04/18/2026
Here is a clean example turned into a caption:
A psychologist named Susan Nolen-Hoeksema ran studies in the 90s where she tracked people over time.
The ones who kept looping their thoughts—replaying what went wrong, what they should’ve said, what it means about them—weren’t just “overthinking.”
They were significantly more likely to become depressed, and stay there longer.
Not because something was wrong with them.
Because the brain doesn’t know the difference between something happening once… and something being replayed 500 times.
Rumination isn’t reflection.
It’s repetition.
And repetition trains your nervous system to live there.
