When AI Reassurance Feeds Anxiety: Understanding the Cycle of Repeated Checking

Seeking reassurance is a natural response when we feel uncertain or worried. Today, that reassurance may be only a few keystrokes away through an AI chatbot. A person experiencing anxiety may repeatedly ask questions about their health, relationships, decisions, or future and feel calmer after receiving an answer. The difficulty begins when the relief is short-lived and the same question returns again and again. Reassurance-seeking is already recognized as a pattern associated with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and emerging research suggests that the easy availability of AI chatbots may provide a new way for this cycle to continue.

The cycle can be surprisingly subtle. Someone may ask an AI chatbot, “Am I sure everything is okay?” and feel reassured for a few minutes, only to experience doubt again and ask the question in a slightly different way. Because chatbots can respond instantly and continue a conversation without the natural limits of human interaction, repeated checking can become easier to maintain. Researchers have proposed that, for some people with anxiety or OCD, this immediate reassurance may reduce distress in the moment while making it harder to learn that uncertainty can be tolerated without repeatedly seeking an answer. Importantly, this does not mean that using AI causes anxiety, or that every use of a chatbot is harmful.

The goal is not necessarily to avoid technology, but to notice how it is being used. If a person finds themselves repeatedly asking the same question, checking answers for certainty, or becoming increasingly dependent on reassurance from a chatbot, it may be useful to step back and discuss the pattern with a mental health professional. Evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy can help people understand reassurance-seeking and develop healthier ways of responding to uncertainty. AI may have useful roles in mental health, but it should complement, rather than replace, professional assessment and human connection.

Reference:

1. Golden A, Aboujaoude E. A transdiagnostic model for how general purpose AI chatbots can perpetuate OCD and anxiety disorders. npj Digital Medicine. 2026.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-026-02531-7

2. Rector NA, Katz DE, Quilty LC, et al. Reassurance seeking in the anxiety disorders and OCD: Construct validation, clinical correlates and CBT treatment response. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 2019.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31430610/

3. Efficacy and risks of artificial intelligence chatbots for anxiety and depression: A narrative review of recent clinical studies. 2025.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41198140/