Replaying

How do I stop replaying things that happened in my head? (Ex: someone flipped me off today driving and I can’t get past it & can’t stop replaying it in my head trying to remember every detail).

Lost-

Date posted: 1y ago

For me the only way to stop ruminating (with varying success) is to decide with conviction that even if there is more information to be gathered/ understood about a moment, I am deciding that moving forward without paying attention to it is more important. For instance, thinking about how someone interpreted what I said used to burden me so much it became hard to function and I just withdrew from speaking as much as I could to avoid being misunderstood. I don’t know if this is a common saying but I had to force myself to comply with the ideal that “everything works out in the wash” in the end.

Annonn

Date posted: 1y ago

@Lost- Thank you! That’s a good way to think about it.

JediMJ

Date posted: 1y ago

Ohhhh, that’s OCD. I get stuck on a thought like that. I can’t let it go. Interesting. I think part of letting things go is having compassion for ourselves. Because I was just feeling annoyed that I have another thing to figure out, annoyed that I have these thought patterns in the first place. I listened to a podcast today (11 Things I Tell My Patients in Their First Session of OCD Treatment Ер. 378 — Your Anxiety Toolkit) and she said, “There’s no such thing as bad thoughts.” I think it would be helpful to not judge ourselves so harshly. Why are you (why am I) replaying those bad moments? What are we trying to figure out? It seems like learning to sit with the discomfort and not ruminating is key. Not exactly sure how to do that… But I really did appreciate this post because I definitely do that too and didn’t realize it was an OCD thing. More insight…thank you. I have read things that say we can just choose to not ruminate but that’s proven hard for me. I can distract myself, but it just comes back. I’m missing something… if you figure it out, let me know.

Annonn

Date posted: 1y ago

@JediMJ Much easier said than done - been trying to work past this for a long time now with all different kinds of thoughts. Always ones that left me feeling upset in some way. Best of luck to you, I hope you figure out how to get past these ruminations!

JediMJ

Date posted: 1y ago

@Annonn Yeah…it seems like we get upset by being flipped off or whatever…and instead of allowing ourselves to feel our feelings we jump into rumination. We analyze it to try to make sure it never happens again because this feeling is intolerable. And what I think I’m learning is we have to learn to live with discomfort. And eventually we’ll level out.

HopeM365

Date posted: 1y ago

I think it’s also if you have the choice to be present in the moment or think about the thing, you choose to be present in the moment instead. For example, I could watch Jimmy Fallon or ruminate on something my friend said to me. I choose Jimmy Fallon, even though my compulsion is to ruminate.

Annonn

Date posted: 1y ago

@HopeM365 Good tip! Thanks!

kaylaxo

Date posted: 20w ago

Rumination

Advice needed please: Has anybody ever been in a situation where something traumatic or heartbreaking was happening in their life and struggled with rumination? I know there is like a normal amount that you should process something and cry it out but I don’t know that it is conducive to anything to do that on and off for hours? Wouldn’t it at a certain point be considered unhelpful rumination? And if so how does one stop? Because I’m going through something so hurtful and confusing that I don’t know how to stop thinking about it and the usual distractions don’t work for very long. And idk how important this is but it just happened today so it’s very fresh which makes it even harder to not think about and “figure out” why x, y, z happened. Goodness, I’m sorry if I’m weird or a baby

issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 13w ago

I don’t know what this is. Help please?

Two things are happening: I get thoughts that just keep looping. They almost feel like song stuck in my head. Also, I’ll imagine something and I feel my stomach drop. Then as the seconds go by I keep getting fragments of the this thought but with different details. For example, it’s kinda like how a “vision” is portrayed. I’ll get a glimpse of the thought and then it’ll rapidly expand into something worse every few seconds. I don’t know if I’m causing this or if it’s just an automatic thing like any other intrusive thought. It feels unavoidable, idk if this is a compulsion or if it’s just another manifestation of an intrusive thought. Apart from that remembering an intrusive thought triggers the full thought again and then it just keeps looping or expanding. I don’t know how to stop any of this. Help?

moon027097

Date posted: 10w ago

Mental compulsions/ rumination

So hard to not engage the thoughts because even though it's from the "past" (i don't even know if im remembering things correctly and it kills me) and i can't change it, I just NEED to prove it to myself that it didn't happen this way. If you'd asked me questions maybe a few months ago, I would have been able to lucidly explain things. Now I just feel like I'm in a constant swarm of thoughts, not knowing if anything is real. If my brain is to be trusted. Wish I could just get hypnosis to forget

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Replaying

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