When overthinking ruins our lives, how do we get out of our ruminations?

We are bad, we think too much! This can take away from this show. But what does overthinking mean? Why can the reign of speculations in our head lead to overheating of the mind, more or less pervasive anxiety, anxiety, depression?

And then there are all these daily life scenarios that we develop from waking to sleeping: “What if I lost my job…”, “I could have said this”, “I could have done that”. We will still see what the benefits of these ruminations are, but how to force yourself to stop thinking about one thing ends up working, we will tell you how to adopt the best anti-rumination strategy.

Meditation, positive attitude… What are good tricks to stop grinding?

Ever more information on world concerns, the anxiety-provoking news offers so many possibilities to think about it, that it is like the now common wallpaper of our lives. Sebastian Böhler, a science journalist, explains that the brain has the function of wallpaper because when it has nothing to do, our brain searches for possibilities, especially the dangerous side, to anticipate what might happen. “So when you put the brain in front of the information industry that feeds this loop, we go into a tailspin.“, so it is necessary to think about it “Communications between the Mediasphere and the Ancestral Functions of the Brain“

The brain is constantly watching and trying to predict

This ability to predict danger has allowed the human race to survive. how ? We now know that this vigilance comes from the action of neurons in the “default mode network,” which is responsible for efficient functioning. A network that is activated when we rest, when we go to bed, that tracks what might happen, this is where ideas come and rumors become. Psychiatrist David Gurion studied “Neural dynamics of ruminations“: It shows that if you are a man in ancestral living conditions, you must plan everything by imagining danger in the slightest nuance,”Is it a potential danger lurking behind the tree or is it the spring wind?“Those who considered the potential risk remained, those who thought there was no problem, were statistically eliminated, and their genes with them.

Thought, the conscious action of our brain

From there, how do we define an idea and how it is born? Sebastian Böhler explains that thought is the mental content of which we become aware, “a representation to which a person can relate himself, which is conscious”. Thoughts can be desired action or “Come more or less chaotically. We can catch them on the fly, we can hold them, we can increase them in mayonnaise, or, on the contrary, let them slip away.” Christophe Andre, he adds “For most of us, the act of thinking produces ideas, but for most neuroscience researchers, thinking is not the production of ideas, but the selection from the stream of mental images that the mind produces. The brain. (…) thinking or reflecting. Certain ideas are to be preferred over others, or sometimes, it is the opposite, to be preferred by certain ideas that are imposed upon us because they have an emotional charge, an emotional charge”. It concludes like this “We need to learn not to be overwhelmed by this amazing activity”.

From thought to humor

Psychiatrist Aurelia Schneider makes the link and distinction between thinking and rumination. The latter has a rather negative connotation. Psychiatrists define them “Like fully conscious thoughts, which loop frequently, and often during periods of depression”. For example, waking up at 2 a.m., or during a vacation or weekend, when you can’t sort out what’s on your mind. So much so that sometimes some of his patients “We dread vacation periods and fill them with so many activities that these thoughts don’t come, and we have to solve what we can’t solve.” The world of rumors is divided into two categories: types of thoughts on situations that do not exist or do not exist yet “And if ever”, “provided that”And on situations that exist, but which unfortunately have no solution, situations that cannot be resolved.

Don’t confuse rumours, or passing thoughts with “Impulse phobia is the fear of taking action, but not getting it right”. Like the fear of being a pedophile by pulling up your little boy’s fly, wanting to push someone down the stairs, or some act so violent and unimaginable that it’s hard to even talk about it. You’re not necessarily unbalanced, it’s a phobia.

Practice bringing back the positive

But will it be possible not to humor then? Is the world divided between humorists and others? For Christophe Andre, This is not the difference between men, but those who know how to stop. solve Working in days, communicating with others, doing things; In the evening, it is about meditation, relaxation, perhaps, but positive situations. We can’t stop them, but we can participate less, let them pass so they don’t suffer.

A psychiatrist goes deeper and clarifies when something has gone wrong “Useful traumatic memory makes us pay attention, be more careful, but we completely forget what is good, what is positive”. So you must train yourself to remember this, so he invites patients to write down what went well.

Another piece of advice is to make to-do lists, they give you reassurance about what’s getting done, it’s very calming. But multiple schedules can add to the mental load. So we go back to training ourselves to remember what we worked on, accomplished or solved.

The rest, examples and advice, listen here
The show is in partnership with the monthly magazine “Cerveau & Psycho”.

Guests of the show:
Sebastian BoehlerScience Journalist, Journal Editor-in-Chief Brain and Psycho, promoter of evolutionary psychology, specialist in popularizing scientific work. On the front page of the magazine Brain and Psychon°164 (April 2024): I think a lot: how to say or stop rumours.
Aurelia Schneider, a psychiatrist specializing in behavioral and cognitive therapies, a former resident of Paris hospitals. Author of Women’s mental load… and men’s (LaRose, 2018)