We live in a society that does not rest. It is common to utter or hear laments such as "I would need 40-hour days to finish everything I want to do." We are demanding too much of ourselves, assuming roles that didn't make sense before.
Why does this happen? Because the basic needs of the vital pyramid proposed by the psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) are covered in a large part of the population. That is, we no longer stress about getting hot food, a roof to sleep under, or clothes to protect us from the cold and heat. We are not worried about our tribe, which is not experiencing hardships either, and for thousands of years we have not had to face tasks such as hunting and gathering.
And yet, although it sounds paradoxical, we live in a "sick" society, overwhelmed by worries and anxieties about events that in most cases do not come to pass.
This is reflected in the data. 10.4% of the Spanish population, for example, admits having anxiety, not to mention the exponential growth experienced by the intake of anxiolytics in the last decade. Specifically, 110 people out of every 1,000 consume some drug of this type per day to calm their states of restlessness.
In therapy, when we ask patients with anxiety symptoms what worries them, they can answer: "what happens in my thoughts", "what I think about for hours, even days"... Some people even say: "my thoughts exhaust me” or “I am my own worst enemy”.
Some experts estimate that we have more than 6,000 thoughts a day. By themselves, they often enrich the person; exhaustion comes when they are negative and cyclical. We are talking about ruminations.
Let's give an example:
I'm carla. I'm in a meeting where there are two girls I don't know because they are co-workers of a friend of mine. Not knowing them makes me feel insecure. Suddenly, they say something in each other's ear. There is no question: they are making a negative comment about me. I go home with the repetitive thought that these two new girls don't accept me and because of this the whole group will reject me.
It's 5 in the morning and I'm still hooked on that thought. I get up and take a sleeping pill. After an hour I can fall asleep. I wake up six hours later and the same thought comes back to me. Ugh, I need it to stop!
Does it ring a bell? I'm sure most readers have been through this at some point. Ruminations are almost always unconscious and obsessive, which causes great discomfort. People who suffer from them live "hooked" to invisible thoughts capable of eroding their self-concept and self-esteem, consequently reducing their quality of life.
From a neurobiological perspective, ruminations are part of "unfocused thoughts" or "ramblings." The brain is never inactive, but sometimes reduces its activity to a basal level, and that is where the soundtrack of the tirades against ourselves plays.
At present, we know that what is activated when the person gets lost in this vicious circle is the so-called default neural network. It responds to a brain activation with defined patterns, extended between the medial zone of the temporal, parietal and prefrontal lobes.
And although it sounds paradoxical, this network is paralyzed when the person manages to get out of his thoughts and dedicates himself to carrying out a task that requires will, attention and other cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions. Likewise, it has been shown that it is related to thoughts oriented to the "I" and the future.
Although more research is needed in this regard, these findings have marked a before and after in the evaluation and treatment of rumination.
Taking into account the definition of rumination and its neurobiological basis, what works best to get out of the negative loop is to break that state of rambling sustained by the default neural network. In other words, undertaking an activity that requires focusing attention on another task, from exercising to going out with friends to chat for a while.
It has also been confirmed that some cognitive-behavioral techniques work, such as the so-called thought stop (which consists precisely in stopping the thoughts that cause us emotional discomfort) or emotional writing, among others.
To conclude, we must remember that, as with other psychological disorders, the first option should always be to seek help from a professional. Only an expert will be able to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the affected person and her types of cyclical thoughts to offer her a personalized treatment that he would not find without this attention.
The pace of life we face is attractive and dizzying, but we need mental health to face it without getting lost along the way.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
María J. García-Rubio is co-director of the VIU-NED Chair of Global Neuroscience and Social Change, member of the Psychology and Quality of Life Research Group (PsiCal) and professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the International University of Valencia .
