What Is Abreaction?

An abreaction is an emotional, unconscious reaction that you have in response to something that brings back a painful situation you’ve experienced. It could be an event that you remember, or something that suddenly pops into your consciousness when having an abreaction.

As an example, someone who was physically abused responds to a raised hand by cringing even though the other person's intent was not to hit them, but to gently brush away a stray strand of hair.

Abreaction can also describe the process a therapist uses to desensitize or help you stop having these automatic reactions. Within the safety of a therapy session, you may be led to experience abreaction so that you can then learn to replace the illogical, gut-instinct reaction with one that is more suited to the situation.

In this article, we’ll cover the history of abreaction and look at some examples of abreaction that you or someone you know might have experienced.

History of Abreaction in Therapy

Abreaction and its counterpart catharsis (emotional release) are largely attributed to Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuer who discussed the topics at length in their work on psychoanalysis.

Freud and Breuer both emphasized the importance of abreaction and catharsis early on in their work but later realized that simply expressing or reliving painful emotions is not all that is needed to achieve recovery, especially for trauma survivors

The emphasis on achieving catharsis through abreaction carried on through World Wars I and II when trauma therapists used hypnosis and chemically-induced techniques to create abreactions.

Some therapists saw the need to help trauma survivors do more than just “deal with” their complex emotions about their experiences.

Examples of Abreaction

There are many real-world examples of abreaction, some of which might be familiar to you because of what you’ve experienced or what someone you know has been through.

• A veteran’s flashbacks of the war are triggered by the sound of their neighbors setting off fireworks.
• A person who was abused as a child is flooded with fear when they see the logo of their father’s favorite baseball team because he always wore a hat that featured the image.
• A domestic violence survivor flinches and starts to panic whenever someone at work raises their voice.
• A child who had a painful experience at the dentist starts to cry when their parent turns on an electric toothbrush.   

Is Abreaction Used in Therapy?

Today, abreaction is rarely used on its own as therapy. Just eliciting a reaction to a stimulus does not help a person work through the emotions and behaviors associated with past trauma. The value of abreaction is that it can lead to realization—but that does not mean that the feelings about the difficult experience have been resolved.

While abreaction has been largely disregarded as a tool in therapy, some providers use it in certain contexts—usually as part of a more comprehensive treatment plan. When abreaction occurs in therapy, people have a safe space to work through the feelings associated with past trauma.

After bringing a past trauma to mind, a person’s memories can be carefully explored with the support needed to cope effectively with the trauma. Learning to integrate experiences and lean on valuable coping skills can minimize the dissociation that people often experience in response to trauma.

For example, some older research suggests that a technique known as abreactive ego state therapy could be effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This process involves the use of repeated hypnotically induced abreactions of the trauma, followed by ego strengthening.

As an integrative approach, abreaction may have some value when it’s part of a broader treatment plan that includes other techniques like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

Abreactions can also occur during eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. This approach is sometimes used as a treatment for PTSD, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. During this treatment, people recall difficult or traumatic memories while engaging in bilateral eye movements.

Effects of Abreaction

At first, Freud promoted abreaction in therapy because he thought if a person could release painful emotions, the traumatic experience would be less distressing for them. Today, experts recognize that repeatedly experiencing traumatic memories and emotions does not relieve a person’s distress.

Trauma often causes people to dissociate from their emotions, memories, and identity. The amount of dissociation that a person experiences ranges from mild (similar to daydreaming) to severe (in the case of dissociative identity disorder).

Some schools of psychological thought propose that dissociation needs to be dealt with by making it part of a person’s consciousness and identity. While dealing with dissociation is important, mental health professionals today understand that dealing with traumatic stress such (as that associated with PTSD) cannot only be treating traumatic memories with abreaction.

In fact, studies have shown that one of the most effective therapies for PTSD is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which has nothing to do with abreaction.

Tips for Coping With Abreaction

While some abreactions take place as a planned part of therapy, spontaneous abreactions can also happen unprompted—often when you least expect them. Something similar to a past trauma may trigger a reaction as you go about your daily life. Experiencing abreaction can be intense and upsetting, but there are strategies that you can use to cope when it happens.

• Be aware of triggers: Knowing your potential triggers can help you plan how you will effectively deal with abreaction if it happens. While avoiding triggers might seem like the goal, it’s important to understand that avoidance coping can actually make anxiety and reactions worse in the long run. Instead, focus on looking for strategies that will help you manage your responses to triggers.
• Practice calming techniques: Abreaction can put your body in a state of alert, so finding ways to calm and relax yourself is very important. Deep breathing can be particularly effective for soothing your mind and body.
• Find support: Having supportive people around you to talk to can be helpful when you are coping with painful, traumatic, or intense memories. Try talking to a trusted friend about what you are thinking and feeling.
• Talk to a therapist: A mental health professional can recommend treatments and evidence-based strategies to help you process and cope with trauma, such as CBT, EMDR, or other types of therapy. They can also offer support and a safe place for you to work through the trauma you’ve experienced.
  

Summary

Abreaction is an unconscious reaction to something that triggers the memory of a painful experience from the past. While psychologists used to think it could be a therapy on its own, today, abreaction is more often used as part of a broader treatment plan that also includes other strategies. When abreactions happen outside of therapy, they can be very distressing. It’s important for a person to work with a mental health provider to learn how to effectively cope with trauma and their emotional reactions to it.