Overthinking vs rumination

Studies of this kind of loop use more specific names than “overthinking”.

Researchers group rumination and worry under "repetitive negative thinking": thinking that is repetitive, passive or relatively uncontrollable, and focused on negative content. Studies find a common factor underlying the two, so today they are considered largely overlapping.

In that research, rumination keeps your attention on your negative feelings and on their causes, meanings and consequences. Worry is a future-oriented attempt to solve a problem in your head: a chain of thoughts and images, laden with negative feeling and relatively uncontrollable.

Cleveland Clinic notes that anxiety tends to be more future-oriented, and a psychotherapist it quotes says that overthinking about the past is more connected with depression.

The first row condenses the definitions above. The rest are examples and things to try, not findings.

Research on rumination finds that it enhances negative thinking and impairs problem solving.

A useful check: if the last round of thinking gave you nothing you did not already know, treat that as a sign you are circling the problem rather than working it through, and switch to one of the tools below.

Run through these when you catch your mind looping. Your answers point to the tool that fits.

1. Is the thought about something that already happened, or something that might?
2. Are you asking “why” (why me, why now, why am I like this) or “what next”?
3. Is it mostly a feeling you keep checking, or a situation you keep picturing?
4. Is there one small step you could take in the next 24 hours?
5. Has the last ten minutes of thinking changed anything?

Looking back and asking why: try the rumination worksheet. Looking ahead and asking what if: sort it with the worry tree, or park it for a set worry time. A real step you can take: plan it, then stop thinking about it.