What is Rumination
what can we do about it?
Caption text here
I am increasingly seeing more clients who experience overthinking, such as worry and rumination. I thought it might be helpful to highlight one of those processes in my first blog, this being Rumination.
Rumination is something that we all get caught up in from time to time, I can also get caught up in this process myself and sometimes it can even be helpful.
However, it can also be problematic. When we ruminate we can get caught up in a loop, or stuck in an upsetting groove that leads to focusing on the causes and consequences of a past event or problem. This prevents us from finding a helpful solution.
For most of us, ruminating is time limited and usually stops when a specific problem is solved , but for some people it can almost become a habitual process and before long quickly spiral and leave us feeling overwhelmed and exhausted
So what is rumination?
A definition of rumination -A cognitive mental process, in which we pay attention to and dwell on events from the past to try to resolve here and now problems.
It is habitual and can lead us to focus on what has gone wrong- wheich then leads to a negative thinking process and inactivity.
It can also keep us locked ‘in our heads’ and takes away the ability to tolerate our emotions.
So, do you recognise any of the following?
Dwelling on a problem over and over again without getting anywhere?
Spending lots of time thinking about how you feel?
Do you get stuck thinking over why you feel the way that you do, or get caught up in all the things that have gone wrong ?
Do you ever ask,“Why me?” “Why does this always happen to me ?” “What did I do to deserve this?” “Why does everything always go wrong for me”
Do you find yourself recalling negative memories, only to be met with a cascade of more upsetting or sad memories?
Do you constantly judge or evaluate yourself, or check up on how well you ‘think’ you are doing things.
Or pay extra focused attention to areas where you don’t meet your expectations?
All of the above are types of RUMINATION
So, when does rumination become problematic?
Unhelpful rumination tends to keep us focused on searching for causes and consequences, instead of finding solutions.
It also keeps us hooked and can lead to negative thinking. When used excessively, rumination can lead to a deterioration in our mental health and wellbeing. It is not fully exclusive to depression, but is more commonly associated with depression and can be a process that is present across a spectrum of mental health problems.
Unhelpful rumination can lead to inactivity and avoidance of problem-solving, which in turn can leave us feeling helpless and stuck. Even though it is a normal response to unresolved goals, it becomes unhelpful when it is’ reinforced with low mood’.
For a lot of people they find that rumination actually makes them feel worse as it reduces their motivation to do or change things. There is also a lot of scientific evidence now that recognizes that rumination can be a major contributing factor, to both the risk and maintenance of depression(Watkins, 2015).
What can we do about it?
We know that Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy and some of the Third Wave CBT Psychotherapies have a strong evidence base when it comes to helping people develop strategies to manage rumination.
Some useful strategies include:
1. Learning to recognize triggers and interrupt the rumination
2. Deal with the abstract nature of rumination- Make it more concrete, get out of our heads and actively start ‘doing’.
3. Lean to ask ourself useful questions such as ‘How’ instead of ‘Why’- Change our internal narrative-
4. Actively learn to problem solve-
5. Attention Training- Learn to refocus attention and break the habit-
6. Make commitment to engage in absorption based activities, something that you can totally immerse yourself in, or get into the ‘flow’ with.
Please find my attached worksheet on planning to break the rumination cycle through attention and absorption.
