Trying Not to Think About Smoking Leads to Increased Smoking

Unbound MEDLINE | I Suppress, Therefore I Smoke: Effects of Thought Suppression on Smoking Behavior. Journal article abstract

We know that trying not to think about something actually makes us think about it more.  Try not to think about a pink elephant.....how are you going?  You might notice that it takes effort to not think about something and that, in order to check how you are going in not thinking about the pink elephant, you have to keep asking yourself the question 'Have I thought about a pink elephant recently - D'oh!'


This study explored this concept of thought suppression with a group of smokers - some were asked to try to suppress thoughts of smoking and others were asked to express thoughts about smoking.  The thought suppression group initially smoked less but after a week they ended up smoking more. It is this initial success that leads us to believe that suppressing thoughts works in controlling our behaviour.


Even more importantly the more a smoker has a general tendency to suppress thoughts, the more times they have unsuccessfully tried to quit smoking.


Trying to control our thoughts takes emotional energy that could be better used to direct our behaviour towards our valued goals.   If we are able to let go of the idea that our thoughts are in charge of our actions, then we can let our thoughts do what they want.  We can choose which thoughts we are going to respond to with actions that will, step by step, create the life we truly want. Other thoughts we can just notice with compassion.