Making Mountains out of Mole Hills

In this article, we’re going to discuss the subject of worry, and specifically we’re going to talk about worrying excessively and the harm that this mental trait can cause. Because here’s what I need you to understand right from the start: worry is useful in small doses and unhelpful in large ones.

There are things we’ll never be able to stop worrying about. For example, a parent will always worry about their child, or you may worry about your wellbeing. That’s normal, that’s healthy, that’s your brain doing its job of keeping you alert to genuine threats. The problem we’re going to discuss in this article is what happens when you start to worry excessively, when the worry becomes the problem rather than a response to problems.

The Worry Trap

Mentally we can get into the habit of dwelling on the past things in our lives that have gone wrong, and we can then project this worry into our future to imagine what could go wrong even when it hasn’t happened. We can then get trapped between our past and future worries, which takes over our ability to affect any change in the present. I call this the worry trap.

Borkovec and Inz’s (1990) research on generalised anxiety disorder identified this pattern precisely. They found that chronic worriers spend most of their mental energy dwelling on potential threats rather than addressing current reality. They’re either ruminating about past failures or catastrophising about future disasters, and in doing so, they completely miss the present moment where actual change is possible.

What makes the worry trap worse is that we don’t just dwell on what has gone, we dwell on even worse things that could have gone wrong even though they didn’t. In effect, we are making a mountain out of a molehill by exaggerating the importance of an undesirable event.

Sometimes we can also distort how we perceive future events by exaggerating the worst possible outcome that could happen too. This thinking pattern is called catastrophic thinking, and it’s one of the most pernicious cognitive distortions you can develop.

Beck’s (1976) cognitive therapy identified catastrophising as a core distortion in anxiety and depression. It’s not just thinking things will go wrong, it’s automatically jumping to the absolute worst possible outcome and treating it as inevitable.

The Background Worry Record

It can feel like you’ve mentally got a “worry record” playing in the background, to the extent that even when everything is okay in your life, you are still looking for things to worry about. Add in catastrophic thinking, and you can easily develop the habit of not just looking for things to worry about but also mentally working up the worst-case scenarios. As you’d expect, this is not too good for your mental health.

I had a patient who would lie awake at night running through disaster scenarios. Her child is ten minutes late from school; she’s imagining accidents. Her partner is quiet one evening; she’s convinced they’re planning to leave. Her boss asks for a meeting; she’s certain she’s about to be fired. None of these things ever happened. But the constant mental rehearsal of disaster was absolutely real and absolutely exhausting.

Hirsch and Mathews (2012) demonstrated that worry functions as a form of cognitive avoidance. Paradoxically, by worrying about everything that could go wrong, you avoid actually confronting and solving the problems in front of you. The worry feels productive, it feels like you’re doing something, but you’re actually just spinning your wheels.

Luckily the worst things that could happen usually occur a lot less than you think. Even if the worst possible outcome tends to be what you fear the most, you shouldn’t spend all of your mental time and energy dwelling on the worst things, because that will wear you out.

Playing to Your Strengths

Spending your life fearing the worst possible outcome hinders your ability to make a better result happen. A better outcome is a lot more likely to happen if people spend a bit more time thinking about achieving that instead and doing something about it too.

Worry can be a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ironically, spending your day worrying about bad things can make those things more likely to happen, as you’re spending all your time worrying and effectively doing nothing to strive towards something better.

The tennis player who spends the night worrying about losing in the final can turn up to that final match totally unprepared to play their best game, and more likely to end up losing. This isn’t just a metaphor; it’s documented across multiple performance domains.

Beilock and Carr’s (2001) research on performance anxiety shows exactly this. When people worry excessively about failing, they actually impair their performance through several mechanisms. Worry consumes working memory resources that should be dedicated to the task, it increases physiological arousal beyond optimal levels, and it triggers conscious monitoring of normally automatic processes, disrupting skilled performance.

Life is never as simple as this, but the point I’m trying to make is this: we should play to our strengths, not always our worries. If you want that job, think about getting that job, not what would happen if you didn’t. You need to mentally start looking at where you want to go and not where you don’t.

The Protection Mechanism Gone Wrong

We protect ourselves by making mountains out of molehills, and we are programmed for self-preservation by naturally wanting to avoid things that can harm us. The problem is when we take this trait too far. We have to accept there will always be some problems, and there will always be some uncertainty.

Carleton’s (2016) research on intolerance of uncertainty shows that people who worry excessively have difficulty tolerating ambiguity. They need certainty, and when they can’t have it, they fill the gap with worry. But life is fundamentally uncertain. You can’t eliminate uncertainty by worrying about it, you can only make yourself miserable in the face of it.

Each problem you face is a rung on the ladder that’ll take you mentally out of the worry trap, and only after you have climbed the mountain by confronting your fears head-on will you get a proper perspective of how small those molehills were.

Gilbert and Wilson’s (2000) research on affective forecasting shows that we systematically overestimate how long negative emotions will last. We think a setback will devastate us forever, but actually we adapt remarkably quickly. This is called the impact bias, and it’s one reason why our worries about future events are almost always more painful than the events themselves.

Breaking the Worry Habit

So how do you actually break free from the worry trap? It’s not as simple as just “stop worrying,” because if it were that easy, you’d have done it already.

Wells’ (1995) metacognitive model of worry distinguishes between worry about external events and worry about worry itself. When you start worrying about the fact that you’re worrying, that’s when worry becomes truly unproductive.

First, schedule your worry. I know this sounds unusual, but it’s backed by solid research. Borkovec and colleagues (1983) found that setting aside a specific “worry time” each day actually reduces overall worry. When a worry pops up outside that time, you acknowledge it and postpone it.

Second, distinguish between productive and unproductive worry. Productive worry leads to problem-solving action. You worry about money, so you create a budget. That’s useful. Unproductive worry just cycles through scenarios without leading to action.

Third, challenge your catastrophic predictions. When you catch yourself thinking the worst will happen, ask yourself: what’s the actual probability of this? What’s a more realistic outcome? What evidence do I have for my prediction?

The Path Forward

We need to play to our strengths, not our worries. Your strengths give you agency, capability, and hope. Your worries give you paralysis and doubt. Start noticing when you’re making mountains out of molehills. When you catch a worry, pause and ask: is this a mountain or a molehill?

Remember that you’re probably overestimating how bad things will be and underestimating your ability to cope. Your track record of surviving bad days is 100% so far. You’ve gotten through every difficult moment of your life up to this point. That’s evidence you can handle what comes next.

Further reading

• Borkovec, T. D., & Inz, J. (1990). The nature of worry in generalized anxiety disorder: A predominance of thought activity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28(2), 153–158.
• Wells, A. (1995). Meta-cognition and worry: A cognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 23(3), 301–320.
• Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders.
• Burns, D. D. (1980). Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy.
• Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life.