Neuroscience: Ruminating on Our Ruminations Causes More Depression
“Depressive symptoms and depression are common in young people. Girls have these symptoms more often than boys and more often have a depression diagnosis as well.
Once you have depressive symptoms, it’s easy to fall into a pattern where you aggravate it by ruminative thinking. One of the key issues is what is called negative metacognitions. Meta-thoughts—or metacognitions—are the thoughts we think about the thoughts we think. Having thoughts about our own thinking that we’re more or less aware of is pretty common so it is not harmful itself. Positive thoughts about our own thinking can lead us to reflect on topics we want to reflect on more often, and maybe even enjoy more. However, negative metacognitions can—for example—be thinking that depressive brooding is a sign that we are damaged, or we might think that our brooding is uncontrollable. For some individuals, this ruminative thinking gives rise to thoughts that can be difficult to break out of. Those thoughts can quickly lead to getting wrapped up in a self-reinforcing, negative pattern.
Metacognitive therapy can help
Metacognitive therapy is a new form of treatment developed by Adrian Wells at the University of Manchester, where the main goal is to discontinue negative thought processes and change metacognitions such as worry and rumination. Metacognitive therapy focuses on changing what maintains depressive illnesses: the depressive brooding and the negative thoughts about our own thinking.”
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#Depression #Ruminating #MentalHeal
💬 How do you deal with ruminating thoughts?
@globalBraid3744
Most of my negative ruminations come from fixations on things that occurred in the past. I like to remember and live out the phrase "don't cry over spilled milk". The past is the past, nothing can be done to change it. Once I accepted that I can work on filling my mind with more positive things.
@sunnyWriting4806
This phrase is a very helpful guide! I also tend to fixate on things that occurred in the past. I find that sometimes acceptance is very difficult, and it is great you can shift your focus toward more positive thoughts.
@globalBraid3744 Ruminative thinking can cause us to keep going down the rabbit hole and then we can get stuck in these thoughts. I think this is similar to intrusive thoughts too. I struggle with OCD and they say that trying to fight these thoughts only causes them to stick around more! It's important to make friends with these thoughts, but not give any power to them. They are just thoughts and they don't mean anything. Getting stuck on thoughts can really mess with us sometimes. The more we get involved with them, the harder it is to realize that these thoughts aren't true. But they can be so hard to fight sometimes!
@fruityPond7887
You described it so accurately! I think it is important to recognize when you are sinking into the spiral and also accept that thoughts are simply thoughts until we give them more power.
@globalBraid3744 Right! I think it's important to practice self-care and things you know help you get out of that spiral even if it is really hard!
