Examples of Rumination and Effects on Thinking
Medically reviewed by Kira Graves, PhDMedically reviewed by Kira Graves, PhDRumination is an unhealthy thought pattern that can interfere with your ability to live your life; the rumination cycle means the more you ruminate, the harder it is to stop.Anyone can experience ruminations, but people with anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can experience ruminative thinking. Rumination can contribute to the development or worsening of mental health conditions.
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The Rumination Cycle: Examples in EffectRumination causes you to dwell on negative feelings or experiences. Oftentimes, this gets to the point where it impacts your daily life and your ability to do day-to-day activities. In many people, rumination creates a cycle. The more you ruminate, the more you’re likely to continue. Someone who is ruminating feels bad now, and is more likely to feel bad about their past. That makes them feel more despondent about their future, and thus more likely to ruminate.Stressors like grief, loss, physical illness, past relationships, social engagements, and other concerns can all trigger rumination, although the process of ruminating is largely involuntary. The four types of rumination are:Brooding: Viewing yourself through a gloomy, hopeless lensReflection: Repeatedly examining why a situation occurred and how to avoid it in the futureIntrusive: Uncontrollable and unwanted thoughts and feelings over a situationDeliberate: Focusing all of one's mental attention on thinking about an eventAll of them are linked to negative health impacts.How Rumination Changes Emotional ProcessingHealthy individuals can exhibit resiliency and understand that bad experiences don’t define them. This is healthy emotional processing, also known as emotional regulation. However, people who ruminate become stuck in a cycle of negative thinking and are unable to process emotions healthily. Because of this, rumination can cause or contribute to mental illnesses or make existing conditions worse.Rumination can also impact physical health (which, in turn, can impact mental health). Studies have shown that heavy rumination can lead to inflammation. Rumination also activates the sympathetic nervous system, the body's fight-or-flight response that can contribute to emotional dysregulation (having intense emotional reactions to events that do not match the event's severity). Ruminating can also lead to insomnia, which can make it hard to regulate emotions.Conditions Linked to RuminationAnyone can find themselves ruminating occasionally. However, repetitive thoughts that interfere with your ability to function are closely related to mental health conditions, including:AnxietyDepressionObsessive-compulsive disorderHow to Tell If You’re RuminatingYou may be ruminating if: You return to the same pattern of negative thoughts frequentlyYou remember more negative things that happened to you than positive You feel hopeless about the futureYou struggle with problem solvingRumination becomes most harmful when it interferes with your ability to live your daily life. If you’re finding yourself ruminating when you should be working, doing things around the house, or sleeping, it’s time to talk with a professional.
Ruminating With OthersCo-rumination is when you ruminate with close friends or family. This can be a way to process trauma or negative events, but it can easily become unhealthy. If you have certain friends or family who make your rumination worse, talk with them about the pattern and work together to break the cycle.
Steps to Shift Out of RuminationOnce you recognize that you’re ruminating, you can take steps to stop rumination. These steps may help:Distract yourself with an activity that brings you joy, including exercise.Disprove your rumination by recalling times that things have worked out for you, even when they seemed difficult. Isolate a single, solvable problem and make a plan. For example, if you’re ruminating on a thought like “I will never have a job,” one solution might be applying for jobs. Break that into smaller steps, like updating your resume this week. SummaryRumination is a pattern of negative thoughts. It often becomes a cycle of negative thinking and can contribute to mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and OCD. People can ruminate over anything, from an embarrassing moment to the loss of a loved one to a breakup.However, once you realize that you’re ruminating it’s important to take steps to break the cycle of rumination, including disproving your rumination or distracting yourself. That’s not always easy, however, so working with a mental health professional can help. Read the original article on Verywell Health.
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