rumination101

What is Rumination?

According to Hoeksema (2015), it is noted that the Rumination process is “Repetitively thinking about difficult situations and all their possible causes, consequences, and meanings without moving into problem solving” (pg. 210).

This process is parallel to over thinking. People who tend to ruminate experience these harmful thoughts constantly, over and over.
Once the rumination process starts it is incredibly difficult turning off negative thoughts; even when the person is motivated to do so.

The Default mode network is a network of brain regions that are active when our mind wanders and you find yourself daydreaming, reminiscing, or lost in thought.
The prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain located at the front of the frontal lobe. It is implicated in a variety of complex behaviors, including planning, and greatly contributes to personality development.

Biological Aspects of Rumination

Depressive ruminations are more likely to occur when the firing and increased cerebral blood flow to a specific region of cerebrum called the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC) synchronizes with the default mode network (DMN).
The researchers believe that increased connectivity between the sgPFC and DMN can backfire by creating a vicious cycle of rumination in people who are experiencing depression. In an editorial comment, Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry said,
- This study shows that depression distorts a natural process. It would seem that normally the subgenual prefrontal cortex helps to bias the reflective process supported by the default mode network so that we can consider important problems in the service of developing strategies for solving them.
- However, in depression it seems that the subgenual prefrontal cortex runs amok hijacking normal self-reflection in a maladaptive way. This may be one reason that electrical stimulation of the sgPFC is helpful for some patients with severe or treatment-resistant symptoms of depression.

How to Stop Ruminating

🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃GET MOVING!🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃🏃

Hoeksema (2015) found, “If ruminators spend just a few minutes fully engaged in a distracting activity, negative moods decreases and thinking improves.”(pg.214)

💡💡💡💡💡💡PROBLEM SOLVE💡💡💡💡💡💡

It is important to begin to actively solve the problem once your mood has been elevated and thinking has cleared. Instead of thinking those same repetitive thoughts, move forward and make a plan to take action to address it.

Take small steps ~Focus on simple actions~Remain positive

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌REMAIN PROACTIVE🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Understand Your Triggers :

Being aware of your surroundings when you begin to ruminate is important when you’re finding ways to manage those triggers.

Talk to Family, Friends, and Loved ones

When you ruminate you can begin to feel lonely. Sharing your thoughts and getting an outside perspective, can be refreshing and help break the cycle.

Try Therapy

Thoughts that are overall consuming and matters that are more difficult to address may call for a professional who can guide you to identify problems at their core.

Examples of Rumination Among College Students:

-The example that I am providing was done by Amelia Aldao, Ph.D., and Lori Hilt from Lawrence University.

In this study they encouraged the students to perform work under a stressful environment. The work consisted of a three minute presentation about qualities that made them special or unique with the idea that there where students from another university watching them from a recording and giving the students positive and negative feedback. However, the students that were giving the presentation were not aware that there was actually no one at the other end of the camera. After receiving the feedback, the students had to wait for an hour because they were testing pre and post stressor cortisol levels, and to see how much ruminating was taking place while they were dwelling on the negative or positive feedback. The students that ruminated more during the post-feedback hour reported feeling more negative and had higher cortisol levels.

That being said, students can experience more stress while ruminating because when someone is ruminating they could be thinking about the most recent mistake they made and it can cause more stress by thinking about the “what if” of the situation. So, since being stressed can cause rumination but ruminating can cause more stress for a short time frame, it is best to know how not to get into your head and not overthink the situation as best as possible.

It may be best to use the example I have formed, which would be that after we presented this information to the audience and received our feedback, ruminating would be the act of consciously sitting there thinking about any possible mistake that one of us could have made. Even receiving the positive feedback can cause someone to overthink the situation and still convince themself that there was a mistake somewhere, even if the mistake was simply stuttering a little.

-Also provided, sixteen strategies to beat ruminating.

There are sixteen listed ways to stop ruminating, and it is important to remember them because it can be controlled and rumination is not going to be something you cannot overcome!

Something to remember is that even when sitting in class after answering a question or doing a presentation that you can avoid overthinking by focusing on what the teacher is saying or indirectly reading over your notes to redirect your mind onto something else instead of dwelling on what someone else said.

Go for a walk or indulge in some form of activity or exercise. Exercising is one of the best ways to combat stress which can help avoid ruminating.

Watching, reading, or listening to success stories of other people. Comedies are also good!

Hangout with friends and do not become so overwhelmed with your stressors that you forget to relax.

Cooking and cleaning are also good distractions but do not forget to make small accomplishments also!

A link for all sixteen ways too stop ruminating: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-creativity-cure/201207/sixteen-strategies-combating-rumination

Why It is Important?

Although it is important to understand why it is important to stop ruminating, lets first establish why people do ruminate?

According to Kirk, she noted that ruminating allows people to “feel good” by explaining how dwelling on the issue is a temporary relief because of the false notion that they are attempting to work towards solving the problem.

In that case, I understand why people would believe that ruminating is a good thing, yet it is only beneficial for a short amount of time and to a certain extent. Yet, people tend to have that mindset that they know everything, or that they will rely upon their own knowledge, which is why people convince themselves that rumination is not something to consider seriously.

According to Tartakovsky, she explains that “research has shown that rumination is associated with a variety of consequences, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, binge-drinking, and binge eating.

The reason why it is important because ruminating conjures up more negative thoughts, and it eventually becomes a cycle. It also becomes the fast track to feeling helpless, and it specifically paralyzes your problem-solving skills because you become so preoccupied with the problem that you’re unable to push past the cycle of negative thoughts.

I know that if we do the things that will help us to stop ruminating daily, then we will be able tore-boast self-esteem and still continue to solve problems without overanalyzing things.