Ru,ination

Hi Everyone,

I have a quick question. Christmas Eve whle laying in bed I had a breakthrough and discovered that my depressioon always starts with rumination. Dopes anyone know if there is a med to stop the rumination or if there is something I can do about it?

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

I deal with rumination by pulling out coping skills to get through them and to distract. Such as...coloring, journaling, having hot tea, hot shower, taking a walk or intense exercise, self-soothing by sing 5 senses, meditation or using guided imagery with youtube videos. youjsut have to find something to get through the moment.

Yes to what HALLIEBETH said. Distraction is a very useful tool. It's all about getting you out of the looping thoughts. Something to break you out if that circle.

Give yourself a pat on the back for recognizing this pattern -- it shows good insight!

Are you ruminating in bed when you are trying to fall asleep? That's when it tends to get me. I have a few distractions, some of which you can do at any time. But I do these at night in bed since that's when I ruminate. I distract myself by fantasizing/daydreaming. I've come up with many trashy romance novels in my mind at night. ;-) That takes some creativity, though. If you're not the creative type, some bold visual imagery can also be distracting. I think of soothing things. For example, I will imagine that tiny Buddhist monks are washing the inside of my head, clearing all of my worrisome thoughts away. I picture them with soft cloths wiping my brain of all the worry and replacing it with peace. I know that sounds odd, but the vivid imagery pulls your attention away from those thoughts. If you just count sheep it won't work because it's boring. It has to be something unique to draw your attention away. The last thing I do is I sleep with a soft Snoopy. I use it for a tactile distraction, focusing on his soft little ears or nose or paws and it helps me feel comforted so the negative thoughts don't have so much power.

I feel that depression occurs when the limbic (?) part of my brain (survival instincts) runs low. Then I ruminate WHY do I feel sad, then my thinking part of my brain thinks up reasons. But I have concluded that I am not actually sad (unless I create some sad thing as the reason) but depression for me is the inability to fight for life. If my heart or breathing weren't automatic, it would be easy to just die.

So this is where ruminating comes into play for me. To reiterate: Depression begins, brain triggers the questions "why am I sad" and imagination triggers reasons or memory.

But I think bipolar might be just that simple. A brain imbalance where sometimes we barely feel able to be alive, and other times have energy to climb tallest mountain.

Thanks for you insights. I found this great article on ruminations, their causes and coping techniques

Worrying About the Future, Ruminating on the Past?How Thoughts Affect Mental Health - WSJ

Can't get full article.