I've been told it's impossible to "push intrusive thoughts away", but also that rumination is a compulsion. What is rumination vs. overthinking? And how do I stop ruminating properly and healthfully?
That’s a good question I don’t really know. For me a rumination would look like “what if I did this and don’t remember” and then I would have to go over everything I’ve ever done in my life to see if I’ve don’t something bad. Like idk what do ur ruminations look like?
My ruminations tend to be around coincidences and whether they mean something... real event/magic thinking basically. I spend way too much time trying to figure out any possible reason why they are or are not a "threat" if that makes sense 😅
Im not sure but I interpret "overthinking" as thinking deeper about something than needed. This can happen without anxiety about uncertainty. For example, researching something for work or school and getting caught up going deeper than needed. "Rumination" I interpret as thinking about something over and over again usually due to a fear of uncertainty about this topic. This could include overthinking. I haven't figured out how to stop ruminating all together but instead I just try to shorten rumination sessions as much as possible. Whenever I catch myself doing it I ask myself what is the worst case scenario. And then I say "maybe it will happen, maybe it won't". At this point I usually get flooded with fear. Then I try really hard to focus on the physical sensations (sweating, tingling, shortness of breathe, etc). My mind will naturally try to "fix" it by thinking about things and I'll just keep trying to redirect my attention to sit in the physical discomfort of the fear. Sometimes the fear will transition to sadness (like a mourning of the loss of thinking I can control things). If I get to this point the rumination urges usually stop. Other times it'll stop sooner. Sometimes I can't resist it. I just try to practice as much as possible.
Thank you so much! It can be really hard especially when the fears feel so real and unavoidable... I've been ruminating for years w/o knowing it's a compulsion, so it's disheartening to feel so "behind" on beating OCD. I'm glad you mentioned that sadness is normal, it can be really hard sometimes.
For me, ruminating is reliving past events, having conversations over again differently for a different outcome, and also playing out "what if" scenarios about things that may or may not happen. The past events is the worst for me. The root is always that it's done to solve something, to fix something, to undo something. Usually mistakes I made or bad reactions I had to people or situations.
That makes so much sense!! I think I tend to relive things that have happened, but I try to get 100% comfortable with them, or to get certainty when we all know that isn't possible haha 😅 It can be really hard to know that some things will always be mysterious; have you come up with any ways to at least make the scary less scary w/o needing certainty?
My biggest is ruminating, i talk and talk and over share with myself and others Like what are some exposures?
I've been doing well the past month in cutting down on compulsions and have been feeling better however, last night I had a set back that carried on into today. I had gotten very poor sleep (4ish hours) and then something triggered my memory. I think with the sudden anxiety spike and lack of sleep I didn't have the strength to ignore my compulsions. Last night and today I've realised I've gone back into rumination and mentally reviewing the event excessively again and comparing my situation to other people's, but most of the times that I start going down these rabbit holes I don't even realise I'm doing it? Also been fixating a bit on the fear that I've ruined my progress and that I will fall back into the deep end of it all again, that I have done so much work getting myself out of, although trying my best to not be too discouraged. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with rumination more specifically?
Ruminating is such a sneaky compulsion. It feels like the only “reasonable” thing to do in the moment because your brain is screaming at you that something is urgent, important, and absolutely essential. It’s like your mind is sounding sirens, telling you that you have to think it through right now because everything looks so black and white in the moment. The trap is, if I don’t ruminate, it feels like I’m just ignoring reality and living in some magical fantasy world. But the truth is, even when things feel the most logical and crystal clear to me with OCD, they are almost always totally irrational to everyone else. Someone said something on here that stuck with me: “nobody ever ruminated their way to certainty.” And that’s it. Rumination is just an attempt to feel certain, but with OCD there is no such thing as enough certainty. The more you chase it, the longer you stay stuck. The work, as uncomfortable as it is, is learning to sit in the uncertainty and stop feeding the cycle…even when everything in you is screaming to figure it out. That’s the way forward.
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