I recently researched “worry-time” and realized that many experience difficulty with either applying it or even understanding its purpose. “Worry-time” refers to the postponement of worry to a later time in the day. It is part of Metacognitive therapy’s strategy to help reduce excessive worry and help people recover from stress and anxiety.
Worry postponement is not unique to MCT. Many of my clients have heard of it from when they did CBT and they tell me that they haven’t been able to successfully use it to reduce their worrying.
The reason why worry postponement doesn’t work for most people is that they use it to suppress negative thoughts. Worry postponement is a strategy that helps people reduce time spent worrying about negative thoughts. It is not a tool for directly controlling thoughts.
When worry postponement is used correctly, it doesn’t only reduce excessive worry, but it serves an important role in challenging blocking beliefs about thoughts, also called metacognitive beliefs.
Here is what you need to know about worry postponement to reap its life-changing benefits and avoid using it the wrong way.
Controlling worry by postponing worry is different than controlling thoughts. You can’t always control initial thoughts that trigger worry, whereas worrying is an active and voluntary strategy you can learn to stop.
What is worry postponement?
According to Professor Wells, the founder of MCT, you should set aside 10 minutes for worrying later in the day and postpone all worrying to that time window (3). The idea behind worry postponement is to delay reacting to triggering thoughts with worrying. So instead of worrying about “What if something bad happens?” or “What if I am physically ill?” when these thoughts come up in your mind, you can choose to postpone worrying about and analyzing these thoughts til your planned worry time.
Why should you postpone worry?
But why postpone worrying? Isn’t it better to figure problems out right away?
It has long been established that excessive worry leads to and worsens an anxious mood. Studies have shown that worrying blocks self-regulation(5) (which is healthy emotional processing that happens in the brain) and worrying causes several anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder(4).
Worrying is a repetitive chain of negative thoughts that involves catastrophizing and is oriented toward the future. Worrying is common in many anxiety disorders.
Postponing worrying until later helps the mind to process negative thoughts and emotions more effectively. Postponing worry helps clear the mind, regulate emotions, and enhance problem-solving skills.
Imagine that you didn’t have to worry every time a triggering thought came up in your mind and you felt in full control of that process. Imagine that you didn’t need to resolve every negative thought and still function. You could decide to postpone worrying about that thought for later and move on with your day knowing that you could handle your problems better that way. How would you feel?
An early study done on worry postponement showed that when self-reported worriers postponed worrying to a fixed half-hour worry window, they successfully reduced their worrying and felt less tension over 4 weeks(11).
Since excessive worry has many disadvantages to people’s psychological well-being, postponing worry will help circumvent these issues and prevent people from developing anxiety disorders.
How to practice worry postponement effectively?
1) Whenever you experience a thought that triggers your worry, you can say to yourself:
“Here comes a triggering thought. I’m not going to dwell on it now but I’ll wait to do that later“
2) Then postpone worrying about that thought for your worry time, which ideally should happen at the same time and place every day.
3) Move on with your day.
You may repeat the above sequence several times during the day. And you may also forget about the thought when you reach your worry time. Most people do, and that’s okay. In fact, it is a sign that your mind has dealt with the thought or the issue on its own.
Why does worry postponement not always work?
The biggest reason why worry postponement doesn’t work is when people use the worry postponement strategy to suppress their thoughts.
There is a big difference between postponing worrying about a thought or trying to push a thought out of your mind. The former is possible and the correct way to postpone worry. The latter is thought suppression, which is an unhelpful coping strategy and part of the Cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS) in MCT (CAS consists of worry, rumination, monitoring for threats, and other unhelpful coping strategies that cause and maintain mental disorders).
Thought suppression experiment: Try not to think of a white bear for the next 2 minutes.
When you postpone worrying about a thought, you allow the thought to exist in the back of your mind but you disengage from it. This is an MCT technique called detached mindfulness, which is very different from thought suppression.
Thought suppression, on the other hand, is when you use mental effort to push thoughts away and your goal is to get rid of something rather than co-exist with it (as is the case with postponing worrying about a triggering thought).
Here are some examples from clients of worry postponement vs. thought suppression:
| Worry postponement | Thought suppression |
| Client: Yesterday when I had the thought, “I can’t just stand here and do nothing to help my sister“, I told myself to worry about it later in my worry time. I still felt uneasy but decided to move on with my work despite that. When I got to my worry time, I realized that the best way to help her was to give her a call. We talked and it felt good to offer her my support. I don’t think I would have reached that conclusion had I continued to worry about her all day. | Client: I tried postponing my worries til later. But it didn’t work for me. Therapist: What do you mean by it did not work for you? Client: I couldn’t get the thought “What if I am seriously ill” out of my mind. Therapist: What was the goal of postponing worry? Client: To get rid of the thought and feel calm. |
The literature on thought suppression shows that thought suppression is not easy and it doesn’t work.
According to one of the studies on thought suppression(8), “The paradoxical effect of thought suppression is that it produces a preoccupation with the suppressed thought“. This is likely why people with OCD continue to experience intrusive thoughts, even though they try very hard to get rid of them.
Whether someone is trying not to think back to a traumatic event, avoid intrusive thoughts (unwanted thoughts of violent or sexual character), or thoughts about food while on a diet, the attempt to avoid such unwanted thoughts only produces more of these thoughts (8).
Worry postponement is not thought suppression
So when someone intentionally suppresses unwanted thoughts they end up increasing the frequency of these thoughts. So when someone tries to postpone worry with the goal of getting rid of their negative thought: “What if I can’t sleep tonight?” they won’t succeed and they will experience more of that thought. In my experience, this is the reason why people don’t succeed with worry postponement.
Worry postponement is when you postpone worrying about a thought you are having while you still have the initial worry thought in the back of your mind. However, suppression is trying to get rid of the thought. These are two very different thought strategies.
How is worry postponement used in MCT?
Worry postponement is an important part of learning that worries can be controlled and is a valuable strategy for reducing the time spent worrying. Since MCT’s main focus is to reduce unhelpful thinking styles like worry and rumination, clients are taught worry postponement early in treatment.
Usually, the therapist starts by challenging the client’s beliefs about not being able to control worry:
I can’t stop worrying
My worries are controlling me
Therapist: “Would it be helpful for you to stop worrying?”
Client: “Yes, but I can’t stop. I have no control over my worrying”
Therapist: “Have you ever tried postponing worry? Whenever you catch yourself worrying, you can decide to postpone that and get on with whatever you were doing”
Client: “What if I forget what I was worrying about?”
Therapist: “Then perhaps it was not that important in the first place. If something is important, It might come up again. If you were able to postpone worrying til later, what does that say about your ability to control worry?”
Client: “I guess it means that I have more control than I thought”
Advantages of worry postponement
There are several advantages to postponing worry, the main one being better emotional regulation. The mind is able to self-regulate distressing thoughts and feelings and postponing worry allows for this process to work better.
Some studies suggest that reducing worry is also linked to overcoming perfectionism, better work performance, and less procrastination.
According to my clients, postponing worry also helps them sort through their thoughts and problems so only the most important ones are left to deal with when they get to their worry time.
My clients also mention a higher tolerance to stress, a better mood, and a clearer mind.
Although many people think that worrying helps them be more prepared for future situations and solve problems better, excessive worrying disrupts effective performance, exaggerates the problem, and causes emotional discomfort.
Disadvantages of worry postponement
So far, there are no known negative side-effects to postponing worry (as long as worry postponement is done correctly and not used as a thought suppression strategy). However, some people are concerned that they could forget to think about important problems if they postpone it till later. This is, however, rarely the case. Usually, the pressing and important issues will reappear later.
When my clients hear about worry postponement for the first time, they are worried that they won’t be able to stop their worries during their worry time (as in they will continue to worry uncontrollably). However, this is a short-lived assumption that all of my clients find to not be true once they experience it.
Afraid that you might forget to deal with an important problem? Write it down on your to-do list and postpone worrying about it for your worry time. For a better use of your worry time, try to problem-solve your problem instead of only worrying about it.
Why do people worry?
People worry for many different reasons, but usually, people worry for the following reasons:
a) to prevent undesirable outcomes, diminish possible guilt, and distract from worse thoughts
b) to problem-solve, help increase control and find solutions
Examples of topics that people worry about are:
Having a heart attack or cancer
Physical health
Making a fool out of oneself
Saying or doing the wrong thing when among strangers
That people don’t like them
Meta-worry
Meta-worry is worrying about worrying. Meta-worry is typical in people with generalized anxiety disorder, where people worry about the negative consequences of worrying.
I think that I am missing out on things in life because I worry too much
I can harm my body by worrying
Meta-worry: I can’t control my thoughts as well as I would like to.
Is it normal to worry?
According to research, worrying is normal and most people worry(12). The difference between ‘normal’ people and people who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder is that the latter perceive their worrying as distressing and impairing, and they worry about their worrying (14) (for example that worrying is harmful)(13).
Basically, whether someone with generalized anxiety disorder or someone without it worries about something (for example their health) their worries don’t differ much:
“If I continue to be overweight, I could get heart disease or diabetes. I could die. How would my family cope…“
However, the person with anxiety will think that their worrying is harmful and start worrying about their worrying:
“I can’t go on like this, worrying so much stresses my body. I am worrying myself sick and losing control!“
This leads to more distress and more anxiety symptoms and makes people hyper-alert toward their physical symptoms. As a result, they will experience more physical symptoms like tension, restlessness, heart pounding, etc., causing more reasons for worrying.
Examples of worry postponement
“I am worrying right now and I don’t need to. I am going to postpone worrying for my worry time this afternoon. Maybe I will think more clearly then”
“Why am I still worrying about work when I should be sleeping? Work doesn’t get done at 2 pm anyway, so I am going to postpone worrying about work for tomorrow”
“I don’t know where to start with this project. So it is better to postpone worrying about it until I have discussed it with my manager”
Summary
Worrying is a future-oriented form of overthinking.
Since worrying causes distress and anxiety, it is better to reduce the time spent worrying. This can be achieved through worry postponement.
Worry postponement is postponing worry and doing it later in for instance a half-hour worry window that ideally takes place at the same place and time
Most people mistake worry postponement for suppressing their negative thoughts and that is the reason why worry postponement doesn’t work for them
Worry postponement is part of Metacognitive therapy. It helps patients reduce the time they spend worrying and learn that they can control their worries
References
- A.M. Ruscio, T.D. Borkovec Experience and appraisal of worry among high worriers with and without generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy 42 (2004)
- Photo by Artem Maltsev
- Wells, A., (2009). Metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression. Guilford press.
- Borkovec, Thomas D., & Newman, Michelle G. (1998). Worry and generalized anxiety disorder. In A. S. Bellack, & M. Hersen (Series Eds.), & P. Salkovskis (Vol. Ed.), Comprehensiv clinical psychology: Vol. 6. Adults: Clinical formulation and treatment. (pp. 439-459). Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.
- Wells, A., & Matthews, G. (1996). Modelling cognition in emotional disorder: The S-REF model. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34(11-12), 881–888. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(96)00050-2
- Photo by Anthony Tran
- Photo by Mika Brandt
- Wegner, D. M., Schneider, D. J., Carter, S. R., & White, T. L. (1987). Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of personality and social psychology, 53(1), 5.
- Photo by Ben White
- Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova
- Borkovec TD, Wilkinson L, Folensbee R, Lerman C. Stimulus control applications to the treatment of worry. Behav Res Ther. 1983;21(3):247-51. doi: 10.1016/0005-7967(83)90206-1. PMID: 6615390.
- J-B, Dupuy & Beaudoin, S & Rheaume, Josee & Ladouceur, R & Dugas, M. (2001). Worry: Daily self-report in clinical and non-clinical populations. Behaviour research and therapy. 39. 1249-55. 10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00011-0.
- Ruscio, A. M., Borkovec, T. D., & Ruscio, J. (2001). A taxometric investigation of the latent structure of worry. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 110, 413–422.
- Wells, A., & Carter, K. (2001). Further tests of a cognitive model of generalized anxiety disorder: Metacognitions and worry in GAD,
- panic disorder, social phobia, depression, and nonpatients. Behavior Therapy, 32, 85–102.