Rumination is associated with many negative effects on the mind and body.
Unfortunately, these repetitious thoughts are an easy mode to slip into when people are stressed.
This pattern often begins with the simple desire to solve the problems that people are experiencing.
Creative RM / Tara Moore / Getty Images
Rumination and emotional processing both focus on problems and usually on emotions surrounding these problems.
How Rumination Works
Most people dont set out to ruminate over their problems.
Most of us want to be happy and want to focus on thoughts that make us happy.
The unproductively negative focus it takes is the defining aspect of rumination that differentiates it from regular problem-solving.
Rumination may involve going over the details of a situation in ones head or talking to friends about it.
Rumination vs. Ruminative thinkers repeatedly go over the same information without change and stay in a negative mindset.
Rumination can even be “contagious” in a way.
People may ruminate because they believe they can solve a problem or gain insight by thinking about it repeatedly.
Having a history of trauma or dealing with stressful situations in the present can also contribute to rumination.
Properlydealing with negative emotionscan also help with rumination and the feelings of stress that come with it.
Innov Clin Neurosci 9:29 34.
American Psychological Association.Probing the depression-rumination cycle.
Ehring T.Thinking too much: Rumination and psychopathology.World Psychiatry.
2015;112(28):8567-8572. doi:10.1073/pnas.1510459112
