Recently my rumination has been so bad that my ocd doesn’t focus on one thing. It feels like my brain is just flipping through a theme book and obsessing over every theme there could be… does anyone else suffer from this
Yes. Rumination will always find more material if you don’t break the the cycle. The only way I’ve found to “break it” is, every day when I wake up in the midst of ruminating, I saw to myself internally, “get out of your head and get into the world around you…” meaning I tell myself to get up and start focusing on external things, instead of internal thoughts. Simply looking at the trees isn’t usuall enough for me - I have to stand up, change my clothes, even a shower right away (all of which is thy r exact opposite of what my compulsion is to do - which is to sit in bed with my eyes closed hoping I’ll fall back asleep to avoid the rumination for a bit longer. But that always makes it worse. It’s best to just get up and “eat the frog” as they say, if you can. Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t. Some days I turn off the rumination quickly by getting my ass going and moving quickly, other days not so much. It’s an art, not a science. Good luck and this is just my experience so remember it may not be the same for you!
@Anonymous This is amazing, thank you!
@Anonymous Yeah I really really like this, thanks!!
I didn't even realize I've been getting stuck in rumination paralysis every morning, but thanks so much for that awareness and boost! "It's an art, not a science" that's amazing.
Yes!! It’s like there’s someone who’s like “how can we get the best of them now”, and then trying new cards that have fears or negative thoughts on them. “Hmm okay not going to take that one seriously, what about this” etc etc and new fears pop in and sometimes it’s so overwhelming you don’t know what to do.
@OCD-ouch4545 Exactly it’s like my brain is trying to find one to obsess about
@helenalab I hate that process. It happens to me all the time. Especially on the worst days. Like the past few days for me and it makes everything harder to do.
@OCD-ouch4545 Absolutely what I was thinking. The other day I was tracking these thoughts. Within about 5 minutes, I went through at least 10 intrusive thoughts that are of this kind.
Oh I am right there with you. I get stuck on something and go down the rabbit hole then something happens in it that takes me down another one and on and on and on. It's actually exhausting and distracting me from work and life.
@jgphillips25 Super exhausting.. it also happens to me the second I feel like everything’s fine and I’m doing well. Then my brain is like nawww.. “what about this “
@OCD-ouch4545 - Lol... I have been talking with my counselor about finding the silver lining. Typically that's looking for reassurance in a sense and that's something we need to avoid. However, for me every silver lining comes with oh this good thing can happen but nah it won't happen because these 20 bad things will happen. So looking for a silver lining is actually pushing me into that uncomfortable zone by forcing myself to not throw a but in there.
@OCD-ouch4545 Yes usually when I’m getting better my brain will do this to find something to get me back in a spiral
@jgphillips25 😢
Yes 100% relate to this
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