Weekly Theme 6: Rumination
- Jan 5
- 6 min read
Rumination: What is it?
Rumination is a repetitive process of thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and the causes and consequences. Someone who constantly ruminates is more likely to remember more negative things in their past, interpret current situations more negatively and become more hopeless about their future. Often rumination can lead to what we call the “vicious cycle” or a “downwards spiral” where the more you ruminate, the worse you feel, which then leads to more rumination.
Rumination is also very passive. The person is not solving a problem and merely dwelling in it. They are passively getting swept up in their own thought process and feel stuck.
Not only that, unlike worrying, which is often for future/upcoming events, rumination is past-focused—meaning you replay negative situations over and over in your mind to dig yourself deeper into your hole.
Rumination VS Emotional Processing
Unlike rumination which leads to self-blame, guilt, or shame, emotional processing leads to feelings of acceptance.
Rumination does not produce new solutions/insights while emotional processing does
Rumination can lead to blaming others while emotional processing allows for situations to be put into a broader perspective
While rumination focuses on the negative, emotional processing helps people look for the positive
What distinguishes “dwelling on problems” from productive emotional processing is that rumination does not generate new behavior, mindsets, and solutions. Rumination ends up going over the same information and stay in the negative mindset.
Rumination is Contagious
Two people can “co-ruminate” and keep alive a negative situation without any movement towards the solution to it. This could happen on broader scales, where people discuss problems excessively without finding any solution. This spreads the depressive thinking and rumination cycle
Causes of Rumination
Some factors that cause rumination include:
Personality traits such as perfectionism or neuroticism
Stressful events
Poor self-esteem
Stressing about your fears
Traumatic events
Worry for upcoming events such as applications or tests
Worry for health conditions
Impacts of Rumination
Rumination and anxiety have a strong link, one can easily lead to another and increase each other’s symptoms.
Here are some things that rumination can have an impact on:
Amplifies negative emotions and intensify feelings of sadness, frustration, doubt. Rumination can lead to an endless cycle of self-criticism and pessimism.
Slowly shapes how you see yourself, your relationships, and your future you believe is possible.
You start to believe that’s the way you are. Your brain strengthens these negative pathways of criticism, regret, and fear.
Affects your problem solving skills by clouding judgement and constant overthinking.
Encourages avoidance by strong moments of self-doubt and overwhelming oneself with overthinking.
Harms relationships with its overthinking pattern. It’s hard to be present when you’re drowning in your own thoughts and each comment drags you further into your spiral.
Narrows your potential, your sense of possibility. When your brain is filled with negative past experiences, it becomes hard to see a more positive future. The neuroplasticity there to help you evolve is “hijacked” to keep you stuck.
Rumination affects your physical health.
There are many research done on the association between rumination and impaired somatic health. For example, already existing physical symptoms are intensified and through several physiological pathways rumination causes somatic distress. Other research states that there are associations between rumination and cortisol responses and has harmful efforts on both resting and ambulatory blood pressure.
Neuroscience of Rumination
There are two main factors that drive the cycle of rumination: the default mode network (DMN) and the amygdala.
The DMN consists of areas like the medial and posterior cingulate cortex and activates when you are not focused on the outside world. It is what fuels your “in my own head” state and supports future planning, daydreaming, self-reflection, and stimulates future scenarios. A strong DMN can be beneficial since it can promote creativity, problem-solving and reflection, but rumination can also occur when it is hyperactive. In a ruminating brain, the DMN is biased towards negative, self-critical situations and puts you back in “replay mode” every time you take a break.
The amygdala is the brain’s alarm system. Rumination also causes the amygdala to fire more often, triggering survival responses to even small things like a tone of voice or a pause in a conversation. Once the amygdala fires a response, your brain will search for danger—and in rumination, the danger is searched in your head—painful memories, embarrassing past scenarios are all replayed to see “where you messed up.”
In the neuroscience of rumination, the DMN and amygdala talk to each other. The more the amygdala sends the warning signals, the more DMN will spin up negative stories. These stories then perk up the amygdala once more, and on it goes.
What about the prefrontal cortex (PFC)? Your prefrontal cortex acts as the logical emotion regulator, which means that excessive ruminating can signal a worn out/underactive/overwhelmed PFC or even cause it to go offline in the first place.
Neurochemistry’s Role in this Cycle
Serotonin supports mood regulation and cognitive flexibility, or your ability to shift your thinking. When serotonin signaling is low or disrupted, you can find it hard to switch out of your ruminating mindset.
Dopamine is often thought as the reward chemical. Dopamine decides what your brain uses for attention, drive, and categorize as important. If your brain sees rumination (analyzing every mistake) as a protection/preparation for future pain and gives you a small dopamine hit to make you feel productive—even if you’re just going on a spiral.
This is why rumination is a habit. Dopamine is used to give your brain a false sense of control and tells you to keep going.
This is also why rumination can feel good. It gives you the temporary relief of feeling like you have control, you are productive, you are problem-solving and preparing for the future.
Cortisol, the main stress hormone makes your amygdala more reactive and dulls the prefrontal cortex.
Examples of Everyday Rumination
“I’m stuck in my head”
I can’t stop thinking about one small mistake
“Why can’t I just let this go?”
I think about what I should’ve said way more than what I actually did say.
“What if this one thing changes everything?”
I live in the “what if I messed up” stage
“I need to think this through one more time.”
I want peace, but my thoughts won’t slow down.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal… right?”
I feel trapped in the same thought.
“What if everything I do is pointless and it all goes down the drain?”
I feel myself drowning and I can’t get out, part of it because I don’t know how and a part because it feels good.
5 Small Steps to Stop Ruminating
Bring awareness of rumination to your body: when you feel like you’re spiraling again, stop and notice where you feel it—a tight stomach, a clenched jaw, or uneven breathing? Use this to wake up your prefrontal cortex.
Don’t let your brain spiral off: deactivate your default mode network and break your thought cycle by focusing on one physical task—doing chores, homework, reading, watching a movie.
Confide in a friend: go to someone who can talk you down, someone who can check your “runaway thoughts” and put your worries into another perspective. Don’t choose a friend that will end up ruminating with you.
Take action: instead of repeating the negative thoughts, break down each one and ask yourself: “what’s something I can do now to fix this?” Write it down and do it.
Change how your talk to yourself: inner voices can be brutal, let’s change that to more positive. Don’t jump to fake positivity but aim for “realistic, kind statements” such as: “that test did not go the way I wanted, but it’s one test for my whole career, and now I know what weaknesses to focus on for the next one.” No need to amp yourself up, just kind reminders.
References
American Psychiatric Association . (2020, March 5). Rumination: A Cycle of Negative Thinking. American Psychiatric Association. https://www.psychiatry.org/News-room/APA-Blogs/Rumination-A-Cycle-of-Negative-Thinking
Sansone, R. A., & Sansone, L. A. (2012). Rumination: Relationships with Physical Health. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 9(2), 29. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3312901/
Scott, E. (2018). Repetitive Thoughts: Emotional Processing or Rumination? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/repetitive-thoughts-emotional-processing-or-rumination-3144936
Compass Health Center. (2025, January 30). Compass Health Center. https://compasshealthcenter.net/blog/what-is-rumination-mental-health/
https://www.facebook.com/sydney.ceruto. (2025, November 30). Master The Neuroscience Of Rumination: Why Your Brain Gets Stuck. MindLAB Neuroscience by Dr. Sydney Ceruto. https://mindlabneuroscience.com/neuroscience-of-rumination-brain-stuck/
Salamon, M. (2024, January 1). Break the cycle. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/break-the-cycle
10 Tips to Help You Stop Ruminating. (2018, May 24). Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-stop-ruminating#tips
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