Research has shown that ruminative thinking tends to decline with age, and older adults show low levels of ruminative thinking (Sütterlin et al. 2012; Nolen-Hoeksema and Aldao 2011).
This conceptualization of rumination may be particularly relevant to older adults, due to its similarities with perseveration—a symptom of dysexecutive function. De Luca et al. (2003) report that executive skills may decline with normal aging, putting older people at greater risk of ruminative thinking.
Rumination involves repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences. The repetitive, negative aspect of rumination can contribute to the development of depression or anxiety and can worsen existing conditions.
Treatment for Rumination OCD
All types of OCD can be treated with Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), specifically with treatment approaches called Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP), and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.
It often involves negative thoughts or bad memories. Such thoughts can interfere with your daily life and mental well-being if you can't stop ruminating about them repeatedly. Rumination is linked to some mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Untreated, rumination syndrome can damage the tube between your mouth and stomach (esophagus). Rumination syndrome can also cause: Unhealthy weight loss. Malnutrition.
The main symptom of rumination disorder is the frequent and effortless regurgitation of food, which usually happens 15–30 minutes after eating. People may also experience: a feeling of pressure or the need to belch beforehand. nausea.
Rumination is a behavior and not a mental health condition. It's a common symptom in anxiety and mood disorders, though. But it doesn't have to be permanent. You can learn to manage it.
While rumination syndrome itself is not life-threatening, the problems that develop around the rumination are quite debilitating. Some of these problems include: Heightened GI sensitivity resulting in severe abdominal pain, nausea, bloating and/or pressure that makes having food or fluid in the stomach intolerable.
Repeating entire conversations in your head is a type of rumination. It's how your mind attempts to self-soothe. The more you replay the details of a conversation, the more you may feel you can interpret what happened. You may also find that this helps you plan for a future outcome.
Rumination is similar to worry and obsession—other common forms of negative thinking—in that it is repetitive, difficult to stop, and often intrusive.
— Rumination, worry tied to amyloid, tau, and cognitive decline. Repetitive negative thinking was tied to cognitive and neuropathological markers of Alzheimer's disease, a longitudinal study showed.
Rumination disorder most often starts after age 3 months, following a period of normal digestion. It occurs in infants and is rare in children and teenagers. The cause is often unknown.
There aren't any medicines available that effectively treat rumination syndrome. The best way to stop it is to relearn how to eat and digest food properly. This requires diaphragmatic breathing training. A behavioral psychologist usually teaches this, and it's easy to learn.
Some of the long-term complications may include: Increased risk of dehydration, malnutrition and weight loss. Poor school attendance and involvement in activities. Emotional issues such as anxiety, stress and depression.
Rumination is a major component of depression. Rumination, especially brooding, may make a person prone to depression and make therapy less effective.
An initial examination, and sometimes observation of behavior, is often enough to diagnose rumination syndrome. Sometimes high-resolution esophageal manometry and impedance measurement are used to confirm the diagnosis. This testing shows whether there is increased pressure in the abdomen.
In these two studies, one from the United States [5] and the other which surveyed over 50,000 participants across 26 countries [6], the prevalence of rumination was 3.1 and 5.8 percent, respectively.
Rumination is an involuntary engagement strategy and is not a coping style because it is not voluntary.
Rumination is sometimes referred to as a "silent" mental health problem because its impact is often underestimated. But it plays a big part in anything from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) to eating disorders. And the impact of mental health problems is huge.
Rumination occurs when you have constant and repetitive thoughts about something; typically, a problem or situation. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, rumination is defined as “obsessive thinking about an idea, situation, or choice especially when it interferes with normal mental functioning.”
Both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and when necessary medications, like Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), have been shown to be effective in reducing or eliminating rumination.
When a person is stuck thinking over and over about an event that occurred, they are experiencing post-event rumination. Post event rumination is a common experience for those overcoming social anxiety.