How to Stop Ruminating (Dr. Michael J. Greenberg)

Ruminating is also what grazing animals do with cud! Some things need chewing on. It definitely doesn’t have to be a bad thing. There are so many words that carry a very specific meaning in OCD world. But I do it both the good way and the bad way, and I think that’s pretty common, so maybe you do too?

Absolutely! I love chewy questions and as a writer, ruminating is definitely something I owe a lot of good work to (but unfortunately also sleep & sanity hahaha). This article was such a great rec. I have adhd and ptsd and found a lot of what’s said really insightful — as well as surprisingly practical. Thank you for sharing it <3

Yes I feel like rumination as a term is definitely something that shows up in creative writing classes etc. And like, my experience with OCD as a chronic condition is that a lot of the ways my brain works are deeply important to who I am as a writer and a person, and not something I want to purely pathologize. But also, I absolutely have to push back and challenge my ways of thinking or even just shut them down. I’m so happy it’s helpful!

100%, you’ve articulated that really nicely. Pushing back’ isn’t something I realised was an option until recently and I’ve found it comforting to know it’s possible to hold my brain to account that way. Glad this found me when it did—thank you and wishing you the best!

Genuinely makes me so so happy ❤️

I have had ocd all my life and all I want is for my experience to be useful to other people!!! So sorry if you’re struggling with rumination rn 💜💜

Ahhhhh thank you! Will check this article out. I think finding that line of “is there anything (else) productive I can do with this feeling” is the line I’m struggling to find.

I absolutely understand that struggle. That’s like, the main issue for me with my OCD, is it’s never like, this thing is or isn’t OCD, it’s more like, the way my mind works is always OCD and also I have to still find ways to uphold my values/deal with thorny questions. So sometimes friends will be like “I can’t tell if this is real or my OCD” and I personally don’t think that’s a helpful question, bc often it’s both. I’ve written a bit about it on rec league and I can share with you in case anything is helpful! Ultimately though I think part of the answer is accepting that there might be something else productive you can do, but you also have to move on. A whole thing they talk about in OCD treatment (which I’m only mentioning so much bc it’s what I hav experience with) is “sitting with uncertainty”

Reading the article I am confused about if it’s suggesting to just fully disengage… but doesn’t that leave you with a pile of unresolved issues? 🫣 But I like the time boxing idea you suggested—I will give that a try! Thank you!!!

Ya I think ultimately for me it’s like, how much are you resolving by engaging with these thoughts. Like thanks to so many years of experience, I know that I will never think about something hard enough to fully resolve it. There’s like, an amount of talking through something or thinking about it that’s useful, but that time is very short compared to how much time I’ll want to spend on it. I think a timer is really useful as a starting place/finding where that line is for you

Ah yes! Just saw your other comment too. My equally unhelpful starting line for questioning (thanks for helping me realize this, lol) is, “Is this a big/real problem or am I being too sensitive?!” And I think maybe there’s potentially another approach of a framework of helpful questions I could be asking to assess the size and importance of the issue. I’ll have to do some noodling to figure out where I might start with that, but that feels promising as well. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and experience!