Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) teaches that suffering is not caused by the mere presence of negative thoughts, but by the way we relate to those thoughts. When we fuse with them—treating them as literal truths, urgent commands, or accurate reflections of who we are—they dominate our behavior. Defusion is the process of stepping back, loosening their grip, and seeing thoughts as what they truly are: transient mental events, not facts.
