Darle vueltas a algo en la cabeza (2025)

Hola a todos:

Me gustaría preguntaros si existe alguna expresión en inglés para expresar la idea de darle constantemente vueltas a algo en la cabeza, y normalmente con pensamientos negativos. Algo así como preocuparse en exceso y temer siempre lo peor.

Muchas gracias a todos por vuestra ayuda

Also possible:

I couldn’t /can’t stop running it over in my mind.

I kept/keep on running it over in my mind.

cuviense said:

Perfect! Thanks a lot for all your answers! And one last question in connection with the previous one, is there a noun to describe the person who does this? Aligned with 'wet blanket' or 'jinx' maybe?

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A wet blanket is somebody who spoils the pleasure or enjoyment of his or her companions -- not the same thing.
A jinx is somebody or something that brings bad luck -- also not the same thing.
Perhaps the terms 'worrier' or worry-wart' would be more appropriate. But these would apply, in my opinion, only if this were a constant habitual behavior. However, all of us do this at some time or other. It is the nature of the mind.

Thank you, Mr. Dent. I suspected the terms were not exactly what I was looking for, but didn't know how to explain it... Of course, all of us do worry at certain times, but there are people who constantly make a mountain out of a molehill... it is just their personality, and I was wondering if there was a term to name such behaviour...

By the way, how would you use 'a storm/tempest in a glass of water'? Which would be the right verb? They 'see' a storm, they 'make'....?

I don't know if this is what your original Spanish phrases mean, but there is also "over-thinking" - when you analyse every word of a conversation for hidden meaning, or worry about every possible eventuality and try to plan for it. And some people at least have turned it into a noun "over-thinker" How to Stop Being an Over-Thinker

But that's someone who makes themselves miserable by creating problems for themselves. Someone who makes mountains out of molehills and makes them other people's problems are "drama llamas". Someone who is always surrounded by drama of their own making.

Your Quote: people who constantly make a mountain out of a molehill...

A worry ward/worry wart [That sounds good to me, too.]
He is a real pessimist/a doomsayer.
He’s full of gloom and doom.

→A little more elaborate, arcane, and cultural way to say that—but everybody would probably understand it:
Henny Penny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Chicken Little]
He’s like Chicken Little and always

.

Re:→ He sees a storm in a water glass/glass of water.
[It is not a very familiar idiom or phrase to me; however, it’s creative, and I think no one would have any trouble understanding the meaning.]

Moolric said:

I don't know if this is what your original Spanish phrases mean, but there is also "over-thinking" - when you analyse every word of a conversation for hidden meaning, or worry about every possible eventuality and try to plan for it. And some people at least have turned it into a noun "over-thinker" How to Stop Being an Over-Thinker Great! Thanks!

But that's someone who makes themselves miserable by creating problems for themselves. Someone who makes mountains out of molehills and makes them other people's problems are "drama llamas". Someone who is always surrounded by drama of their own making.

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Thanks a lot, that was the idea yes. A person who lives in a constant drama, basically created by their own. Has then 'drama queen' any kind of connection with 'drama llamas'? Can we also say 'drama king' for men?

ayuda? said:

Your Quote: people who constantly make a mountain out of a molehill...

A worry ward/worry wart [That sounds good to me, too.]
He is a real pessimist/a doomsayer.
He’s full of gloom and doom.

→A little more elaborate, arcane, and cultural way to say that—but everybody would probably understand it:
Henny Penny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Chicken Little]
He’s like Chicken Little and always

thinks the sky is falling

.

Re:→ He sees a storm in a water glass/glass of water.
[It is not a very familiar idiom or phrase to me; however, it’s creative, and I think no one would have any trouble understanding the meaning.]

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Perfect, thanks a lot. I had heard of Chicken Little in cartoons for kids, but didn't know the real meaning of it. As for Henny Penny, it is the first time in my life I have heard it.
In Spanish we say 'to drown in a glass of water'. Sorry, I think I involuntarily mixed Spanish and English. In English, it has to do with a storm in a teacup, right? But still, would the verb be 'see'?
Thanks again to everybody for their contributions!

cuviense said:

Hola a todos:

Me gustaría preguntaros si existe alguna expresión en inglés para expresar la idea de darle constantemente vueltas a algo en la cabeza, y normalmente con pensamientos negativos. Algo así como preocuparse en exceso y temer siempre lo peor.

Muchas gracias a todos por vuestra ayuda

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I would also say "to mull over", but I don't think this expression has necessarily such bad connotations.