Why rumination fuels anxiety and OCD and how to stop

Hey, Nathan Peterson here, OCD and anxiety specialist. Good old rumination. It plagues us all. The overthinking, anxiety, and stress. Let's discuss why rumination fuels anxiety and OCD and how to stop it. Rumination is an obsessive thought pattern that many people with anxiety and OCD experience, and it can be extremely debilitating. It's an endless cycle of thoughts that can lead to feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression, making it difficult to move forward. In this video, we'll explore the reasons why rumination is so harmful and provide you with some practical tips on how to stop it. So, let's get started.

Rumination is an obsessive thought pattern that can occur in many different situations. It's a repetitive cycle of thoughts that can lead to feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression. When we ruminate, we tend to focus on negative thoughts and experiences, replaying them over and over again in our minds. It even can be things in the future that occupy our mind. The "what ifs" This can lead to a distorted perception of reality, making it difficult to see things in a positive light.

Rumination fuels anxiety and OCD

Rumination fuels anxiety and OCD by keeping us stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts and feelings. When we ruminate, we tend to focus on the worst-case scenarios, causing our anxiety to escalate. This can lead to feelings of fear and panic, making it difficult to break the cycle. People with OCD often ruminate on their obsessions, replaying them over and over again in their minds. This can lead to compulsive behaviours as a way to alleviate the anxiety caused by the obsessions. Rumination can also lead to depression, as we tend to focus on negative thoughts and experiences rather than positive ones.

One of the most effective ways to stop ruminating is through exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy. It involves exposing yourself to the things that trigger your anxiety or obsessions, and then preventing yourself from engaging in compulsive behaviours or ruminating. This helps to break the cycle of anxiety and obsessive thoughts, allowing you to move forward and live a more fulfilling life.

So here's where you start. First, recognize what you're even ruminating about. Write them all down. Put them into 3 categories. Past, present, future.

Then take each one and identify if you have control over it. I would bet you that the thing you're fearing or ruminating about is something you have zero control over. Whether it already happened or something that could happen.

Which takes us to the next point, why are we thinking about something that we have zero control over. Well, because the brain doesn't want to accept this answer. But it's our job to teach it that we're not giving it any power.

When you're brain thinking, thinking, thinking, instead what we're going to do is see if it's on this list you created and give various responses.

How to respond to ruminating thoughts

"Oh hey thought." "you know that could happen." "sure" "thanks for that one." "totally." and if you really want to mess with the brain and teach it who's boss, you agree with them. "yeah man, I hope that happens." "What a cool thought, I want more of them." "I'm so glad I said that embarressing thing. I'm going to do it again."

What really ends up happening is that you're teaching your brain that the thought it wants you to think about are useless.

Wait, you want it to happen. no no no, I'm here to warn you about or feel guilty about what you did do.

Don't defy me.

Some suggest that to stop ruminating, you allow yourself to accept that you're ruminating. Let the thoughts be, don't move them, don't answer them, don't control them. Let them be. Different things work for everyone. This is taking the mindfulness approach. Let me set timers throughout the entire day to take a moment and have the thought and practice not putting judgement to them.

If the thought keeps coming, welcome it. Let it be your buddy. The more we push, the more it pushes back.

Think of how your brain is really just there to protect, but it's kind of doing a poor job.

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Think of your thoughts as a time machine that can take you to the future. When you ruminate, you're using your time machine to travel to a future that hasn't happened yet, and you're imagining the worst-case scenario. The problem is, you don't actually have a time machine, and you can't predict the future. By focusing on the present moment, you can break the cycle of rumination and anxiety.

It's important to remember that rumination is not problem-solving. When we ruminate, we're not actually finding solutions to our problems. We're just replaying them over and over again in our minds. This can lead to feelings of hopelessness and despair, making it difficult to move forward. Instead we try to focus on what we have control over. Oh, I can go play a video game right now. I can have fun with my friends. I can go on a walk. Things that are tangible is where we want to be at.

Rumination can feel so automatic at times, which is why these mindsets and tools can be helpful.

We tend to believe that pushing a thought away is the smart thing to do. When in reality, we've just flagged it as important. What happens to important things, they stay present until we take care of them. The problem is, we don't need it and can remove this tag by choosing to remember that thoughts are thoughts even if we have 1,000 unwanted or 10,000 a day.

Spend time in things you enjoy and want to do.

I do want to help you on this journey to recovery. I teach a step-by-step approach on how to slow rumination and use evidence based treatments for your OCD. I'll link that down below.

If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel for more mental health tips and strategies. Remember, you're not alone, and there is help available if you need it.

Tell me what thoughts you tend to ruminate about in the comments below.