Rumination is the brain’s emergency response system — gone rogue.

It usually kicks in when there’s a perceived threat or unresolved situation. The brain interprets the lack of resolution as danger, so it starts looping through every detail to “fix” it, even when there’s nothing left to fix.

This is especially common with ADHD, where executive dysfunction makes it hard to switch gears, and PTSD, where the nervous system is constantly scanning for safety. I live in both.

I’ve had to learn that ruminating isn’t about logic — it’s about a brain that thinks it’s doing damage control. But really, it’s doing damage to me.

Five tools that actually work when you’re spiraling

These aren’t mindset hacks. They’re grounded, body-based, trauma-informed ways to get your prefrontal cortex back online and stop the spiral.

1. Interrupt the loop with sensation

Rumination happens in the mind. The fastest way out is through the body.

For me, it’s cold. Ice on the neck. Freezing water on my face. Something that snaps me back into now. I need to feel something real to cut the thought.

If that’s not available? Texture. Sound. Movement. Anything with feedback.

Your body is your circuit breaker.

2. Speak it out loud

I talk to myself. All the time. Not in a weird way — in a survival way.

Sometimes I say what I’m thinking out loud just to hear how irrational or repetitive it sounds. Other times, I say it to move it out of my body. That’s all rumination really is: a thought trying to escape through repetition.

Speaking it disrupts the silence that keeps it alive.

3. Move your body slowly and on purpose

This one’s huge for me. I can’t always jump into a workout. But if I stay still, it gets worse.

So I pace. I stretch. I walk. I change the temperature of the room. I change something.

Movement reminds your brain that the crisis isn’t happening right now. It’s just playing on repeat. You interrupt it with motion.

4. Set a two-minute timer

If I don’t set a time limit, I’ll spiral for hours. So I started giving my brain permission to ruminate — on a timer.

Two minutes.

Think it through. Obsess. Replay the story. Go all the way in.

Then stop.

Say: “I’ve given this enough.” And move.

This isn’t avoidance. It’s regulation. You’re giving your mind structure when it has none.

5. Ask one regulating question

I do this one a lot when I’m spiraling about something I said, or didn’t say, or should’ve said better.

I stop and ask: What’s actually in my control right now?

I write down the answer. And then I cross out everything else.

It sounds simple, but it’s brutal in the best way. It kills the illusion of control — which is what rumination thrives on.

The truth about rumination

It’s not a failure. It’s not a flaw. It’s your brain — trying to do what no one else ever taught it to do: protect you, predict the pain, stay ahead of the next hit.

But you’re not in danger anymore.You’re just still wired like you are.

Rumination was my coping mechanism. Now it’s something I interrupt on purpose. Not always gracefully. Not always on time. But on purpose.

You don’t have to stop the thoughts forever.

You just have to know when it’s time to step off the loop — and take your brain back.

— Cody Taymore