Escaping from worries: Comparing the effectiveness of focusing on one’s breath, a neutral and a positive distractor in worry control

Focused-distraction strategies are commonly used for thought control, but their effectiveness in handling personal worries with different types of distractors has rarely been examined. To examine this issue, 101 undergraduate and graduate students whose depression levels fell below mild depression were recruited (64.4% female, M(age) = 20.27) and were randomly assigned to one of the three strategy conditions: 34 participants for the focused-breathing strategy (FBS), 34 for the focused-positive-distractor strategy (FPS), and 33 for the focused-neutral-distractor strategy (FNS). After a short introduction and practice, they applied the assigned strategy during a 5-min worry control session to prevent thoughts regarding a recent worrying event. The number of worry intrusions was measured using an online self-caught method. Participants rated their emotional states before and after the worry control session. Their working memory capacities (WMCs) and depressive tendency were comparable across conditions. The results showed the FBS and FPS groups exhibited fewer worry intrusions than did the FNS group. Furthermore, worry intrusions were negatively related to WMC for the FNS group but independent of WMC for the other two. The above findings together indicate that the FBS and FPS are relatively effective and effortless methods for reducing worry intrusions. Negative emotions decreased after the worry control session for all groups. However, decoupling of negative emotions from worry intrusions was only observed for the FBS and FNS groups. Overall, FBS outperforms FPS and FNS in managing worries from the above aspects. Several theoretical and practical implications of the study were discussed.