Jump to content

Tips To Stop The Ruminating


Recommended Posts

There is in my opinion no "Pure O"  - an OCD thoughts sufferer like myself carries out mental compulsions - we need to look for those and gradually eliminate them. 

Pick a short time frame and resist for that long, keeping busy. 

Next time, extend the time period. 

Failures are just blips - pick up where you left off. 

Why not respond to the urge by arranging an appointment to ruminate later on - fob off the OCD with this and try not to keep the appointment :biggrin:

Overthinking is a bad rumination - we are thinking too much too deeply too negatively. So let's deliberately look to shallow our thinking, glide over things, not always searching analysing - more accepting and skating along the service. 

And reframe to positives - in each situation, find some positives however silly. 

Learn to dismiss - when our disorder delivers an obsessive thought and wants to focus on it, widen the "lens" and practice easing that thought gently away out of focus. 

Link to comment

II can really see how this advice relates to my OCD.  I know that what I need to do is to stop 'noticing' things - to soften the focus so that I look at the world in the same way that a non-OCD person does. Also, I need to be able to let go of a thought.  Part of the reason my contamination worries become so overwhelming is the way I track contamination until there are so many things to track that my brain is full of them and there's no room for any other thoughts. 

Link to comment

I think when we look at things simplistically, it is a whole lot easier to see how things go wrong - why our thinking and responses get distorted, connections that don't actually exist get made. 

Once we have that clear in our minds, it gives us encouragement for the hard graft of challenging, exposure, breaking up cycles. 

 

Link to comment

Oh no, I've just spent an hour ruminating about rumination! :tongue: I really like this post and wanted to reply, but I've gone and used it as excuse to ruminate!  

So, I'm just going to say I second what Taurean says, and I can vouch for the effectiveness of scheduled 'worry time'. I might come back later and explain my experience because it might be helpful to some people, but right now I need to go and do something else to stop myself ruminating about rumination! W

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...