If you’ve ever felt like your brain was stuck in a loop, thinking about the same situation over and over, you’ve experienced rumination. Rumination usually happens when someone is preoccupied with a negative situation that happened in the past or something distressing they think may happen in the future. For example, someone may experience rumination when they replay a fight with a partner repeatedly in their head or go through hundreds of potentially negative scenarios that could happen on their next vacation.

Rumination is repetitive by nature, so you’re likely to experience the same thoughts and concerns over a period of several days, weeks or even months. This thought pattern is also almost always focused on potential problems or other negative situations.

While it’s true that thinking over problems can help you come up with solutions, with rumination, there usually isn’t a resolution or even anything you can change. Often, rumination occurs about things that are outside a person’s control. Another key characteristic of rumination is that the person wants to stop these thoughts but is unable to.

If you’re experiencing rumination that’s having a negative impact on your stress levels and mental health, therapy for rumination can help.

The Impact of Rumination on Mental Health

Constant negative thoughts that feel out of your control are naturally distressing, and they can have a knock-on effect on your mental health. One global study found that experiencing rumination can lead to an 11% decrease in physical and mental health.

Rumination is also tied to a host of mental health conditions, including:

• Depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Eating disorders
• Substance use problems
• Insomnia

In many cases, these mental health conditions can also cause rumination. The rumination then worsens the original condition, leading to a negative feedback loop that can ultimately send someone into life-threatening mental decline or depression.

In general, women tend to have a higher prevalence of rumination than men, with one study positing that this may be because women have to be more aware of other people’s emotions to successfully maintain social ties. This can lead them to replay conversations over and over to determine if there was some hidden intent in what someone said or how they said it. They may also be more likely to ruminate over their own statements, trying to find where they could have said or done something “better.”

Common Triggers for Rumination

What triggers rumination is different for every person. For some people, emotional triggers may drive rumination. When they experience a specific feeling, they begin to ruminate over the situation that caused it. For others, it may be a situational trigger, such as going back home for the holidays, or a certain thought pattern.

Understanding what triggers rumination is the first step in overcoming it. Below are some of the most common triggers for rumination:

• Stress. When you’re under a lot of stress, your body and brain aren’t able to cope as well with daily challenges, which can trigger rumination as an unhealthy coping mechanism.
• Intense feelings, such as shame, anger or anxiety. Your brain may interpret strong negative feelings as messages of danger and ruminate to try to find the cause or a “solution.
• A fight with a loved one. Being accepted and loved by those close to us is a basic human need. A fight with or negative reaction from a partner, friend or family member may trigger rumination in an attempt to find where the breakdown happened and what you could do to fix it.
• Failure. No one can succeed all the time, but for those who are prone to rumination, failure can trigger a loop of negative thoughts.

It’s also possible for certain lifestyle factors to trigger rumination. For example, if you haven’t been sleeping well, haven’t exercised in a while or have been eating mostly processed foods and drinking a lot of caffeine, your body may not be as equipped to handle stress as it normally is, which can make rumination more likely.

Strategies to Break the Cycle

While it can be helpful to determine your rumination triggers, it’s impossible to remove all negative things from your life. Part of breaking the rumination cycle is understanding that life includes both good and bad and that experiencing a negative event doesn’t mean there’s something that needs to be found and fixed.

While it may seem counterintuitive, one of the best ways to counter rumination is to ignore it. This is easier said than done, but catching yourself when you’re ruminating, labeling the activity as rumination and working to distract your brain with something more positive can help rewire this pattern. It can help if the distraction is something that centers you in the present moment and engages your senses, such as talking to a loved one, working on a hobby that requires focus or taking a walk outside.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for rumination can also be helpful. Rumination CBT focuses on catching negative thought patterns when they happen and challenging them. For example, you may note that your rumination is based on catastrophizing. You might intentionally swap that for thinking about all the potentially positive outcomes of a situation.

Accepting that sometimes your brain latches on to something, but that doesn’t mean you actually need to pay attention to it, can help defuse the emotional connotations of rumination and make it easier to move past them.

Therapy for Rumination: How to Find Long-Term Relief

Rumination can be distressing and have a real impact on your mental and physical health and the quality of your life, but help is available. If you’re interested in finding out more about rumination therapy and how it can help you overcome negative thought patterns and establish a more positive and resilient mindset, the team at Sunlight Recovery is here to help. Contact us today to take the first step.