Importantly, however, rumination is not only related to depression, but is involved in the development and/or maintenance of a broad range of disorders, including post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, insomnia, eating disorders, somatic symptom disorder, and substance use disorders2, 3.
Many different mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, phobias, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may involve ruminating thoughts. However, in some cases, rumination may just occur in the wake of a specific traumatic event, such as a failed relationship.
Rumination is a core feature of OCD that causes a person to spend an inordinate amount time worrying about, analyzing, and trying to understand or clarify a particular thought or theme.
Intrusive, obsessive, and ruminating thoughts are a part of living with ADHD. No matter how hard you try to ignore them, those negative thoughts just keep coming back, replaying in your head over and over.
Rumination Occurs Randomly
Like many symptoms of trauma, it can become disruptive. You may be sitting at your desk at work focusing on a project, or out to dinner with friends, when these thoughts crop up. Suddenly, your mind is elsewhere.
Furthermore, the negative symptoms of social and emotional withdrawal, commonly present in individuals with schizophrenia, can lead to isolation and therefore a greater tendency to ruminate (Freeman, 2008).
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.
Rumination is involuntary repetitive thinking on negative or anxious thoughts that can become obsessive. Ruminating thoughts are common in people with ADHD but also occur in other mental health conditions. Negative rumination is typically associated with thoughts about the past.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts ("obsessions") and/or behaviors ("compulsions") that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over.
Rumination is not solely experienced by OCD sufferers. Everyone with a human brain engages in rumination at some point or other. However, it is a very common behavior found in those who experience generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, health anxiety, and even depression.
The condition has long been known to occur in infants and people with developmental disabilities. It's now clear that the condition isn't related to age, as it can occur in children, teens and adults. Rumination syndrome is more likely to occur in people with anxiety, depression or other psychiatric disorders.
Rumination is highly associated with negative emotions and psychotic symptoms and has been supported as a buffer between DM and psychiatric symptoms in clinical populations and SSDs.
Rumination disorder most often occurs in infants and very young children (between 3 and 12 months), and in children with intellectual disabilities. It is rare in older children, adolescents, and adults. It may occur slightly more often in boys than in girls, but few studies of the disorder exist to confirm this.
CBT for ruminating involves a combination of learning new ways of thinking and behaving to stop ruminating. Unlike traditional talk therapy, CBT is targeted to the problems that need addressing, and focuses on current factors maintaining symptoms.
Myth: Rumination gets worse with age.
From there, rates of rumination increase, with the highest levels of ruminators being under the age of 25. Rates of rumination then begin to decline with age. Older adults, those 63 and older, ruminate the least.
Rumination is persistent and repetitive thinking that is usually looking backward and more associated with depression; worry is persistent and repetitive thinking that is usually looking forward and more associated with anxious apprehension.
Abstract. Depression in bipolar disorder has long been thought to be a state characterized by mental inactivity. However, recent research demonstrates that patients with bipolar disorder engage in rumination, a form of self-focused repetitive cognitive activity, in depressed as well as in manic states.
In other words, the symptoms can look quite different person to person. While some patients vomit immediately after eating even one bite of food, others are able to eat a good deal of food before the rumination starts. Some patients feel pain with eating. Others feel nausea.
Finding a pleasurable activity or distraction often helps break the cycle of rumination. Using some of your own unique interests or self care can help find something that works for you. Mindfulness is a mediation practice that focuses on paying attention to your thoughts.
Rumination, or thinking passively and repetitively about one's distress (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008), has emerged as an important cognitive risk factor for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Moulds et al., 2020; Szabo et al., 2017).
Rumination is a cycle of negative thinking that interferes in someone's life. Often begun as a coping mechanism to deal with problems, it's a thought pathway in the brain that, with repetitive fretting, becomes a deep rut that can be hard to break out of.
SSRIs and SNRIs for depression have shown efficacy and would likely help severe rumination.