Do You Ruminate? | Psychology Today

We can define rumination as a repeated negative focus on past or current events, where you dwell on something while trying to make sense of it. You may think, “Why did this happen?” or “I can’t believe this happened.” This continual focus on your thoughts is one of the best predictors of becoming depressed and staying depressed, according to Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema.

The consequence of rumination is that you are focusing on negatives, which will make you feel worse. Also, you may never get an answer that is completely satisfactory if you detach yourself from everyday life and don’t focus on positive goals within your control. People ruminate about past decisions, relationships, and disturbing events. They even ruminate about why they ruminate. The good news is that there are new approaches in cognitive behavioral therapy developed by our colleagues in England—Edward Watkins at the University of Exeter and Adrian Wells at the University of Manchester. Watkins developed Rumination-Focused CBT and Wells independently developed Metacognitive Therapy. Research shows that both therapeutic models can help reverse rumination.

Eight Steps to Reversing Rumination

Let me share with you some steps that you can take and that a therapist can help you with to avoid being hijacked by these intrusive thoughts. It requires some work for the patient, but research shows that these two models can reverse rumination and decrease the depression associated with rumination.

1. Label your intrusive thoughts as rumination. This can be simply saying to yourself, “I am now ruminating.” This allows you to target the repetitive process that is the real problem.
2. Examine the cost and benefits to you of ruminating. For example, we know the cost can be depression, distraction, passivity, and isolation. Now you may think there are benefits. For example, you may think that there’s some secret you will discover that will help you make things better in the future. Has this worked for you, or has it simply reinforced rumination? Or you may think you have no control over the rumination, so you don’t have a choice. This is key, since we will see that you do have a choice to do something different from rumination.
3. Ask if this is productive or unproductive rumination. I have found this distinction helpful when addressing regret, worry, and envy. Productive rumination leads to a practical solution or action. For example, if I have a lecture in two weeks, I might ask, “Are my PowerPoint slides ready?” I can then work on them now. It is productive because it leads to action today—a “to-do list today.” Unproductive rumination focuses on self-criticism: “What is wrong with me that I put this off?” The better response to procrastination is action, not rumination. Taking a step forward is progress.
4. Turn “why” questions into “how” questions. Instead of asking, “Why did this happen to me?” ask, “What can I do today to improve my life?” Rather than dwelling on a past relationship or decision, choose rewarding and meaningful activities: exercise, spend time with family or friends, address a work problem, or contact someone you care about. Shifting your focus from “why” to “how” empowers you to act on what you can control.
5. Set aside rumination time. Rather than getting hijacked by your thoughts, you can make an appointment with your rumination later in the day. For example, you can set aside 15 minutes at 3 p.m., and if you have rumination thoughts before that, write them down and set them aside until 3 o’clock. Many people think they’re unable to do that, but I found that a lot of people are able to delay rumination to some extent. At 3 p.m., you may realize it’s the same thoughts over and over, so now you can think, “Why repeat them?” In addition, you may ask yourself if it is productive to keep focusing on this. If not, it’s unproductive rumination, and then you can decide what you can do. What actions can you take that are productive, even if these actions are unrelated to the rumination.
6. Try accepting that you don’t have an answer. Humans are the only animals looking for an answer. You don’t need an answer; you need to live your life today. What if you accepted that you don’t have an answer for things that happened to you or experiences that you did not like? You can replace looking for an answer with having a goal based on the values and positive things that you can pursue today. Rewards can replace the need for answers. Not everything has to make sense.
7. Don’t expect everything to be fair. One of the things that people ruminate about is that they have been treated unfairly. Certainly, if you can assert yourself and make things better today, that might be a good course of action. But many times these events are in the past, and the people are in the past. We often get caught up in believing in what’s called the just world. This is the belief that bad things happen to bad people and good things happen to good people. So, if something bad happened to me, I must be a bad person. If we can accept that sometimes unfairness happens to all of us and if there’s no way that we can be assertive to right the wrong, we can understand that rumination would be a waste of time. Rumination will not make things fair.
8. Use imagery to let go of thoughts. Think about rumination as intrusive, unwanted thoughts. Consider using some of the following images to detach from them. Treat the thought like a telemarketing call that you don’t pick up. Think about the thought as a cloud in the sky that is floating away. Or think about the thought as a train in the station, but you’re not getting on that train. This is called detached mindfulness. When you let go of the rumination, you can get back into a life worth living.