or maybe we’re focused on something negative that is happening in the present.

Sometimes these thoughts are firmly rooted in reality. The reality of what has happened, a clear and factual description of what is happening, or a realistic appraisal of what might actually happen in the future. However, sometimes this grounding in reality is a little more tenuous. Human memory is flawed, past experiences can change how we perceive (or what we focus on) in the present, and anxiety can sometimes lead us to think about only the worst case scenarios, particularly at times when we don’t feel safe.

Sometimes our thoughts might even veer into paranoia or suspiciousness, or might involve beliefs about things that other people find irrational or even bizarre (for example, the belief that we have special powers, or the belief that others in our life are not who they say they are). These types of “unusual beliefs”, which are sometimes referred to as delusions, can often occur in the context of psychosis, and other people will note that these beliefs simply “don’t make sense”. That said, one of the things that most psychologists who work with psychosis will tell you is that even thoughts that seem to not make sense often do make sense if you understand where they are coming from. We are all a product of our learning histories. The past experiences that we have had, and the things that we have learned about ourselves, other people, and the world around us, shape the way that we make sense of our current experience and the predictions that we make about things that have yet to happen. Thus, even thoughts that sometimes get written off as “irrational” or “bizarre”, or that make people think that we are not in touch with reality, are often just more extreme versions of thoughts that would make complete sense to anyone that fully understood an individual’s history and life experiences.

So… a key message here is that even “unusual” thoughts may not be as unusual as they appear at first glance. However, that doesn’t mean that these thoughts might not still be problematic, particularly if they are causing us a great deal of distress, or if they are getting in the way of our living the life that we want to live. Our thoughts can be sticky, and when these sticky thoughts are getting in our way, we need to try to see if we might be able to get even a little unstuck.

One of the things that we know about the human brain is that when we firmly believe things, when we are already convinced that they are true, then we tend to notice the things that confirm our beliefs and we sometimes even dismiss the evidence that doesn’t support these beliefs. For example, if we believe that people want to harm us, then it makes sense that our brain will be on alert for signs that people look threatening, that we notice when people aren’t particularly nice to us, or that we assume that others have bad intentions. We notice the things that are legitimately concerning, but we also may read into things that are ambiguous or that could potentially be interpreted in different ways. These ways of thinking are designed to keep us safe (because our survival is based on our ability to notice danger), but they also tend to reinforce the belief that our original unusual or distressing thoughts are, in fact, true and irrefutable.

It is also the case that when we firmly believe a thought to be true, but other people in our life are telling us that this is incorrect or that “it’s all in your head”, this tends not to be helpful. At best, the other people who are telling us this are often experienced as being dismissive or as not on our side, and at worst, this actually makes us believe the distressing thought even more. One of the things that we know from psychological research is that the more we argue in favour of a position or a belief, the more we tend to believe it.

However, when we approach our unusual or distressing thoughts with our own curiosity and a stance of flexibility, we allow for an openness to change or to alter the thoughts that may not be entirely accurate or helpful for us. We do not need to assume that our thoughts aren’t true, because obviously they come from somewhere. Rather, we want to start from a place of openness to the idea that our thoughts may or may not be true. Perhaps our thought is partially true. Maybe it is true some of the time, or in some situations, but not in others. It’s also possible that this thought was entirely true at one point in time, but that this is no longer the case.

When we start from the premise that our distressing thoughts “may or may not be true”, it allows for the flexibility to explore different options. This may include increasing our openness to different types of evidence (both the evidence that supports the distressing beliefs and also the evidence that might suggest that the beliefs are not entirely true all of the time) and increasing our openness to alternative explanations for why certain things may be happening or why people may be behaving in particular ways. It can often be hard to do this on our own, which is why many people find it helpful to engage in exploratory dialogue with a therapist or a trusted other with whom they can generate ideas, or others find it useful to engage with self-help resources that are designed to increase flexibility in thinking. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and cognitive behavioural therapy for psychosis (CBTp) are evidence-based treatments that have been designed to help individuals do just that.

We don’t need to stop and explore all of the thoughts that we have over the course of the day. To do so would be both unnecessary and impractical. However, if we have thoughts or if we are drawing interpretations that are causing us distress or that are preventing us from doing the things that we want to be doing, then these thoughts are worth exploring. When we can examine these thoughts with curiosity and openness to alternatives, we sometimes find that things are not as bad or as scary as we had assumed, we are able to place the appropriate amount of importance on things, and we are able to feel much less stuck and much more able to move forward with living our lives without the same level of distress or interference.