{"id":118804,"date":"2020-04-30T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/?p=118804"},"modified":"2023-03-10T14:36:16","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T14:36:16","slug":"rumination-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/rumination-anxiety.htm","title":{"rendered":"Rumination – Are You Thinking Yourself Sad?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rumination\"<\/a>

By: emdot<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

by Andrea M. Darcy<\/p>\n

Spend hours thinking about situations in great detail? Or about a certain person or thing? Rumination is an unhelpful thinking pattern<\/a> we can get stuck in.<\/p>\n

The meaning of rumination<\/h2>\n

Rumination in a sentence, to go by the<\/strong> Cambridge English dictionary, is \u201cthe act of thinking carefully and for a long period about something\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the definition of rumination in psychology is more complex<\/strong> (and also the subject of a vast body of research, as it’s part of so many mental health concerns<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Rumination in psychology<\/h2>\n

Psychology sees rumination as connected to<\/strong> negative thinking<\/a>. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema,\u00a0 an American professor of psychology at Yale University and established researcher of rumination, saw it as–<\/p>\n

the process of thinking about our feelings<\/a> and problems, \u201crepetitively and passively focusing on the distress, as well as its possible causes and consequences.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other psychologists see it as a possible trait<\/a> (a way of thinking we are prone to genetically), as well as an attention issue<\/strong>, where we lack the ability to disengage our attention from our self-obsessed thoughts.<\/p>\n

What do ruminating thoughts sound like?<\/h2>\n
    \n
  1. Going over something from the past<\/strong><\/a> (if only I had of said that, not gone there, done this)<\/li>\n
  2. Dwelling on difficulties and things that seem insurmountable<\/strong> (all these things can go wrong, if I do this that will happen)<\/li>\n
  3. Becoming obsessed with thinking about someone<\/a><\/strong> (he said this, if I do that maybe she will, I wonder if they\u2026.)<\/li>\n
  4. Or obsessively thinking about something<\/strong> (germs are on this, how many germs do I pass each day\u2026).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Worry vs ruminating<\/h2>\n

    An American study on undergraduates<\/a> found that worry<\/a> and rumination overlap when it comes to their connection to depression and anxiety<\/a>, but that the two are indeed different.<\/p>\n

    To compare worry vs rumination:<\/strong><\/p>\n