Does anyone have any tips on stopping ruminating? I'm doing exposure therapy and struggling to break the cycle of rumination.

Labelling compulsions is very helpful also! Simply noting “I’m ruminating right now” is already a step towards becoming more mindful and aware of your brain processes. Labelling thoughts as “obsession” or something like “oh hey there’s my obsession” or “there’s a thought” etc. can also be useful. I wouldn’t recommend self reassuring “this is just OCD it’s not true” and so on since it is another way or getting certainty and can often lead to doubting about OCD itself. This also would just be replacing a compulsion. Rumination is super tough since many of us have been ruminating our entire lives even before we knew about OCD! I totally empathise with you, sending lots of strength to you 💪

My therapist told me to hold an ice cube in my palm until it melts when I’m in a spiral of having an anxiety attack. It really shocks you into the present

Mindfulness. At first the idea of "mindfulness" seemed hokey to me, but it helped me realized how absent I am in my own life. I was actually annoyed at the idea. I am present! I'm very aware my life is a nightmare. And breathe? I am breathing! What kind of advice is this? Then I realized, I'm either ruminating about the past or thinking about my bleak future. Nonstop. So when I catch myself, I calmly and kindly bring myself back to now. I will look around and try and use my senses. What can I smell? What can I see? What can I feel? What can I hear? Things that are going on right now. Sometimes I say then out loud even just to give my surroundings full attention. I will try to notice 5 to 10 things around me. Pay attention to your breathing too. Are you breathing from your mouth or nose? Are your inhales and exhales of equal length? The more senses you consciously recruit to what's actually happening right now, your mind will shift focus. This has been taking me awhile. I'll do it for a minute or 2 and then realize 30 minutes have passed and I've been ruminating. Then I kindly notice and say okay. we're learning a new skill so be patient and nice to yourself. - Try and make your inner monologue more positive - Consciously recognize things that are going on around you - Pay attention to your breathing

Just consistently really. Getting an app like headspace or learning to do mindfulness meditation on YouTube really helps, it taught me that I actually do have a choice about where I direct my attention. Once I notice that I'm ruminating or that I'm dealing with urges to, I deliberately put my attention to something else even though it feels negligent. Then the thought and urges still pop up a lot, but each time I choose to put my attention on something else. Eventually I'm genuinely distracted from it, and it's no longer a problem. I think even though rumination is a really ingrained habit of thinking and can also sneak in without you noticing at first, it's also a compulsion where I'm actually able to use a self-reassurance compulsion to make it a little easier. It's not good to replace one compulsion with another one, but because rumination is my main compulsion, it gives me a lot of my time back, and then I find it easier to tackle the tendency to reassure myself once I've already had practice with not ruminating and I'm confident that I can do it. So this would be telling myself "that's very unlikely to happen because X Y and Z reasons", but only spending a short amount of time on that until I feel a bit better (not totally better, just a BIT safer) then going straight into directing my attention away from ruminating and analysing any further on the topic. It's not perfect, but it's also what a lot of people who DON'T have OCD would do if they got an intrusive thought, so I figure it can't be THAT bad for me. Cutting out the rumination via a quick reassurance and then preventing myself from ruminating on it, over time makes the fear feel like less of a threat for me and less important for my brain as I'm simply not giving it much of my time and energy. Eventually after I'm in the habit of not paying the obsession much attention, I then go into cutting out the first bit where I reassure myself, and I find it a lot easier.

I find it really difficult not to ruminate if I sit and do nothing. I'm most successful if I keep myself engaged in activities that require attention

Thank you so much for all this wonderful advice! I really appreciate it ❤️

My therapist says instead of ruminating stop when I notice I'm doing it and go do something that requires attention

Can you give me an example of your exposure and what’s you’re ruminating about? I’m curious if it’s similar to my issue