Understanding Overthinking and Rumination: How to deal with it?

We all at some point have indulged in overthinking and for some overthinking is a constant. Overthinking is a pattern of repetitive negative thoughts that send the individual on a downward spiral/loop leading to anxiety and distress. Rumination is again very similar to overthinking and often used interchangeably; but some differentiate it based on the content of negative thoughts. It often feels like a downward spiral with no end and impossible to get out of. Although the word is part of everybody’s lexicon; it is complex and very distressing, disorienting, overwhelming hampering our everyday functioning. Overthinking and rumination is linked to various mental health disorders especially depression. Both overthinking and rumination are included under the overarching concept of Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT). The following article will aim at understanding overthinking and rumination, its causes, links to mental health and techniques that help us deal with them.

Contents

1. Understanding the Nature of Overthinking and Rumination

2. Neurobiological basis of Overthinking and Rumination

3. Why Do We Overthink and Ruminate?

4. Link to Mental Health

5. How to Deal with Overthinking and Rumination?

Understanding the Nature of Overthinking and Rumination

To understand its nature lets breakdown the concepts. Scholars who differentiate between overthinking and rumination say overthinking is a repetitive negative thought pattern oriented towards the future, while rumination is oriented towards the past. Overthinking is excessive worry about decision making, choices, problem solving etc. (often starts with the intention to take action but ultimately becomes unproductive), while rumination is about certain past events which involves brooding, self-critical/doubting narratives (involving what ifs, why me questions). In conclusion, both at the end of the day are repetitive negative thinking patterns with downward spirals/loops that are maladaptive and unproductive.

In this article, we will be using overthinking and rumination interchangeably. We can view overthinking and rumination as levels on a spectrum. Overthinking falls on the lower end of the spectrum which maybe acute and easier to distract from or get out of. For

example, one may overthink about a medical intervention or an upcoming exam or problem. Once it has passed or when taken help, it might subside. Overthinking does not really have clinical implications, while rumination does. While on the other end of the spectrum is rumination which maybe more intense, chronic, intrusive often underlying and perpetuating mental health illnesses especially associated with depression.

Rumination can be divided into categories; trait rumination and state rumination. Trait rumination is a stable, habitual tendency to indulge in negative self-referential thoughts overtime while state rumination is acute, temporary indulgence in negative thoughts in reference and in response to the stressor. State rumination can evolve into trait rumination and both of them have their impact on negative affect (Wei, et al., 2024). Apart from the above there are four types of rumination:

1. Brooding Rumination: This is a perpetuating, intrusive and often distressing type usually about certain past events or about oneself. Usually consisting of why me thoughts or why did this happen to me etc.

2. Reflective Rumination: This is a solution-oriented type, usually when the individual is trying to solve a problem. This can be helpful but only if it leads to action.

3. Intrusive Rumination: This type is associated with PTSD and is shown to be a significant predictor of post traumatic stress. It is when exposure to stressful events cause intrusive thoughts/feeling, that are difficult to manage and get out of.

4. Deliberate Rumination: This type is seen as a relatively positive type that can lead to post traumatic growth. This is when the individual deliberately engages with thoughts/feelings to understand the situation or themselves more holistically and deeply (García, Duque, & Cova, 2017).

Neurobiological basis in Rumination and Overthinking:

            Various networks in our brain are involved in rumination. Rumination is strongly linked to Default Mode Network (DNM). This network consists of medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and bilateral angular gyri (Lois & Wessa, 2016). The DNM is network of regions in the brain that are involved in self-reflective thought, introspection, day dreaming, recollecting past etc. It is active in times of rest and deactivates when running out a task. In case of task, the brain shifts from DMN to DAN (Dorsal Attention Network). DAN helps in focusing/maintaining attention on a task, goal directed action. Dan becomes inactive in times of rest. The above is the ideal functioning of DNM and DAN.

In case of rumination, DNM is overactive and DAN remains inactive even cases of necessary tasks and goals. To put it in simpler words, an individual with hyperactive DMN which causes excessive worry, anxiety and low emotional regulation may find it difficult to switch to cognitive control networks like DAN and other systems in the brain that could help with problem solving, emotional regulation etc. While this switch would be easier for an individual who does not ruminate; it might feel next to impossible for an individual who ruminates. “Taken together functional interactions between DMN and cognitive control networks (DAN and others) may play an important role in rumination” (Lois & Wessa, 2016, p. 1793). Hyperactivity in DNM especially in its core structures (mPFC and PCC) is linked to brooding negative self-referential thoughts (associated with brooding rumination- see types). 

Another area in the brain that is linked to rumination and DNM is the subgenual prefrontal cortex (sgPFC). It is located under the corpus callosum and is very important for emotional regulation, mood, self-referential thoughts etc. Since sgPFC is involved in emotional processing, regulation and self-referential thinking, excessive activity in this region is associated with self-referential rumination (Bratman, Hamilton, Hahn, Daily, & Gross, 2015). Studies have also shown that functional connectivity (communication between different brain structures) between DNM and sgPFC predicted rumination. Meta-analysis of depressive rumination found that the extent of individual rumination can be predicted by the functional connectivity of the sgPFC and DMN (Gao, Yan, & Yuan, 2022; Hamilton, Farmer, Fogelman, & Gotlib, 2015). Increased connectivity between these two areas can lead to a vicious cycle of rumination.

            Subgenual prefrontal cortex is also an important part of the limbic system. Limbic system consisting of hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus and others plays a major role in emotional processing, regulation, emotional memories etc. In times of stress or trauma, an overactivated amygdala leads to something called an amygdala hijack, characterized by intense emotional outbursts either rage or panic triggering fight or flight response which often bypass the rational centers of our brain (rational processing is dampened hence the name hijack) leading irrational and extreme reactions. Something very similar happens during rumination where cognitive control centers (DAN) remain deactivated. These two amygdala hijack and rumination often complement and sustain each other. Rumination can keep the amygdala overactive possibly triggering a hijack. “Trait rumination factors were significantly positively associated with increased sustained amygdala reactivity” (Mandell, Siegle, Shutt, Feldmiller, & Thase, 2014, p. 47). Hence, the individual is caught in vicious cycle, since both rumination and overactive amygdala is involuntary and difficult to get out of; sustaining the cycle.

Why do we overthink and ruminate?

Just like everything else, causes for overthinking and rumination are complex. Why a person is ruminating at any given point depends on the situation, personality, past experiences, life situation and mental health of the individual. We will be looking at the most common ones, although there can be many more. All the causes are interconnected.

Negativity bias: In an evolutionary perspective, we needed to scan our environment for dangers and looking at any and all negative things around us was necessary for our survival. So, our brain evolved to have something called a negativity bias; where we look at and think about the negative aspects analyzing its solutions so as to ensure our survival. Now, this made sense during hunter gatherer times. Now situations are very different where we have more psychological dangers more than physical ones per se. But our brain does not know the difference between physical and psychological dangers. So, when we are faced with a problem be it physical or psychological, our brain only senses danger and threat to our survival.  Hence, it has to work overtime analyzing everything about it to ensure our survival.

1. Low self-esteem: Low self-esteem in simple terms in when an individual views negatively about him/herself. Putting it in context of rumination, the self-reflective thoughts when DNM and sgPFC are activated are usually negative and strong. Often because they have core negative believes about themselves. For example, after a breakup (either friendship or romantic relationship) or after experiencing failure, their self-reflective narratives are often pointing blame towards themselves. Attributing breakup to their inadequacies and failure to their inability and worthlessness. This can very quickly turn into brooding rumination.

   There is another form of unstable self-esteem which is fragile high self-esteem. It is when an individual shows overt high self-esteem but internally has an unstable or low sense of self. Hence, when an individual with fragile high self-esteem receives criticism or negative feedback, it causes dissonance. They tend to get defensive and may employ rumination to constantly replay the criticism or mistakes to reduce the dissonance which is often counterintuitive. It is linked to depression (Phillips & Hine, 2016).

2. Perfectionism: Perfectionism has been closely linked to rumination. Perfectionistic tendency to have exceedingly high expectations, to dwell over perceived flaws, evaluative fears like fear of failure and criticism from others can trigger self-doubt, negative self-reflective thought and overanalyzing. All of which can trigger rumination (Saha & Vijayan, 2024; Abdollahi, 2019). “Furthermore, the negative influence of perfectionism on self-esteem, emphasizes the tendency for rumination” (Saha & Vijayan, 2024, p. 182).

3. Problem solving mechanism: As we read above, rumination can often start off as a problem-solving mechanism. A person might start off with the intention to solve the issue he/she is facing. If other factors like low self-esteem, perfectionism, fragile high self-esteem, ongoing mental health difficulties (depression, anxiety) etc. are also present, it might turn into rumination.

4. Misguided coping mechanism: Not many talk about the function rumination serves. Rumination can often serve as a coping mechanism albeit a maladaptive one. It comes under avoidant coping mechanism. It is categorized under avoidance for two reasons. Firstly, rumination is a passive phenomenon. Meaning that rumination allows for passive overanalyzing or brooding that hinders an individual from taking any action toward problem solving. Secondly, rumination often is an experiential avoidance strategy. Experiential avoidance is when an individual is unable to or unwilling to remain with distress/uncomfortable or overwhelming emotions. Rumination often bypasses dealing with emotions and being stuck in analyzing why things went wrong or why is this happening or stuck in overanalyzing how the problem can be solved (Smith & Alloy, 2010). Sometimes rumination and other experiential avoidance strategies can go hand in hand to reduce the discrepancy between their current mood (sadness/depression) and their goal towards joy/happiness. Rumination is often employed to problem solve the discrepancy and experiential avoidance is employed to bypass dealing with their current emotional state and the underlying root cause. In the case of depression both fail to address the root cause and the discrepancy (Schut & Boelen, 2017).

5. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU): People who cannot tolerate uncertainty and lack of control often use rumination (repetitive thinking) as a mechanism to reduce uncertainty and try to gain control by getting a false sense of predictability. Rumination acts as a mediating factor between IU and psychological wellbeing. Meaning, IU leads to increase in rumination and in turn lead to a decrease in psychological well-being (Yook, Kim, Suh, & Lee, 2010; Kaya & Bağatarhan, 2025).

Link to mental health

Rumination and overthinking have been heavily linked to depression, but it is not specific to depression alone. Rumination is also associated with several other mood disorders like GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder), PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), social anxiety, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) etc. In social phobias, rumination is mainly post event processing, where the individual constantly replays the social interactions, perceptions of other people on self and negative self-reflective thoughts after the event. Rumination has also been linked to alcohol abuse. Studies have shown that, people who ruminate as opposed to people who don’t show increased alcohol abuse. It is likely another form of avoidant coping strategy they are using along with rumination (Smith & Alloy, 2010). Overthinking is also linked to poor sleep quality. Rumination also links insomnia and depression by mediating and targeting rumination in therapy can help improve both insomnia and depression symptoms (Li, Corkish, Richardson, Christensen, & Werner-Seidler, 2024). Sleep is affected during stressful events and when falling asleep becomes difficult, we tend to stay in bed ruminating overthinking past and/or future events which exacerbates sleep issues. Negative affective states and arousal resulting from ruminating have direct effects on sleep quality. Additionally, individuals when busy the whole day tend to be distracted from ruminative thoughts might ruminate during at night when free affecting sleep quality (Hairston, Portal, & Carmon, 2022).

Rumination is a risk factor and maintaining factor in depression (Christoff & Fox, 2018). There are multiple theories and plethora of researches connecting and explaining the relationship between rumination and depression. To summarize the vast amount of research linking depression and rumination; rumination predicts the onset of new depressive episodes, rumination maintains the existing depressive episodes (we will see as to how in the later paragraphs), acts as a mediator between other risk factors like childhood trauma, stress etc. and depression and lastly it is linked to worse prognosis and reduced response to treatment (Ehring, 2021).

The most widely used theory is the Response Styles Theory (RST). Depression is characterized by low mood and negative affect. RST states that how a person responds to the negative affect in turn determines the severity of the symptoms and prognosis of depression. Ruminating about the causes and consequences of the negative affect is linked to more severe depressive episodes and delayed recovery (Smith & Alloy, 2010). Hence rumination according to this model is a risk factor that exacerbates and perpetuates depression. Another model also explains how a person’s belief about rumination ultimately leads to and sustain depression. The model states that when a person has both positive beliefs about rumination (rumination will help me solve the problem) and negative beliefs about rumination (rumination is unstoppable, uncontrollable and has negative consequences); the combined dynamic of these thoughts can lead to and maintain depression. In more concrete terms, a person facing a stressor may believe that rumination can help them reach a solution, but slowly also realizes due to the negative consequences of rumination (prolonged negative affect, lack of action, social consequences) that rumination is maladaptive, uncontrollable ultimately leading to or perpetuating depression (Matsumoto & Mochizuki, 2018; Cano-López, García-Sancho, Fernández-Castilla, & Salguero, 2022).

Overthinking/Rumination is rather high in Gen Z as well. Studies have linked rumination to problematic social media use which is most often sited in Gen Z. There are studies showing ruminating social media either of one’s own and of others is linked to negative outcomes to mental health especially anxiety and depression. Social media rumination (SMR) involves excessive and repeated thinking about likes, posts, upward comparisons etc. Rumination along with internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depression) is also seen to lead to social media addiction. “We found that higher internalizing symptoms were associated with more problematic SNS use via higher ruminative thinking.” (Chentsova, Bravo, Mezquita, Pilatti, & Hogarth, 2023). Rumination, social anxiety and loneliness all in mediation contributed to social media addiction. Loneliness mediated the link between social anxiety and social media addiction. Rumination also partially mediated the link between social anxiety and social media addiction (Öztekin, et al., 2025).

            Apart from its direct link to mental health disorders, overthinking in everyday situations can also be harmful. Social media rumination as seen above, academic overthinking etc. have harmful consequences contributing to an individual’s overall mental health. Academic overthinking involves repetitive and excessive thinking about grades, academic evaluations made by others, academic failures and mistakes, fear of failure, unrealistic standards/perfectionism etc. It is caused by internal standards and external expectations from both institutions and family. Academic overthinking is associated with low self-esteem and self-efficacy, stress, burnout, anxiety, procrastination, decreased academic engagement, maladaptive avoidance etc. (Damsa, 2026).

How to deal with Overthinking and Rumination?

Reading all the above sections may make us feel that rumination is something we cannot do anything about, we are wrong. There are proven ways to help us deal with rumination and the first step is to take back control and tell ourselves that we can do it.   

1. Mindfulness: Mindfulness as a technique is used widely to deal with rumination and also when necessary for mood disorders. Mindfulness helps bring back attention to the present and deal with thoughts without getting caught up in them. At the core of mindfulness is non-judgemental awareness. It’s the ability to observe thoughts with curiosity and without judgement (either judging oneself for having the thoughts or judging oneself for not being able to manage the repetitive thoughts). Judgements (bad, immoral) usually push us down a spiral, mindfulness helps us observe these thoughts without suppression and judgement helping us not get caught up. Involves letting them pass by like clouds in the sky. Practicing mindfulness is easy and can be a short everyday practice. Although it seems difficult at the beginning, it’s a skill and consistent practice can achieve results. The adaptive counterpart of rumination and experiential avoidance is mindfulness. There is consensus that mindfulness includes at least two distinct components: the self-regulation of attention towards the present moment and the adoption of an orientation marked by curiosity, openness and acceptance (Schut & Boelen, 2017).

   To practice mindfulness you can start with mindful breathing exercises, body scan exercises, mindfulness of thoughts etc. You can find some mindfulness practice exercises and audio tracks here.

2. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT): CBT is widely used today and has proved effective in dealing with depression, anxiety, PTSD etc. CBT mainly focuses on the thoughts and its resulting effects on behaviours and emotions. It says that it is our thoughts about the situation that results in our distress and maladaptive behaviours and not the situation itself. CBT focuses on the aspects that are at the root of rumination and what thoughts are maintaining the ruminative cycle through functional analysis. After which, cognitive restructuring takes place. This is where the core beliefs, negative thoughts (NATs) are targeted to learn new more balanced ways of thinking about the situation/oneself or the world. We cannot stop our thoughts from coming, suppressing them has the opposite effects and the only way to manage them is by trying to restructure our thoughts, helping our ruminative tendencies. CBT also focuses on maladaptive behaviours, helping the individual change them into more adaptive ones. Behaviour activation is used especially in case of depression. In cases of both rumination and depression an individual tends to just brood on thoughts, take no action and sometimes making it difficult to do anything. Behaviour activation helps the individual to step out, do activities that are pleasurable and rewarding for the individual. The culminating effect of cognitive restructuring, emotional regulation and behaviour activation can help in reducing the overwhelm caused my rumination, free up the pre frontal cortex and a switch to the DAN network for taking action if applicable.    

3. Catch Yourself: Catching oneself is essentially about awareness. If we are able to identify our triggers and catch ourselves when we are starting to ruminate, we can take a step back to identify the thoughts and maybe even why you are thinking a certain way and the root cause for this. Having awareness in these aspects is the first step towards change. It is important to do this in the initial phases of trigger and rumination tendencies rather than later, to ensure that our prefrontal cortex and the amygdala are not diminished and overstimulated respectively. When our prefrontal cortex functioning is diminished, we have dysregulated emotions and we are overwhelmed; taking action (DAN network) is very difficult.

4. Worry scheduling: Sometimes we find ourselves repetitively worrying about things. It almost seems like we are stuck like a broken record and can’t get it to shut off. This can often lead to distress causing functional deficits (affecting our work/education/productivity etc.). Scheduling a worry time in a day, can free up the day and help the individual get on their routine. Set up a timer for the worry time, during this time focus on your worries, thoughts, ruminations. You can also write it out. Try to avoid worry times close to sleep timings so as to not let it affect your sleep.

5. Journalling: Journalling can help in structuring our thoughts and has a cathartic effect. It is often a good way to express your thoughts and emotions instead of bottling them up. The catharsis leads to emotional regulation freeing up our prefrontal cortex and writing down our thoughts and how we feel can help us reflect back to understand where all this came from. Alike we mentioned earlier awareness leads to action.

6. Acceptance and problem solving: There are times when we tend to problem solve things we cannot do anything about and vice versa. When you start to ruminate, catch yourself and ask if this something that is in my control to problem solve. If yes, try to come up with an actionable, concrete plan. If no, it is important to move towards acceptance and healthy emotion regulating strategies.  

7. Therapy: If you or anyone you know are experiencing the above, please do take help. Help is available, it can help you with awareness, techniques that help you out and focus on life and even thrive.

If we have tried to manage our emotions, ruminations before, we sometimes end up with strategies that really do help us out. These maybe affirmations and restructured balanced thoughts, certain techniques that helped you calm down, techniques that helped you express your emotions etc. It is suggested to make a note of these and keep them accessible so that we can look back and try them when necessary. Overtime we can also tweak them to suit our situation.

References

Abdollahi, A. (2019). The Association of Rumination and Perfectionism to Social Anxiety. Psychiatry, 345-353.

Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P., Hahn, K. S., Daily, G. C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 8567-8572.

Cano-López, J. B., García-Sancho, E., Fernández-Castilla, B., & Salguero, J. M. (2022). Empirical Evidence of the Metacognitive Model of Rumination and Depression in Clinical and Nonclinical Samples: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Cogn Ther Res, 367–392.

Chentsova, V. O., Bravo, A. J., Mezquita, L., Pilatti, A., & Hogarth, L. (2023). Internalizing symptoms, rumination, and problematic social networking site use: A cross national examination among young adults in seven countries. Addictive Behaviors.

Christoff, K., & Fox, K. C. (2018). The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought: Mind-wandering, Creativity, and Dreaming. Oxford University Press.

Damsa, B. (2026). Academic Overthinking: When Students Put Too Much Pressure on Success. Journal Educational Verkenning.

Ehring, T. (2021). Thinking too much: rumination and psychopathology. World Psychiatry, 441–442.

Gao, W., Yan, X., & Yuan, J. (2022). Neural correlations between cognitive deficits and emotion regulation strategies: understanding emotion dysregulation in depression from the perspective of cognitive control and cognitive biases. Psychoradiology, 86–99.

García, F. E., Duque, A., & Cova, F. (2017). The four faces of rumination to stressful events: A psychometric analysis. Psychol Trauma, 758-765.

Hairston, I. S., Portal, L., & Carmon, T. (2022). Positive rumination can (also) interfere with sleep: A study in a non-clinical sample. Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Hamilton, J. P., Farmer, M., Fogelman, P., & Gotlib, I. H. (2015). Depressive Rumination, the Default-Mode Network, and the Dark Matter of Clinical Neuroscience. Biol Psychiatry, 224-230.

Kaya, B., & Bağatarhan, T. (2025). The Impact of Intolerance of Uncertainty on Psychological Well-Being: A Serial Mediating Model of Doomscrolling and Rumination. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy.

Li, S. H., Corkish, B., Richardson, C., Christensen, H., & Werner-Seidler, A. (2024). The role of rumination in the relationship between symptoms of insomnia and depression in adolescents. J Sleep Res.

Lois, G., & Wessa, M. (2016). Differential association of default mode network connectivity and rumination in healthy individuals and remitted MDD patients. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. , 1792–1801.

Mandell, D., Siegle, G., Shutt, L., Feldmiller, J., & Thase, M. E. (2014). Neural substrates of trait ruminations in depression. J Abnorm Psychol. , 35-48.

Matsumoto, N., & Mochizuki, S. (2018). Why do People Overthink? A Longitudinal Investigation of a Meta-Cognitive Model and Uncontrollability of Rumination. Cambridge University Press.

Öztekin, G. G., Turp, H. H., Alshehri, N. A., Alkhulayfi, A. M., Alkhulayfi, A., & Yıldırım, M. (2025). Loneliness and rumination serially mediate the relationship between social anxiety and internet addiction among Turkish university students. Scientific Reports .

Phillips, W. J., & Hine, D. W. (2016). En Route to Depression: Self-Esteem Discrepancies and Habitual Rumination. Journal of Personality, 79-90.

Saha, M., & Vijayan, D. (2024). Exploring the Relationship between Perfectionism, Rumination and Imposter Phenomenon among Young Adults. Indian Journal of Mental Health .

Schut, D. M., & Boelen, P. A. (2017). The relative importance of rumination, experiential avoidance and mindfulness as predictors of depressive symptoms. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 8-12.

Smith, J. M., & Alloy, L. B. (2010). A roadmap to rumination: A review of the definition, assessment, and conceptualization of this multifaceted construct. Clin Psychol Rev., 116–128. .

Wei, L., Dong, H., Ding, F., Luo, C., Wang, C., Baeken, C., & Wu, G.-R. (2024). Shared and distinctive brain networks underlying trait and state rumination. Behavioural Brain Research.

Yook, K., Kim, K.-H., Suh, S. Y., & Lee, K. S. (2010). Intolerance of uncertainty, worry, and rumination in major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 623-628.