Dealing with Rumination

I’ve lost count of the number of times someone said to me: “I can’t sleep because I just can’t turn my brain off!” Most of the time we’re happy when we have an active mind. An active mind means that you’re curious, interested in lots of things going on in the world around you, and likely inquisitive and intelligent. In fact, an active mind really serves most of us in our professional and day-to-day lives.

But what happens when an active mind goes on overdrive and we find ourselves chewing over the same issue or topic ad nauseum. It gets exhausting! It’s important to know that from time to time many of us experience excessive and intrusive thoughts that don’t seem to stop. Often we just refer to it as overthinking, but what we’re experiencing is called rumination, or ruminating thoughts. And that degree of activity in the brain is a real buzzkill when you’re trying to generate sleepy, bedtime vibes. So today, we’re going to dive into the definition of rumination and several ways that you can deal with it. 

Ruminating thoughts can be caused by a variety of things such as a particular stressor, traumatic events, upcoming stressful events, low self-esteem, and existing mental health conditions. Persistent ruminating thoughts may be a symptom of a mental health condition. Some of the mental health conditions that frequently feature rumination include depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, and schizophrenia. 

However, people with mental health conditions are not the only ones to experience ruminating thoughts; most of us can recall a time in our lives when certain thoughts were impossible to escape. When facing a certain decision or event in our lives it can be easy to linger on the possible outcomes, spending considerable time and energy thinking about something that has not yet occurred. For example, a student approaching final exams may spend day in and day out dwelling on the results. After a breakup or other major loss is also a common precipitant for ruminating thoughts to emerge. Also, it’s common for individuals who have experienced a traumatic event to replay the event in their minds over and over again.

Some signs that you might be experiencing ruminating thoughts include fixating on a problem for longer than a couple of minutes, not being able to move on or accept circumstances, not being able to get closer to a feasible solution, and feeling worse after dwelling on your thoughts instead of better. It might be time to deal with ruminating thoughts if they are frequent, consistent and prevent you from going about your day-to-day life. 

A few ways to help impede ruminating thoughts include:

•Avoiding triggers/understanding your triggers: Knowing what causes your ruminating thoughts can help you stop the excessive, intrusive thoughts. For example, if you know social media makes you feel depressed and overwhelmed you can take breaks from it to avoid ruminating thoughts.  

•Exercise: Many studies have shown that exercise can have an overall positive impact on your mental health. Exercise, paired with time in nature, can help minimize persistent, repetitive thoughts. 

•Meditation: When facing ruminating thoughts, meditation can help you be more mindful by allowing you to recognize the connection between feelings and thoughts. Meditation also allows you to focus on your breathing, helping you relax and slow down an overactive mind. 

•Distraction: By shifting your focus onto something else, you can help stop the ruminating thoughts. Some examples of distracting activities can be talking to a friend, completing a puzzle, drawing, doing chores, reading a book, or watching a movie. 

•Improving self-esteem: A common cause of ruminating thoughts is being disappointed with something we have done such as failing a test or failing at a relationship. Building on your existing strengths or getting involved with new interests can help increase self-esteem which can help stop negative, intrusive thoughts. 

•Taking action: If you cannot stop thinking about something to the point that it is hindering your life, planning to take action and taking action can help stop ruminating thoughts. Even if you approach taking action in small steps, every bit can help improve overthinking. 

•Altering your life goals: Sometimes the goals and standards we hold ourselves to are too difficult to keep up with. Perfectionism can be a major cause of ruminating thoughts. Therefore, it can be helpful to change and alternate your life goals to suit your current life. 

•Therapy: If ruminating thoughts are controlling your day-to-day life, hindering you from completing tasks it might be helpful to speak to a licensed professional. A therapist can help identify the causes of your intrusive, excessive thoughts and provide solutions to help stop them from occurring. 

If you’re worried that your ruminating thoughts are seriously impacting your sleep or your life, don’t hesitate to reach out for a consultation to learn more about how cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you master those ruminations and get back to living and sleeping!