Last year student of psychology here. Compulsive thought about past perceived mistakes (rumination) is an extremely common disadaptive behaviour that is highly correlated with present and future anxiety disorders and depression. That is not necessarily what the OP is talking about, but I fear it might be ambiguous enough that some readers might be lead down a risky path.
The main reason it is so dangerous is because repeated thought tends to bias thinking towards previous patterns, increase the intensity of fear (that makes complex thought more difficult) and cause exhaustion that leads to less productive analysis and higher incidence of mistakes, specially in complex topics.
The recommendation is usually simple: do not ruminate.... (read 421 more words →)
Last year student of psychology here. Compulsive thought about past perceived mistakes (rumination) is an extremely common disadaptive behaviour that is highly correlated with present and future anxiety disorders and depression. That is not necessarily what the OP is talking about, but I fear it might be ambiguous enough that some readers might be lead down a risky path.
The main reason it is so dangerous is because repeated thought tends to bias thinking towards previous patterns, increase the intensity of fear (that makes complex thought more difficult) and cause exhaustion that leads to less productive analysis and higher incidence of mistakes, specially in complex topics.
The recommendation is usually simple: do not ruminate.... (read 421 more words →)