Worry

Worry is thinking about problems or bad things that might happen, over and over, in a way that leaves you tense and afraid. It looks ahead and asks “what if?”. Some worry is normal and even useful. Worry that is excessive, hard to control and present most days for months is the core of generalised anxiety disorder.

Also called: anxious thoughts; fretting; apprehension. WHO’s ICD-11 lists worry as a symptom, not a condition. Psychologists define it as a chain of thoughts and images about things that could go wrong, which feels hard to switch off.

Types

Useful worry is concrete and ends in a plan: “the rent is due in two weeks, so I’ll call my brother and move some money today”.
Unhelpful worry is abstract and circular: “what if I can’t pay, what if we’re thrown out, what if I never recover”, with no step at the end. Research on repetitive thinking finds this abstract, vague style is the one that keeps people stuck.

Signs and symptoms

Running through what could go wrong, long after the practical thinking is done
Finding it hard to stop, even when you tell yourself to
Feeling tense, restless, irritable or on edge
Tight muscles, headaches, stomach upset, a racing heart
Poor sleep and poor concentration

Across 55 studies, people who worried or ruminated more also slept worse. The sleep loss then makes the next day’s worry harder to manage.

Causes

Worry grows where there’s uncertainty and something at stake: money, work, exams, health, safety, the people you love. Stress and tiredness make it worse. So does trying to push the thoughts away: experiments show a suppressed thought tends to come back stronger. Worry also runs in a loop with anxiety, which is why it’s the central feature of generalised anxiety disorder.

Coping

Sort each worry into one you can act on and one you can’t. Act on the first kind, even in a small way. For the second, notice the thought and let it sit rather than arguing with it. The full set of techniques, including what to do at night, is in our overthinking guide. For worry that has settled in, CBT has the best evidence: across 55 trials, it reduced repetitive negative thinking by a moderate amount, and the gains held months later.

In Nigeria

Much Nigerian worry is about real things: money, insecurity, a job, a child’s school fees. WHO’s diagnostic manual warns clinicians that realistic worries can be wrongly judged excessive without context, and that intense worry which fits extreme circumstances isn’t a disorder. Many people say “I’m thinking too much” rather than “I’m worried”. In an Ibadan study, women used that phrase for dwelling on hurt from family conflict, and linked it to feeling hot, sleeplessness and headaches. Across many cultures, body complaints such as “heat in the head” are how worry first shows up at the clinic.

Worry vs anxiety, rumination and overthinking

Anxiety is the feeling: the fear, tension and body symptoms. Worry is the thinking that feeds it.
Rumination looks back and asks “why?”: why did it happen, what’s wrong with me. Worry looks forward and asks “what if?”. Rumination is tied more to depression, worry to anxiety.
Overthinking is the everyday word for both.
Generalised anxiety disorder is worry that has become excessive and hard to control across several areas of life, with symptoms such as restlessness, muscle tension and poor sleep, more days than not for several months (WHO) or at least six months (the US manual), and that gets in the way of daily life. Our GAD explainer covers how it’s diagnosed.

When to get help

If worry has turned into thoughts of harming yourself, get help now: call 112 (or 767 in Lagos), or Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000. The full list is on our helplines page.

Talk to a therapist if worry takes up hours of your day, has disturbed your sleep for weeks, or has been there most days for months. You can book a licensed therapist on Mytherapist.ng for anxiety and worry. Our anxiety guide explains the treatments.