Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

From: Overcoming Depression One step at a Time

During the 1980s, many popular self-help books, motivational speakers, and television and radio talk
shows began focusing on the importance of the “inner child”. Essentially, the idea was that inside
each of us, psychologically speaking, there is a little child who has suffered a series of emotional
wounds while growing up. The key to happiness as an adult is to get to know this child by focusing
on your innermost thoughts and feelings, and from where they might come. According to this
notion, if something bothers you, you must get in touch with your deepest feelings about it to figure
out how your inner child is playing a role in the problem.

Of course, the idea that your experiences as a child can affect who you are as an adult is
nothing new. In some ways, this idea has been the backbone of psychology since Freud. But, then
again, the recent focus on the “inner child” reflects a problem with how people are often
encouraged to cope with experiences like depression. What’s the problem? In a nutshell, thinking
deeply about who you are, what you’re feeling, and what might be causing it isn’t always helpful. In
fact, doing so can often be harmful if your goal is to overcome depression (Nolen – Hoeksema,
Parker, and Larson 1994).

HOW WORRY WORKS

When Larry began self-activation therapy, he had already read several books and listened to
numerous talk shows and news programs about depression. Larry was convinced that he had low
self-esteem as a result of a difficult childhood. He had also begun recording his dreams each night
and trying to understand what they might be telling him about why he was depressed. Larry spent
most of time driving to and from work thinking about what might have happened to him as a child
and how it affected his mind. Although he had occasional glimpses of understanding, the more he
thought about things the less clear it seemed. And the more he thought about things, the more
depressed he felt.

What went wrong? Why wasn’t it helpful for Larry to analyse himself in such detail? Isn’t the
best way to overcome depression to understand what’s happening in your mind? The answer is, yes
and no. As we said, it can be helpful to think deeply about yourself, but it can also be harmful. The
purpose of this chapter is to help you tell the difference so that you can choose what you want to do
in particular situations.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

WHAT YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT VS. WHY YOU’RE THINKING

Psychologist often make a distinction between the content of your thinking and its function. The
content is what you’re thinking about. For example, below are some things that you may think about
when you’re feeling depressed. Place a check mark in the box next to each one that seems relevant
to you:

□ “I’ve failed in so many different things in my life.”

□ “I don’t like myself very much and I wish I were different.”

□ “I feel guilty or ashamed of things I’ve done in the past.”

□ “I wish I could just escape from this all.”

□ “I’m so depressed, I can’t snap out of it.”

□ “My life has been a series of disappointments.”

□ “I’ve gotten a raw deal.”

Many therapists for depression focus on trying to change the content of your thinking, or what you
think about when you’re depressed. Our approach to ending depression is a bit different when it
comes to thinking. We want you to focus on the function of your thinking, or why you’re thinking at
any particular time. After all, thinking is only one sort of activity you could be doing in any particular
situation. You could be doing something else, so why are you thinking? Below are some examples of
different functions of thinking. Place a check mark next to the functions of thinking that seem
relevant to you:

□ You think about why you’re depressed to try and figure it out and solve the problem.

□ You think about painful feelings and situations while lying in bed (rather than getting up and
starting your day).

□ You worry about something bad happening in the future as a way to avoid focusing on whats
happening right now,

□ You hold onto bad feelings about people or situations from the past because letting go of
them will let those who have hurt you off the hook.

If this seems like it’s getting a little complicated, here’s the bottom line: it isn’t always necessary to
try to change what you’re thinking about when you’re depressed, nor do you need to get into
arguments with yourself about thinking more positively or less negatively. What you need to do is
understand what thinking is doing for you at any particular time. Is it helping you to feel less
depressed? Are you even aware that you’re doing it? What else could you be doing? This approach
to your own thinking will become even clearer as you learn about a particular type of thinking that’s
very common among people who are depressed.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

WHAT DO COWS KNOW ABOUT DEPRESSION?

THE POWER OF RUMINATION

Over the last decade, researchers in psychology have identified a particular type of human activity
that is consistently linked to depressed mood. This activity is called ruminating. The word comes
from a Latin term that describes how cows chew their cud. In psychology, it refers to the activity of
dredging up and turning over bad things that have happened in the past, painful thoughts and
feelings, and troubling worries.

Rumination is the word that covers a lot of different types of behaviours. Here are some
other behaviour that are similar to ruminating. Put a check mark next to the behaviours you have
observed yourself doing when feeling depressed:

□ Worrying

□ Overanalysing

□ Obsessing

□ Brooding

□ Turning a problem over and over in your mind

□ Racking your brain about problems

□ Stewing about a problem for long periods of time

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Overcoming the Rumination Habit

This chapter will show you how rumination operates and why it’s a problem. It will then provide a
step-by-step guides to overcoming rumination and ending depression. First, take a few moments to
consider what sorts of things you tend to turn over and over in your mind. Some commons things
that people ruminate about include:

 Relationship problems or breakups

 Hurts and disappointments suffered in the past

 Worries about the future

 Bad decisions made in the past

 Painful feelings such as sadness and guilt or shame

 What others think of you

Exercise: What are your rumination topics?

As you move through this chapter, you will become more and more expert on your own particular
type of ruminating. For now, write down several things that lead you to ruminate. If you’re not sure
whether you ruminate about a particular issue, put a question mark next to it.

1. ________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________________________________

6. ________________________________________________________________________

7. ________________________________________________________________________

Take a look at your list of rumination topics. What do you notice? Are there some topics which
you ruminate that make you feel more depressed than others? Is there a theme or pattern to
your rumination? Or are there several different things that prompt you to ruminate?

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Exercise: What Emotions or Thoughts Occur When You Ruminate?

Consider how you feel when you ruminate about these different issues. In the space below, write
down several emotions or thoughts that occur when you ruminate about particular topics.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

6. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Take a look at your list of emotions. What are the most common feelings you experience when
you ruminate? What sorts of thoughts go through your mind? Does it depend on the particular
topic about which you’re ruminating?

Ruminating Make Your Mood Worse

Several research studies have shown that when people are encouraged to ruminate their
mood worsens (Lyubomirsky and Tkach 2003). Imagine that you were asked to fill out a brief
questionnaire about your mood at that particular time during the day. Now, imagine that just
after completing the questionnaire, you were instructed to think deeply for several minutes
about something in your life that troubles you. After several minutes of ruminating, you stop
and complete the same mood questionnaire. What do you think will be the end results of this
small thought experiment? In all likelihood, your mood would get worse. Of course, this is
probably not a huge surprise. You probably know from experience that ruminating can worsen

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

your mood. However, if you’re like most people, you are not always aware that you’re
ruminating. Even if you are, it can seem very difficult to stop.

Checkpoint
Does your mood tend to get worse or stay negative when
you ruminate about problems?
Yes____ No____

Ruminating Makes You Less Willing and Able to Solve Problems

A depressed client named Bill once related a story in which his car broke down on the side of
the highway. Bill assumed that he had run out of gas and was so angry at himself about this that
he sat in his car and stewed for ten minutes over his own forgetfulness (“I should have known
better. Now I’ll be late and catch hell from my boss”). Out of anger, Bill finally slammed open the
hood of the car and stared inside. After a few seconds, he noticed that once of the battery
cables was loose. After quickly retightening it, he was back on the road. In the meantime, Bill’s
ruminating had made him ten minutes later to work than he would have been if he had simply
checked under the hood right away.

Bill’s experience is not unusual. Research has shown that when people ruminate, they are
less able to solve problems. One well-known study showed that when people ruminate they
focus on their problems in a self-critical way. They also lack self-confidence and have reduced
optisism for the future. When people ruminate in this way, they are also less willing to solve
their problems (Lyubomirsky et al, 1999). Does this sound like Bill or anyone you know?

Checkpoint
Do you find it difficult to actively solve problems when
you’re worrying intensely about them or turning them over
and over in your mind?
Yes____ No____

Rumination Leads You to Focus Less on the World around You

Have you ever been so involved in thinking things through in your mind that you become
almost completely unaware of what was going on around you? Many people experience this
periodically when they’re driving a car. Other people sometimes experience it at parties or other
social gatherings.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Research has shown that focusing too much attention on yourself can lead to depressed
mood (Lyubomirsky and Nolen-Hoeksema 1995). How does this happen? When you’re already
feeling a little down and you begin to ruminate, you become less and less in touch with things
outside of you. This can be a problem because things happening in your personal environment
often provide important information (Psyszczynski and Greenberg 1987). For example,
conversations at a party provide information about the interests of others and potential ways to
meet new and interesting people. If you’re turning things over and over in your mind, you can’t
listen to what people are saying you might hear them but your mind is definitely elsewhere.

Focusing your attention on yourself can also lead to reliving the past. Although things that
have happened in your past don’t physically exist in the present, you can feel as if they do if you
think a great deal about them. One client had lost a child fifteen years before she entered
therapy. She had been depressed the entire time since her daughter had passed away. As she
told me the story of her daughter’s death, she said she felt exactly the way she had felt fifteen
years ago. As he put it, ‘It’s as if I re-live it every time I think about it”.

Checkpoint
Do you find that when you ruminate about your problems,
you are less in touch with what’s happening around you?
Yes____ No____

People Often Believe That Rumination Is Helpful

Research has shown that many people believe that ruminating can be helpful. Those people
who believe that rumination can be helpful are also more likely to ruminate as a way to cope
with problems (Papageorgiou and Wells 2003). This places them at risk for developing
depression. You can see why believing in the value of digging deeply for your inner child could
get you into trouble if you took it too far.

Exercise: What Do You Believe?

Below are several beliefs about the value of ruminating. Place a check mark next to those
statements that you believe have believed in the past.

□ Thinking deeply about problems is the best way to solve them

□ You need to dig deeply to uncover your true feelings

□ You can only get rid of depression by carefully analysing what you’re feeling and why.

□ Turning problems over and over in your mind helps you to understand them

□ It’s better to try to solve problems after thinking about them for some time.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Do you have other beliefs about the value of rumination? What are they?

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

If you have a tendency to ruminate, you may have the sense that it’s beyond your control;
it’s just what you do. In fact, some researchers have suggested that the tendency to think
repeatedly about your problems may be related to particular functions (Wells and Carter 2001).
But your brain is only part of that picture. Simply because something about the brain is involved
in a particular behaviour does not mean the brain causes the behaviour. In fact, the behaviour
may cause changes in the brain! There must be other reasons why ruminating is such a common
response to depression, despite its negative effects.

Sometimes It’s Helpful to Think about the Causes of Problems

There is no doubt that thinking deeply about problems can sometimes help to solve them.
After all, if your car won’t start, you can only fix the problem after you figure out why it’s not
starting. In the course of your lifetime, you have developed the ability to solve problems by
analysing them carefully. However, like any other behaviour, the tendency to think deeply about
problems can be taken too far, or it can be used in situations where it isn’t particularly helpful.
Human beings are imperfect and one of the things we all struggle with is figuring out which
behaviours work in which situations. Unfortunately, ruminating often does not work well when
you are feeling depressed or anxious.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Exercise: What Happens When You Ruminate?

Think about times when you ruminate, brood, worry, or in other ways turn negative things over
and over in your mind. What happens while you’re ruminating? How do you feel? What happens
directly afterward? Do you solve any problems or feel better? In the space below write down
some of the consequences of this behaviour.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

Ruminating as an Effective Avoidance Strategy

When you face a very difficult task or situation, worrying about it can be an effective way to
avoid tackling the problem. A client named Kendra knew what she would need to do to find a
new place to live at the first of the year. Her current roommate was getting married and the
lease was about to run out. Kendra was concerned that she would not be able to find a nice
place to live that was affordable or that she would end up sharing a place with someone with
whom she wasn’t comfortable. As it turned out, Kendra had spend much more time brooding
about the possibility of things not working out than she did actively looking for a new place to
live. The more she became aware of this pattern, the more Kendra realised that the prospect of
moving created anxiety. To solve the problem, Kendra needed to find a way to tolerate the

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

anxiety while moving forward with her plan. Instead, she avoided moving forward, which, of
course, made her depression and anxiety worse. Kendra’s situation looked like this:

Topic of rumination: not being able to find a place to live, getting stuck with a bad roommate.

Possible things being avoided: Looking for a place to live, making phone calls, looking at rental
listings.

Consequences of ruminating: Feeling more depressed and worried, not making any progress
on finding a place.

Exercise: What Do You Ruminate About?

Is there something in your life that you’ve tended to ruminate about recently? Is it possible that
ruminating is helping you avoid dealing with the problem directly? In the space below, write
down one thing that you have recently spent a great deal of time thinking about. Then write
down one possible feeling or situation that the ruminating might be helping you to avoid. Finally,
write down some consequences of the ruminating.

Topic of rumination:
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

Possible things being avoided:

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

Consequences of ruminating:

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

PROBLEM SOLVING, EXPERIENCING, AND RUMINATING: IT’S EASY TO GET THEM CONFUSED

There is a difference between thinking about a problem in order to solve it and ruminating.
When you think about a problem and you’re trying to solve it, you will only think about it long
enough to solve the problem, or at least to make progress on it. But when you’re ruminating,
you will think about the problems over and over in a way that doesn’t really lead anyway, except
possibly to more intense depression and anxiety.

There is also a difference between experiencing thoughts, feelings, or sensations and

ruminating about them. If something bad happens to you, such as ending a relationship, losing a
job, or losing a loved one, it is quite normal to feel sad, disappointed or even a little depressed
for a while. In fact, you can run into problems if you work too hard to avoid experiencing these
emotions. Yet by their nature, emotions tend to pass within a few minutes, hours, day or weeks
at the longest. When you ruminate or brood over painful emotions, however, they tend to stick
around much longer. Most people don’t want to prolong negative thoughts or feelings, but the
problem is that you can easily mistake ruminating for experiencing. In other words, you may
think that you’re simply experiencing your own emotions when, in fact, you are ruminating
about them.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

HOW TO GAIN CONTROL OVER RUMINATION

Because it is so easy to get stuck in the process of ruminating, it is important to gain control over
this behaviour. Mulling things over in your head happens easily. Nevertheless, there are other
choices you can make than to sit and ruminate.

Recognising Rumination When It Happens

Shannon was receiving therapy for depression and had made considerable progress in
activating herself. Although getting active and combating avoidance had a positive effect on her
mood each day, she still found that she did not enjoy the activities as much as she had before
she was depressed. During one session, Shannon reported having spent the previous Saturday
playing at the park with her two young boys. Although playing with the boys was an appropriate
activity that she would typically enjoy, Shannon reported feeling self-critical and unhappy about
the whole experience. “What kind of mother am I that I can’t even enjoy playing with my kids?”
She asked.

As Shannon and her therapist looked closely at what happened, however, they realised that
Shannon wasn’t actually playing with her boys when she was at the park. Instead, the boys were
playing on the swings while Shannon was watching from a nearby bench. Actually, Shannon
wasn’t even really watching the boys swing. What she was doing was thinking over and over
about how much less time she spends with them since getting divorced and how awful it is for
them that their parents are no longer together. The most important part of Shannon’s story is
that she didn’t even recognise that she was ruminating. When her therapist asked her how she
spent her weekend, she said, “playing with the boys at the park.” But playing and ruminating are
certainly different behaviours!

The first step to gaining control over rumination is to recognise when it happens. You know
you’re ruminating if:

 You’re thinking over and over about negative thoughts, feelings or situations.

 The process of thinking over and over again is not helping you feel less depressed, more
hopeful or less self- critical.

 The process of thinking has not helped you to solve a problem.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

The Two-Minute Rule for Recognising Rumination

Once you think you might be ruminating, continue what you’re doing for two minutes. Then stop
and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have I made any progress toward solving a problem

2. Do I understand something about a problem (or my feelings about it) that I haven’t
understood before?

3. Do I feel less self-critical or less depressed than before I started thinking about this?

Unless the answer to one of these questions are a clear yes, chances are you’re ruminating.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

RUMINATION CUES ACTION

This may seem like a strange idea, but you can actually teach yourself to use rumination as a cue to
get active. You can use the acronym RCA, which stands for “rumination cues action.” A cue is
something that prompts you to behave in a certain way. For example, a red stop sign is a cue to slow
down and automobile and eventually stop. Unfortunately, if you tend to ruminate, then things in
your life probably cue you to do so. And, rumination itself has probably become a cue for more
ruminating. But that can change.

How RCA Can Work

A client named Peter experienced episodes of depression for most of his adult life. At thirty-
nine, he sometimes had the sense that he was always depressed. However, after completing several
activity monitoring charts, it became apparent that some of Peter’s days were worse than others,
and some times of the day were particularly difficult. For example, after Peter ate his dinner each
night, he sat at the table thinking about what he needed to do the next day. As he thought about
particular tasks, he began to think about what he had accomplished in his life and how much less it
was than he had hoped. Then, Peter began to think about a long list of what he considered to be
failures in his work, his family, and his love life. By the time he went to bed, Peter often felt very
depressed.

Peter’s post dinner ruminating had become a habit; it was so automatic that he was hardly
aware of it. If you asked him about it, he would have said that he just starts pondering things and,
before he knows it, he’s engulfed in his train of thought and can’t seem to stop. In therapy, Peter
worked on first recognising and labelling when he is ruminating. Then he developed a plan for
responding differently to ruminating. Peter generated a list of other things he could be doing after
dinner, such as reading an enjoyable book, paying for bills, taking a walk, watching a movie, or
calling friends or family. Peter agreed that whenever he noticed himself ruminating he would
immediately get up from where he was sitting and begin of these other activities. Rumination
became a cue for action. After a week of doing this, Peter actually skipped the ruminating and went
right from dinner to other activities. As a result, he often felt much less depressed when he went out
to bed and was able to fall asleep much more easily. When he noticed his ruminating at other times,
it became a cue for action.

Over the next few days, try to put this RCA process to work. Whenever you observe yourself
ruminating, label it (“This is ruminating”), and then use it as a cue to shift to a different activity. If

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

you stick with it for a few days, you should notice a major decrease in the amount of time you spend
ruminating, and your mood should improve.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Exercise: Monitoring Rumination

Over the next week, see if you can recognise and label rumination when it occurs. Use the rule
above to help you recognise brooding, obsessing or any other ruminating behaviour. When you do
recognise it, say to yourself, “This is ruminating.” You will be surprised at how powerful it can be to
simply increase your awareness of what you’re doing. You will probably find that labelling
rumination will help you to control it.

Use the space below to monitor ruminating when it happens. In the first column, record the
situation in which you observed yourself ruminating. In the second column record exactly what you
were ruminating about. In the third column identify the consequences of ruminating. An example of
how to monitor episodes of ruminating is provided in the first row.

Situation Rumination Consequence

1 Driving to work on Monday. I’m stuck in a bad relationship, I’ll Felt more depressed.
never be happy or fulfilled in my Almost ran a stop sign.
life.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

YOU’RE THERE, BUT YOU’RE NOT: THE IMPORTANCE OF ATTENDING TO YOUR

EXPERIENCE

Remember Shannon’s story? Although she thought she was playing with her children at the
park, she wasn’t actually attending to the experience. Attending to an experience means paying
attention both to what’s going on around you and to what you’re feeling rather than, thinking, and
sensing. Attending to an experience means being there psychologically rather than being
somewhere else. Have you ever noticed that when you become caught up in a particular task or
situation you spend much less time thinking about yourself?

The bottom line is that attending to your experience is a very powerful way to gain control
over rumination. Another word for attending to experience is mindfulness, which is a form of
meditation in daily life practiced by some Zen Buddhists. Recent research has shown that practicing
mindfulness can be an effective way to combat depression (Teasdale et al. 2008). You don’t have to
be Buddhist to benefit from attending to your experience, but it does take practice.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Exercise: Putting RCA to Work

Look over at the list of ruminating situations you made in the table above. Now, copy each one into
the column labelled “situation” in the table below. In the next column, write down what you were
ruminating about. Then, for each situation and rumination, list at least two other activities you could
engage in other than ruminating. The first row gives an example.

situation rumination cue action

1 Driving to work on I’m stuck in a bad →

Monday. relationship. I’ll never be
happy or fulfilled in my life.

2 →

3 →

4 →

5 →

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Exercise: When Do You Space Out?

Below are some situations in which you may have difficulty attending to your experience. These are
situations in which people sometimes space out or, if they are depressed, begin to ruminate. Please
check mark in the box next to the ones that are relevant to you.

□ Take a walk

□ Eating a meal

□ Watching television

□ Driving in the car

□ Sitting at your desk at work

□ Being in a social setting with other people

□ Working at the computer

□ Cleaning, doing dishes

What are some other examples?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

Here are some examples of things you can attend to while taking a walk:

 Sounds around you (birds, wind, cars)

 Smells around you

 The feeling of walking

 Sights around you (gardens, trees, plants, patterns in the sky)

Here are some examples of things you can attend to in social settings:

 What other people are saying

 The physical surroundings (are you in a house? At a park? Out to dinner?)

 The taste of food or drinks

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Exercise: Paying Attention

Over the next couple of days, practice attending to your experience in situations where you
might normally ruminate. Below is a space for you to write down the situations you are in and
the things to which you attended. We completed the first row as an example.

Day Situation I attended to…

Mon. Sitting at my desk at work. The materials I was reading, feeling my

posture as I was sitting, my steady
breathing.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)

Overcoming Depression One step at a Time Chapter 5

Dealing with Negative Thinking: The power of Non-judgemental Awareness

When we work with clients on attending to their experiences, many of them say that
negative thoughts and feelings still creep into their minds at times, even when they are not
ruminating. This is completely understandable. You know you can’t live your entire life without
ever having negative thoughts or feelings! No one can.

It turns out that it’s possible to briefly attend to the experience of negative thinking without
allowing it to turn into rumination. The idea is to simply acknowledge and label negative thinking
in a non-judgemental way. Being non-judgemental means that you are simply aware of what you
are doing without judging it to be good or bad. It means to stop saying to yourself, “I’ve got to
stop being so self-critical,” or “Oh no, here I go again with the negative thinking. Why do I always
do this?” instead, the next time you catch yourself in a worrying, brooding, or being self-critical,
simply say to yourself, “This is negative thinking,” and continue with whatever activity you are
doing. The goal is to avoid getting stuck trying to get rid of the thinking or spending a lot of time
dwelling on it. Simply acknowledge it and continue on. Research has shown that adopting a non-
judgemental stance toward painful thoughts and feelings can help your mood (Hayes and Gifford
1997).

CHAPTER SUMMARY
Rumination is the behaviour of thinking often and deeply about what you’re feeling, why you’re
feeling it or what’s going wrong in your life. A large amount of research has shown that the
tendency to ruminate is closely linked with depressed mood. At the same time, popular media,
self-help books often encourage you to look inside yourself and analyse your problems. Many
people mistakenly try to cope with depression by ruminating and, in the process, makes it worse
by doing so. The first step is to substitute alternative behaviours for rumination. Some helpful
alternative behaviours include allowing rumination to cue to you to take action, attending to
your experience. (‘What am I doing and experiencing right now; what’s going on around me’),
and observing that you’re thinking without getting caught up in what you’re thinking about.

©Michael E. Addis & Christopher R. Martell (2004)