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Rumination can begin with ordinary painful moments and quickly spiral.

Thought spirals are not a character flaw—they’re the brain trying to protect us.

Rumination is deeply human and often rooted in belonging and self-worth.

Rumination affects both our mind and body, and it can be interrupted.

I was sitting in my eye doctor’s waiting room when my smartphone rang. The call was from a British scientist I’d known for a while. He’d recently asked to read a manuscript for a book I’d written that was coming out later that year. If he could read it in advance, he’d told me, he could offer feedback. Usually, I wouldn’t show anyone my unpublished work, but his offer seemed genuine and well meant, and I’d sent it to him a week or so earlier. What science writer doesn’t want feedback from a scientist? It could only make my work better.

So I walked out of the waiting room and took his call.

He was, he told me, writing a paper for a research journal.

In his paper— he didn’t think I’d mind— he’d borrowed key sections from my book that encapsulated my core argument. In a paper under his name.

I struggled to understand. When I’d sent him my manuscript, I’d explicitly said he couldn’t use anything he read, especially since my book wouldn’t be out for many months.

“You can’t use material taken from my book! In your paper!”

“Well, now that I’ve read it, I can’t pretend I don’t know what I know. You’ve synthesized recent science to create a significant argument that can help people.”

I sputtered on........

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