I once suffered from Negative Obsessive Rumination NOR, and I know what it is like to stay awake all night thinking and worrying about everything.
It is natural for humans to ruminate, and it is how we reach a certain point of personal logic.
The thing that makes it worse is fear.
In a modern society filled with imagined fear and the threat of Terrorism mixed with a bad economy, bleak future, and rampant prejudice and indifference, it's easy for a person to become apprehensive.
The same as it is in the external world so it is within.
Before anything is final, whether in a corporation or any type of setting, a debate or an argument must precede all decisions.
In the external world, decisions need a second opinion.
For us to decide alone, internally we need an argument/debate to work out the issues.
This argument/debate is also known as internal dialogue and there is a real and vital reason for this.
We know we have two hemispheres of the brain, and we know how they contribute to our decision making, we know the left side is logic based, and the right brain is creative abstract.
In analogy, the separate hemispheres of the brain represent two siblings involved in a constant argument as to how they are going to proceed with forward motion.
This argument is a neuro-chemical process based on physical sensations sensed from external sources first.
New research has shown and supplies us with new terminology to explain ruminations as "conflicting neurotransmitters", and shows how these transmitters act like ON-Off switches.
So why is it that some have trouble seeing the connection? The research was never available until now.
There is a way to moderate and control rumination only after one can see to agree with certain elements supplied within the findings of this new research.
One way is to intentionally and actively research the "human condition" because that is pretty much what you are doing anyway.
You are the human, and it is your condition, so combine the two and you have self-examination that can only result in a better person.
Think like Socrates and use his method, "the Socratic method".
Keep asking questions of everyone and of everything.
Investigate your own self and be honest, and know, that as a species we share many things such as emotions, biological, and neurological functions.
You can take the role of Psychologist and scientist, and take a long and hard look at whom, and what you are as a person, a human, and an individual.
As autonomous persons', we can become independent researchers and theorists, however not many choose to access this right and privilege.
We all have some experience being a human and so to research and investigate the Human condition would only be natural.
Knowledge is power and this is true when it is in relation to the knowledge of the self.
Many people feel powerless and one good reason is they know very little about what type and what sort they are as individual people and as simple beings of complex make up and design.
My advice to anyone who suffers in daily and nightly battles with Rumination is to accept it as a natural and vital cerebral function, and to realize and accept this should allow one to experience a certain amount of calm.
In this calm state of acceptance one can appreciate they have the ability to debate a point of contention, even if it is within, it is still a real matter that needs to be addressed by you and you must decide and then act upon you decision without adverse fear or suspicion.
Fear, must also be understood and known as something intangible.
At the risk of sounding redundant, the only thing to fear is fear itself, and the heart cannot feel what the eyes cannot see.
Calm down and learn to appreciate the fact that you can think and decide for yourself.
If you are a right-brain thinker, you must forgive the left-brain for always intruding, and you must learn to appreciate its input.
The same applies if you are a left-brain thinker.
If we are going to find real solutions in regards to mental health issues, we need independent lay researchers, and these researchers must come out of the people who battle with such issues.
One of the major problems facing the average citizen is that of ignorance of how the human body functions and organizes itself to address the concerns of life and of living.