Thank you all, very much. I appreciate that you've shared your experiences with this "thing".

Deejay, Thanks for the article. It doesn't address exactly what I'm getting at, however. For example, replaying a conversation in my mind is a more "normal" type of rumination - strangely, I don't replay things like conversations or social encounters or work issues, etc. very much.

The rumination I'm getting at is not something I have control over, any more than someone has control over a hallucination. This type of rumination is, to me, somewhat delusional. Sort-of. No way can I "choose" to make it go away. cashart, your example of the 4-hour single-paragraph email is exactly the kind of thing I'm getting at. It's like an effing whirly wheel inside my mind that WILL. NOT. STOP. Yes, I do activities to distract the Thing, listen to music (thank God for music), and I have practiced meditation for 37 years. It all helps, but then the Thing just comes right back at first chance. It is definitely an anxiety situation, but different, too.

I guess it's just part of bipolar disorder. I stopped taking the Gabapentin entirely. I'm wondering if maybe I should go back on the 300 mg., that doing so might help.

Oh you guys, sometimes I am just so tired of this. So much noise in my head. I feel like I have Grand Central Station inside my brain.