The Replay Thought

Two in the morning. The thought has found the evening again and plays it from the start: why did I say that? It has no new facts. It plays the same scene in the same voice. KTT counts it as a thought, noticed or not, even when it arrives as a hot face in the dark. Research calls this kind of repeating rumination, and it has found that the repeating comes in more than one kind. The studies read for this article did not test whether a thought comes first.

Two kinds of replay

In 2003, Wendy Treynor, Richard Gonzalez and Susan Nolen-Hoeksema analysed a common questionnaire on rumination and found two parts in it. They called them brooding and reflection. Brooding went with more depression over time in their community sample. Reflection, described as a more intentional and purposeful turning inward, did not. A later factor analysis supported the split in people who were never or formerly depressed, but not in a currently depressed group. The brooding and reflection split has also been tested in samples of Japanese undergraduates. These are associations in questionnaire data. They do not show that brooding causes depression.

The replay thought at two in the morning is usually the first kind. It asks why, and it has no use for the answer.

One thought, two grammars

The replay speaks in the first person: why did I say that? In 2014, Ethan Kross and colleagues tested whether changing the grammar changes the replay. In seven studies with 585 participants, people who used their own name and non-first-person words during introspection showed more self-distancing. In two studies about making a good first impression and giving a speech, that group was rated by observers as performing better and reported less distress. In the speech study, they also engaged in less maladaptive thinking after the event. A form of the same thought might say: why did Mira say that? The example name is invented, and the studies were laboratory studies of social stress.

What is not known

Whether the thought comes before the hot face or after it is not known.

Whether a change of grammar works outside the laboratory, for the hours after a real evening, is open.

Whether the two kinds of replay can be told apart by the person living them is also open. The studies read here use questionnaires and tasks, not the thought at two in the morning.

Replaying that will not stop, or that comes with lasting low mood, can call for professional care. This article describes thoughts, not treatment.