The Science of Breaking the Loop: What 225,000 Sessions Taught Us About Rumination

“Rumination occurs when self-reflection goes awry and it becomes very negative and vicious.”

That’s how Dr. Sharmin Ghaznavi—a Harvard psychiatrist and one of the world’s leading rumination researchers—described it when we spoke recently.

I’d asked her about the thing so many of us do: replaying conversations, going over something someone said, turning it around and around like thinking about it one more time will finally make it stop.

The clinical term for this is rumination—and it turns out it’s one of the most important things to understand about your mental health.

So back to what Dr. Ghaznavi told me. This truly changed how I think about those late-night thought spirals:

That last part is key: without actively trying to problem-solve.

Because here’s the trap: rumination feels productive. You feel like you’re working on something. But real problem-solving moves you forward—you weigh options, make a decision, find some peace. Rumination just keeps you on the same track, running the same loop, arriving nowhere new.

And the research shows it’s not just uncomfortable. Rumination is actually part of the pathway that can lead to depression and anxiety.

In fact, longitudinal studies show that rumination doesn’t just accompany these conditions—it predicts them. People who ruminate more are significantly more likely to develop depression and anxiety, even if they don’t have symptoms yet.

Which means interrupting the loop isn’t just about feeling better in the moment. It might be one of the most important things we can do for our mental health.

So how do you actually break it?

Why “Just Stop Thinking About It” Doesn’t Work

Here’s the problem: when you’re stuck in rumination, your brain is already overwhelmed. The usual advice—”just let it go” or “try to think about something else”—requires cognitive resources you don’t have in that moment.

You can’t think your way out of a thinking problem.

That’s why we built a collection of Tapping sessions specifically designed for rumination—the “Help Me Stop…” sessions in the app. Over 225,000 sessions have been completed, and on average, people’s stress dropped 44% in about 10 minutes. For context, that’s roughly 3x the improvement most digital wellness tools show in research studies.

But what interested me most wasn’t the numbers. It was what people said about what happened.

When we analyzed hundreds of written responses, five distinct patterns emerged. These aren’t clinical abstractions—they’re what real people experience when the loop finally lets go.

5 Patterns We Found Across 225,000 Sessions on Rumination

1. The Loop Actually Breaks

People describe rumination using circular language: “loops,” “cycles,” “spiraling,” “going around and around.” And they describe the shift after Tapping in equally vivid terms—the pattern “breaking” or “interrupting.”

But here’s what’s interesting: they don’t describe suppressing the thoughts. They describe a shift in their relationship to them.

The thoughts don’t disappear. But something about the grip loosens. The loop that felt impossible to escape suddenly… stops.

2. You Come Back Into Your Body

This one surprised me at first, but it kept showing up: people describe the shift in physical terms. Changes in breathing. Muscle tension releasing. A sense of “coming back” into their body.

The somatic experience isn’t a side effect—it seems to be part of the mechanism.

This makes sense when you understand how Tapping works. By engaging the body—through the physical act of tapping on acupressure points—you’re giving your overwhelmed mind an alternative pathway.

You’re not asking it to think differently. You’re giving it something else to do.

3. Insight Shows Up (Without Trying)

Here’s where it gets really interesting.

Traditional approaches to rumination often ask you to cognitively reframe—to challenge your thoughts, find a different perspective, think your way to a new conclusion. But that requires mental bandwidth you don’t have when you’re stuck in a loop.

What people describe with Tapping is different. They’re not trying to find insight. The insight just… shows up. Once the nervous system calms down, the mind can finally do what it was trying to do all along.

That last one stopped me. I believe my worry is the only thing I can do. How many of us have that same unconscious belief running in the background?

This is the difference between rumination and resolution. Rumination spins without arriving anywhere. Resolution is when you finally land somewhere new—a realization, an acceptance, a way forward. Tapping seems to create the conditions for that landing.

4. Your Brain Gets the “Safe” Signal

Some responses—particularly from people with trauma histories—describe something specific: the intervention communicating safety to their nervous system.

This maps to what researchers call the “safety signal” hypothesis. When your nervous system is in threat mode—which is essentially what’s happening during intense rumination—it can’t let go until it receives signals that it’s okay to stand down.

Tapping, through the combination of physical touch and verbal acknowledgment, may function as that signal. It’s not telling your brain to stop being afraid. It’s showing your brain that right now, in this moment, you’re safe.

5. It’s There When You Need It Most

One finding from our data stood out: 24.2% of these sessions happen between 10pm and 6am. If you’ve ever been awake at 2am with a brain that won’t quit, you’re not alone.

This is something traditional therapy can’t offer: an intervention you can access at 2am, when you’re in it, without having to explain yourself to anyone. Just press play and be guided through.

The Bigger Picture

Here’s what all of this adds up to:

Rumination isn’t just annoying. It’s a mechanism—part of the pathway that can lead to depression and anxiety over time. And interrupting it isn’t just about feeling better in the moment. It might be one of the most important things we can do for our long-term mental health.

One response has stayed with me:

That’s what unchecked rumination does over a lifetime. It shrinks your life. It keeps you existing instead of living.

The good news: it can be interrupted. Not by trying harder to stop thinking. Not by forcing yourself to “reframe.” But by giving your brain and body a different way through.

That’s what these sessions are designed to do.

If You Want to Try It

You might be surprised what shifts when you give your brain a different way through.