A Diet of Worms

So I recently posted a place-holder that I was "pondering doing a deeply contemplative and self-revealing post" based on a discussion on a friend’s journal (which I’ve noticed was friends-locked, so I’m not going to be too specific on that end). The metaphor used there was "eating worms" (as in "nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I think I’ll go eat worms"). My personal image is "taking a vacation in nobody-loves-me-land". And the specific version I wanted to talk about is that vicious spiral where the experience or memory of an unpleasant (usually alienating) social event leads one to rehearse a litany of past similar experiences that in turn make it difficult for the mind to occupy itself with anything outside of this negative emotional recycling process. ( Wherein I analyze and dissect but ideally avoid any wallowing. )