Let’s take a Case Example of Rumination about a Harm Obsession: Case Study This belief about the mental act of rumination leads to a pattern which repeats every time they feel out of control or sense an uncertainty that they wish to control (Pinciotti et al., 2021). However, contrary to what clients believe, rumination ends up in them being stuck in the thought-spiral and results in heightening of emotions of shame, disgust or guilt with oneself. One common method by which individuals may do this is by having a belief that a mental act like rumination, can keep the thoughts in control. Such beliefs can lead individuals to experience a heightened sense of responsibility to control the thought-related consequences. Additionally, it could be a belief that thinking about an event may cause it ( thought-event fusion) or that one's own thoughts may pass onto an object or person and affect them too, For eg., “ Because I have evil thoughts, my daughter might start having them too” ( thought-object fusion) (Melchior, et al., 2019). Some beliefs about intrusive thoughts may include, for instance, the belief that having a thought or image of an action like hitting someone, could translate to real-life action (called thought-action fusion). Thus, instead of letting the thought pass the mind as it does for many of us, some patients with OCD ruminate about it which prevents the thought from decaying and maintains it in their minds (Wahl et al., 2019). The meta-cognitive model proposes that the beliefs that one may have about their obsession itself cause an urge to do something to control them through physical or mental compulsions. Meta-cognition (‘thinking about thinking’) theory explains how rumination contributes to OCD symptoms. Rumination may appear similar to obsessions, but they are slightly different in their nature and cause: How does Rumination as a Mental Compulsion in OCD originate? However, it has long-term negative consequences for people diagnosed with OCD How is it different from Obsessions? It often stems from the belief that this is an efficient way to deal with and control our obsessive thoughts. This results in a rippling effect where one seeks un-answerable questions and unverifiable beliefs about the content of the thoughts and ends up in an uncontrollable spiral (De Silva, 2003 Wahl et al., 2019). Rumination has been called a mental compulsion as it is accompanied by an irresistible urge to think about our intrusive thoughts without an end goal. For example, if an individual gets obsessive thoughts like: ‘ I might cause harm to my friend’ they might analyze this further by thinking ‘ why do I have such thoughts? “Why can I not control them”, “Am I a bad person to have such thoughts?”, "where is this coming from" etc. One way that individuals deal with their obsessive thoughts is by analyzing them repetitively to make sense of their symptoms and provide a 'solution to them'. OCD as a disorder has various ways of presenting its symptoms. Have you ever caught yourself thinking about certain strange or distressing thoughts and then analyzing the why's and how’s of the origin of such thoughts in your head and suddenly realize you are now stuck in a loop and are experiencing brain fog? This is what psychology calls ‘ Rumination’.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |