Rumination: The danger of dwelling

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24444431

Rumination: The danger of dwelling

The UK's biggest ever online test into stress, undertaken by the BBC's Lab UK and the University of Liverpool, has revealed that rumination is the biggest predictor of the most common mental health problems in the country.

A bit of self-reflection can be a good thing, say psychologists. But just how serious can it get when introspection goes awry and thoughts get stuck on repeat, playing over and over in the mind?

Rumination and self-blame have long been accepted by health professionals as part of the problems that can lead to depression and anxiety - the two most common mental health problems in the UK, according to the Mental Health Foundation.

But new research has demonstrated just how significant and serious their impact on mental health can be.

The findings of a ground-breaking study, published in the journal PLOS ONE today, suggest that brooding too much on negative events is the biggest predictor of depression and anxiety. The research even suggests a person's psychological response is a more important factor than what has actually happened to them.

A total of 32,827 people from 172 countries took part in the online stress test devised by the BBC's Lab UK and psychologists at the University of Liverpool, making it the biggest study of its kind ever undertaken in the UK.

"We found that people who didn't ruminate or blame themselves for their difficulties had much lower levels of depression and anxiety, even if they'd experienced many negative events in their lives," says Peter Kinderman, who led the study and is a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Liverpool.

"Dwelling on negative thoughts and self blame have previously been recognised as important when it comes to mental health, but not to the extent this study has shown.

"The findings suggest both are crucial psychological pathways to depression and anxiety."
The human mind is an extremely complex machine and it's generally accepted there is no single cause for depression and anxiety by professionals in the field. But some factors have more impact than others.

The study found traumatic life events, such as abuse or childhood bullying, cause the most stress when dwelled upon. This is followed by family history, income and education. Next comes relationship status and social inclusion.
"But these didn't merely cause depression and anxiety," he says.

"The most important way in which these things led to depression and anxiety was by leading a person to ruminate and blame themselves for the problem.

(continued, always helps me to blame some others for lifes misfortunes - and I'm even happy if there's a chance to get even...)

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Hmmm... I'll need to think about this for a bit...

[JimC]

But... but...

Rumination is rubbing rum over every inch of one's naked body, then swilling the rest of the bottle, right?

Perhaps I've been it wrong...

[cronus]

Rumination is sometimes called thinking isn't it? They'll develop a med for that soon. In the meantime there's the pub.

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

[JimC]

Rumination is sometimes called thinking isn't it? They'll develop a med for that soon. In the meantime there's the pub.

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

He was a bit of an elitist wanker, though...

[cronus]

Rumination is sometimes called thinking isn't it? They'll develop a med for that soon. In the meantime there's the pub.

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

He was a bit of an elitist wanker, though...

I would quotemine some great unknown only the internet didn't exist back in the day.

[cronus]

Rumination is sometimes called thinking isn't it? They'll develop a med for that soon. In the meantime there's the pub.

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

He was a bit of an elitist wanker, though...

I would quotemine some great unknown only the internet didn't exist back in the day.