Are You Ready Ruminators? OK, Right - Then let's Get Helping You To Stop (Merged Topics)

[taurean]

1 hour ago, lostinme said:

What we have to remember is ruminating is a evil part of our OCD. A intrusive thought pops into our minds and maybe takes up all of a couple of seconds of our brain power. 

But our ruminating can go on for hours and hours even days and some times longer and what we need to remember is it's all useless, all that brain work does absolutely no good. It just causes us more destress. 

Absolutely. I can come across something, and so can we all on our theme, that that hateful "scanner"  built into our brain has located and locked onto. Then out is rolled the rumination compulsion. 

We can literally obsess about anything that the brain latches onto in this way. 

But the OCD obsessions tend to actually be negative irrational irrelevant nonsense to all but the sufferer, which is tragic. 

If we then look at it from the position of a friend - also reading the book - the amount of additional risk incurred by non-response is actually now likely to be seen as little or nothing. 

 

Edited February 25, 2017 by taurean
typo

[taurean]

Well I woke up just now a little stressed and realise that I have been ruminating in my sleep. 

Well at least I woke up and so have the chance to practice the good ideas on the thread.

That ruminating, it can get everywhere 

[taurean]

We had a wonderful testimony from lostinme yesterday of how applying the techniques we learn can bring about significant change. 

That input from her made my evening yesterday - sharing her experience is what this thread is partially about, and it inspired saddaniels. 

I am going to introduce two new tools this morning. 

The Anchor 

This is another simple but powerful method. 

We each choose a  mental image of a calming activity which will become our anchor, to return to in times of rumination. 

When you find yourself engaged in rumination, find a safe place to sit without any responsibility, and conjure up your anchor and imagine yourself practising that anchor activity. 

A simple one is observing the breath. I am calmly relaxing my muscles and focusing on the breath as it enters my body through my nostrils. I slow down and deepen my breath and just keep focusing on it as it enters through my nose then leaves through nose or mouth. 

Then when I have broken the chain of the rumination by using my anchor, I can return to normal activities. 

Mindfulness Meditation 

My wife and I like to practice these in any safe environment, but a good one is a spa pool steam room or sauna, or a warm bed (where I am now). 

Just close your eyes and calm and deepen your breathing. If you like you can practice a short " body scan " meditation of shifting focus around the muscle system in the body, tensing then untensing muscles. 

When you feel more relaxed and focused allow your mind to conjure up a really peaceful scene or place that you love and cherish. 

Really hold that in your mind, then see yourself as entering that scene - being there, in that place, in the moment, with nothing else at all mattering. 

Feel it, smell it, taste it, really enjoy it - absolutely nothing else matters to you right now but to be in this meditation. 

When you are ready, gently open your eyes again and return your focus to the present. 

Edited February 25, 2017 by taurean
typos

[taurean]

Remember, when you find yourself ruminating, that is the time to take action because no good will come from it. You will waste lots of time and energy to absolutely no good effect. 

Another really good tool is to focus on making somebody else happy. It takes us out of that fruitless thinking, generates happy emotions - and the payback in terms of the response from the other person is incredibly uplifting. 

Exercising is another great way of leaving rumination behind. 

Walking running swimming, taking part in a class activity - all good, and the focus in the moment will take us away from ruminating. 

Writing is a great method for me. I love it, it's creative, useful, ties up my concentration beneficially. 

Hobbies 

Our friend biscuitcat takes her sketch pad with her and draws as she observes people and scenes. 

My car always has a pair of pocket binoculars inside, in case a birdwatching opportunity presents itself. 

A day by the fishing lakes is good for the soul, and brings the joy of the open air, communication with like-minded others,  and the fun of trying to out-think the fish. 

A hobby that refocuses beneficially may well be good. 

 

[taurean]

OK I have taken an idea from biscuitcat and have moved the campaign to breakfast in Costa Coffee then watching the world go by as I work on the thread

 

Next idea 

Minimise the power of your obsession 

Not rocket science is it - you can't ruminate if an obsession is fading away? 

So, take a detached view of whatever is getting your goat. 

See how others would not deem it worthy of attention. 

See how, to them, it is just negative irrational unwanted worthless nonsense. 

Why should you lose your health happiness and time to such things?  OCD wants you to, but as Jessie_Loz says, we can overcome that - recovery is possible! 

So let's take a look at those obsessions, challenge their validity, see how the disorder goes out seeking out triggers, making invalid connections. 

Let's pick up on Hal's technique of being dismissive - "nice try OCD,  you almost got me there".  Try mentally saying it in a silly voice. 

The liar that is OCD exaggerates the importance and threat of the most inconsequential things. 

It tells us 2 + 2 = 5. Well even with my dodgy understanding of maths, it never has and it never will. 

Challenge the validity of an intrusive thought ; challenge the erroneous core belief that props it up. Challenge the false connections the disorder seeks to make. 

Then why is there a need to ruminate? 

[styx402]

13 hours ago, lostinme said:

I What I'm trying to say is this: 

We can spend hours ruminating over a thought, torturing ourselves, being anxious and getting depressed searching for an answer or trying to solve it, to try to find reassurance and never finding any of it. 

So why spend hours ruminating over something we can't change because the outcome is always going to be the same no matter what we do.

 

I couldn't have put this any better lostinme.

This sums it up for me and helps me think more positively because I realise that ruminating really is a completely pointless exercise which we all have to try to resist.

Thank you taurean what a great thread. 

[taurean]

In the twighlight world of OCD, the path is littered with exaggerations, doubts, lies, irrelevance, irrationality, falsehoods and connections which do not exist. 

He or she that picks these things up and runs with them will become a sufferer.

He or she who learns how to leave these things be will recover. 

 

 

[taurean]

OK we are nearly halfway through the day, and I am still hoping for more people to come on the thread and give us good experience of how they have tackled their ruminating. Perhaps PolarBear might sheare with us hpow he managed to do this? 

Meanwhile the next tool  I am introducing is the behavioural experiment . Those in therapy with a recently-qualifeid clinical psychologist may likely be taught about this. 

If you have the book "Break Free From OCD" it is extremely well presented therein.

But here is a quick overview. It uses 2 theories which you  explore.

Theory A

You give consideration to,  and write down, all the reasons why ypu think your obsession is likely to be true. If you have been ruminating well, you should have these to hand 

Now here is the next  part. 

Theory B

You give consideration to all you have learned about OCD, and then you write down all the reasons why you think your riumination is the result of , in fact, worrying about having OCD.

I am not going to say any more about this process just now, as a number of you won't have tried it . You can make it a little light-hearted, though still of necessity serious, by pretending the evidence is being heard before a judge in a court of law 

Let us know what conclusion you have reached when you have completed the experiment. 

 

[lostinme]

Some more great points from Taurean here, knowledge is power.

I will be sharing some more points later when my migraine eases

 

[taurean]

20 minutes ago, lostinme said:

Some more great points from Taurean here, knowledge is power.

I will be sharing some more points later when my migraine eases

 

Hope that migraine eases off soon lost

 But the thread will not turn into a pumpkin at midnight, Cinders lost can return to it when able 

[taurean]

I can see from the online user list that people are reading the thread, so my message to you all is that I hope you find something here that may make a big difference for you personally 

[lostinme]

Ok here goes, 

knowledge is power:

When I first started having cbt and erp, I got confused I didn't know what my therapist was talking about. I didn't know what was the obsession, what was rituals, what was a compulsion, what was safety behaviours, what was ruminating etc. No one had ever explained to me all the concepts of OCD. To me I was troubled with thoughts and things that I needed to do and how I needed to act etc. 

If you had never driven a car and someone said get in and drive,and didn't explain what to do and why you need to do it etc brake, gears, etc, you wouldn't know what to do, you would be overwhelmed with anxiety I'd guess YES? And you would never learn to drive would you?

The same goes with OCD if you don't understand what your doing and why your doing it, you'll not learn how to tackle it.

Ive seen quite a few posts where a lot of you say you don't understand, don't worry I didn't.

I think you need to understand all the different concepts of OCD and most importantly understand each part to begin to work on it. 

So back to the car, ok you maybe know how to turn the key to start up the engine, but what do I do next? anxiety hits you, there are so many things here, what do I do?what do I press? scary yes. But a little guidance and explanation makes you less anxious to give it a go. 

Thats the same if you don't understand OCD and how to begin to challenge it. You stay stuck and never learn to drive.

I think it's important to know, what is your obsession, to know when you are ruminating, what are your behaviours, what are your safety seeking behaviours and what are your rituals and compulsions etc. 

I think you need to know these and understand these points to be able to work on them and learn how to drive, hope you understand what I'm trying to say. 

So to learn to stop ruminating, you need to realise when you are doing it and understand why it's better to stop doing it.

[taurean]

This is so so true. 

People on here are sometimes trying to do exposure and response prevention without understanding the real whys and wherefores of their mental health condition. 

As lost says, in therapy we can, given the right time devoted to our needs, and the right therapist, acquire this knowledge. Then it all begins to make sense - and we understand why we are ruminating, and then this thread really comes into its own. 

Nevertheless we have given some great tasters and knowledge here. But quality CBT treatment on a one to one basis is so so helpful - this is why it is considered the gold standard in OCD treatment, and why the charity looks to steer everyone in that direction. 

Happy stopping ruminating everyone. Keep going, find what works for you and you can make a real difference. 

[lostinme]

So true Taurean cbt is the best treatment for OCD that's why I am where I am today. 

Not only do we need to learn to change our physical behaviour and responses, we also have to learn to change our thinking behaviour responses too.

Thats how we learn to change the way we react to our thoughts.

One that also helps me is another thing my therapist taught me is to look at facts and evidence when avoiding our compulsions?

[taurean]

Well time to wrap up the day itself, but the good work of this thread will go on. 

My thanks to lostinme for her valuable contributions and to those who gave specific feedback - authors revel upon that, it makes their efforts so much more worthwhile. 

Obsessional thoughts and images take maybe just seconds to occur ; non-sufferers don't give them time of day, they ease them straight away. 

In sufferers, a compulsive reaction occurs, giving them adverse meaning  - obsession plus compulsion equals disorder, as symbolised by the charity's logo. 

This thread has been all about conveying that message and showing people how to stop the rumination compulsion. 

It particularly pleased me to see that guests were reading the thread, though of course unless they registered they were unable to contribute to the thread - perhaps they will do so tomorrow. 

I enjoyed the small element of research I undertook to add to my own knowledge and launch this thread. 

I enjoyed hosting the day, especially the "outside broadcast"  over breakfast from Costa Coffee

And I thank the charity once again for hosting this marvellous website to reach out to sufferers and their friends and family and give vital understanding and guidance towards treatment and recovery. 

Please do keep reading and commenting on the thread, I do hope it remains helpful to us for some time to come, into next week and accessed from the search facility.