Rumination

What should I do if I catch my self ruminating. Most of the time when I ruminate is when I have urges, sensations or images. I just want my life back.

Anonymous

Date posted: 35w ago

Stop thoughts have always helped me. An example of a stop thought I use is to just yell "STOP!" to myself. And then I shake it off physically, take a shower, or stand up and walk outside just to breathe the fresh air.

777Q

Date posted: 35w ago

Personally I find rumination very, very difficult and tricky . For me to at least a certain extent there is normally a particular subject or issue that requires my attention legitimately perhaps to the point of generating a pro and con list to work out the matter . It often leads to over analyzing and rumination when I often take things too far for too long . I have to make myself stop and tear myself away from the issue and make myself move onto something else or otherwise I will end up in the counter productive category which often I end up in.

CalicoTiramisu

Date posted: 35w ago

Someone said this the other day and I thought it was amazing because it actually worked. It was "if you can't solve this in 5 minutes move on." I have a lot of work to do so I ruminate for 5 minutes and then I just got back to work, still kind of ruminating, but it went away because I became so focused on my work. When the thoughts would come back up I'd say to myself "you couldn't solve this in 5 minutes so just wait a little longer until you're done with work to figure it out." You could even delay things by thinking "I'll think about this in 5 minutes, but right now let me do x or y" and I tend to really get lost in time so that also worked for me.

Ocdsucks56

Date posted: 35w ago

@CalicoTiramisu Mine is really bad that even when I’m doing things I still think about it. Do I just try to focus on what I’m doing if so? How??

CalicoTiramisu

Date posted: 35w ago

@Ocdsucks56 Sometimes that's all you can do. I was having a near meltdown the other day trying to work through it, but take baby steps. No one is expecting these issues to be solved overnight. Progress is often times not linear when it comes to this. Sometimes nothing will help, but I feel I get to the point sometimes of "aren't you tired of this?" and I just say "I am absolutely tired of this" and we agree to leave the thoughts for just a second even if the guilt is still there. We aren't going to be magically fixed overnight and we're always going to have rough days, understanding ocd and our thoughts to help prevent a rumination cycle is all we can do for now. Best wishes!

Ocdsucks56

Date posted: 35w ago

@CalicoTiramisu Yes, I am starting therapy again, I hope it helps like it did last time. I hope we all overcome this. We deserve a life without pain, even tho is not physically pain but is mental pain.

CalicoTiramisu

Date posted: 35w ago

@Ocdsucks56 In my experience, mental pain has left more scars than any physical pain. Just remember some stranger is always rooting for you!

bloominglotus

Date posted: 21w ago

Images coming back again

My intrusive images were an absolute nightmare back in April. I honestly don’t even know how it got better, I had written a letter to God begging for help. Well recently idk if it’s because I’ve been stressed a lot again and ruminating on a lot of pocd related things from the past the make me worry, but the images have started again and even though they are repulsive and awful, I feel like I’m not reacting how I should. I think I just got to where I would just try to like blink it away and ignore it, but I feel so bad if I’m not feeling absolute shame and guilt. I feel like I feel too normal and sometimes I forget that if anyone knew besides people on here, I can’t imagine what people would think, but I also know it’s not who I am so I feel like I don’t worry as much as I should. Also, I can’t stop worrying about fanfiction I read when I was like 16 and 17. It really bothers me because I keep wondering did I imagine this one character my age? Why did I read this? Did I even know what aging up was then, and even if I did it’s wrong and gross anyway but if I didn’t age this character up then that’s awful. And i just can’t let go but I think it’s triggering me to have the images so idk what to do.

Ellen_l

Date posted: 10w ago

Advice?

I’m having a big OCD relapse and would like to hear anyone’s tips on how to be present and healthily deal with these intrusive thoughts and the “need” to preform compulsions. Thank you!!

issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 8w 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?

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Rumination

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