Choosing to ruminate only strengthens the false alarm system OCD creates.Īs with any compulsion, the more you do it, the more the alarm continues to go off. The issue here is that with OCD, there is not necessarily any real problem or danger. After all, many people ruminate on problems they think they’re having in an attempt to solve them. The nature of OCD makes it easy for a person to ruminate and to focus on justifying what they’re doing. OCD often leaves them feeling unsure and forces them to seek comfort or reassurance. OCD distorts how they see things and the experiences they have. OCD is called the “doubting disorder” for many reasons: people with this illness often doubt their memories, the meaning of their thoughts, their values, etc. Learn more Why do people with OCD ruminate? You’re not on your own, and you can talk to a specialist like me who has experience treating OCD. Some days, this could take hours, but he could not move forward with his day until he felt that this had been resolved.ĭo these symptoms sound familiar? Learn how you can overcome them.Īs an OCD specialist, I know how overwhelming compulsive rumination can be. He would do this several times until he felt convinced that he had taken the proper precautions. He would picture it in his mind and walk through it repeatedly. In an effort to feel less anxious about this and to convince himself that his partner would not become ill, he would replay in his mind every step he had taken to prepare the food. One member I worked with would have the repeated intrusive thought that his partner would become ill if he didn’t properly prepare their food. Yet mental compulsions, after all, do what any other compulsion does: they reinforce the idea that an intrusive thought is dangerous, and deceive your brain into believing that it controls the outcome of the thought. They can be sneaky, and often the person with OCD doesn’t even realize that what they’re doing is a compulsion. Mental compulsions are often overlooked because they are internal and unseen. I would describe it as going down a rabbit hole, or being caught up in an endless loop. It may even look like trying to reverse the thought or move on from it with a feeling of assurance or peace. You attempt to make sense of the intrusive thought or try to rationalize it. It can involve searching for an answer – specifically, needing to feel certain about it. For people struggling with OCD, rumination can look like engaging with an intrusive thought in an effort to figure it out. It’s the difference between having a thought which can go away as quickly as it appeared, and being actively focused on a thought that you’re fixated on and that may be interfering with daily functioning. When you ruminate, you are directing a lot of your attention to a particular thought. Rumination occurs when you have constant and repetitive thoughts about something it may involve making repeated attempts to solve a perceived problem you’re having. This is a tremendous burden people with OCD often face. It’s one thing to know something must be done and another to do something. In reality, learning to stop ruminating is one of the most difficult things a person with OCD will do. One of the questions I get asked most by people starting OCD treatment is “how do I stop ruminating?” The answer seems straightforward enough: you can make a choice to stop.
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