I have depression, PTSD and anxiety disorder. Add to that the fact that I read a lot, and I'm a self-published writer. So, the answer is yes.

No like winnie the pooh I am a bear of very little brain. Much more impulsive and immediate than is good for me and other people get to have a good laugh at my expense.

I discovered during a period of intense pain that I could be thinking of one thing and having a parallel thought wander in. At first I was thinking schizophrenia or something but in talking with my group of Parents dealing with loss, I found it was common in periods of profound grief.

I'm a "ruminator" big time, sometimes I have to talk to myself and even then, it's tough. I can be reading a book and thinking of something at the same time. Like everyone, I've had a lot of "bad" stuff in my life that goes way back. I regret much of my life and have made many mistakes. There's a saying that you reap what you sow. I never could "sew"....!!! I've made my peace by accepting responsibility but living with it is still difficult, although I have improved. I think we are our past, upbringing.....it can't be erased. I'm certainly not alone........I think that's where the ruminating comes from.....I continue to work at it......

I have a bad tendency to ruminate, and I need very much to cut down on this. Thank you for the quote by William James, and the concept of using thoughts as a tool for our benefit.

I daydream instead, beats the hell out of both rumination and my current reality (working on the reality but these things take time.)

I spend too much time on social wevsites....

Correct me if I’m misunderstanding but it sounds like you’re suggesting that the only way to be “in your head” is to be stressing and worrying unproductively. Seems to me there are healthy, constructive ways to spend time in your head too. No?

I love it inside my head, people there understand me.

Thinking is my coping mechanism, if I can't solve an issue in my head or disturbed to the point I can't think right I create scenarios in my head in a happy place fashion to distract me.

I'm an introvert. Not all of the time I spend in my head is worry. There is an exercise in DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) that suggests the average human has tens of thousands of thoughts go through their minds daily, so don't "latch on" to any particular thought. I used a combination of this and learning to love and accept myself to be better at it, not perfect, just better.

Yes too much thinking then suddenly realize it! Snaps out if it the thinks of something good. The Brain is like a stage with a play on it. Change the play.

My brain never stops so I chose other. Have gotten better at thought management, distract my self sometimes on accident, eventually, I return to all thoughts.

Incredibly easy to overthink things. Completely agree - staying in one gear too long wears out the transmission. Manual shifting is necessary for me too.

I'm the problem solver in the house. I try not to be confronted with problematic issues in the evening, no discussions on how to solve a challenge. It can keep me awake. But since I control that better and take care that my body is able to cool down during the night (getting rid of the heat that sleeping seems to accumulate), I sleep like …… well, like someone that sleeps well . Being retired helps.

This site doesn't help much and night times and early mornings are the worst. I have found by mediatating and concentrating on my breath helps me get to sleep. Making a conscious effort to avoid runinations at 2 am also help. Warming weather will send me outside with projects.

Actually, when I had a partner things were much better. I had someone else to discuss my/our issues with. Teasing and bantering one another helped to reduce any anxiety.

YES!

I have a tendency to live very much inside my head — a consequence of being extremely introspective, I suspect — but I've found that there's a really easy way around that: if I do something to help others, whether informally lending a hand or actively volunteering, it forces me outside of my own thoughts and places the focus on the external, helping to quiet stress, anxiety, self-defeating thoughts, discouragement, etc.

keep doing stuff is all I know

Not only yes, but I think that picture there is an actual picture of my brain. ?. I don’t necessarily hold onto the event of my past to maintain a handicapped status, but the fact is that since having had a stroke 7 years back, getting caught in mental loops has been struggle for me. And for all the part time therapists who,will say "well don’t think about it", it’s kind of like being told not to think about purple monkeys, suddenly all you can think of is purple monkeys. I’m much better now, but the monkeys are invisible at times and they hide my things. ?. Kidding, don’t send the social workers(the monkeys don’t like em).

Yes, I always have. When I was young, it was the only refuge I had, and I also spent a lot of time trying to hold onto sanity; this necessitated a lot of head time, too.

Yes, I do, but I am working on it. I took this week off to try to relax, because I am dangerously close to burning out. I have the tendency to want to fix everyone and everything, especially through my work.

I voted other.
Really it's a yes but my shrink gives me something to help with it.

I used to. Decades of meditation and visualization has helped. Sometimes pretty elaborate visualization, but definitely has helped me gain control of my mind more. All be it, more so when I'm alone, but to a lesser degree, when I'm around other people.

I like what Einstein said: "I think when I have nothing better to do." I wonder does rumination have something in common with Parkinson's Law which states that work expands to fill the time available for it's completion, that is, does rumination expand to fill the mental space available for it's contemplation?