When AI Becomes Reassurance: Anxiety, OCD, and the New Rabbit Hole

A few years ago, the pattern looked like this. You felt a spike of anxiety, you opened Google, and you went searching for certainty. You read articles, forums, symptom lists, and worst case scenarios until you either felt calmer or completely overwhelmed. For a moment, you felt relief. Then the doubt returned, and you searched again.

Now in 2026, I am seeing a new version of the same cycle. Instead of Google, more people are turning to AI tools like ChatGPT to help them feel grounded, make sense of fear, or confirm what they are experiencing. For many people, AI feels even more soothing than a search engine ever did because it is conversational, fast, and tailored. It answers your exact fear in your exact wording. It can validate you, organize your thoughts, and offer a steady tone when your nervous system is not steady.

Why AI feels more calming than Google

In moments of panic or existential dread, it makes sense that asking feels grounding. AI can feel neutral, intelligent, and endlessly available. It can offer explanations, reassurance, perspective, and sometimes even emotional validation. People often show up asking questions like:

• Is this thought normal?
• Should I be worried about this?
• What does this mean about me?
• What if this is a sign something is wrong?
• How do I know for sure?

And in the short term, it often helps. Your shoulders drop. Your mind slows down. You feel a little more in control.

When reassurance turns into a compulsion

The tricky part is that for anxiety and OCD, especially existential OCD, relief is often the point. Not information. With OCD, reassurance can quietly become part of the compulsive cycle no matter where it comes from. Googling, checking, asking a partner, replaying a conversation, researching symptoms, and now asking AI can all serve the same purpose. They temporarily reduce distress and help you feel certain, even if only for a few minutes.

When reassurance becomes the strategy, the nervous system learns something important. Safety comes from checking. That is why the relief fades so quickly. Doubt returns, the urge returns, and your brain pulls you back in.

If AI has started functioning like reassurance seeking, you might notice:

• Feeling urgency to ask right now so you can calm down
• Asking the same question in different ways
• Rereading answers to make sure they still feel true
• Continuing until you get the perfect response that finally feels done
• Feeling relief, then feeling pulled back in again shortly after

If you see yourself in this, you are not doing anything wrong. Your nervous system is trying to find an off ramp.

A more supportive way to respond to the urge

Before you type, pause and ask yourself:

• Am I seeking support, or am I seeking certainty
• Am I trying to understand, or am I trying to neutralize fear
• Would I still ask this question if I already felt calm

If the answer is reassurance, the next move is not shameful. It is a pause.

Try grounding first, even briefly. One longer exhale. Feet on the floor. A hand on your chest. Then practice letting uncertainty exist without solving it right now. You can use a simple phrase like maybe, maybe not, and redirect yourself to the next right thing in your day.

This is not about never using AI. It is about using it intentionally, instead of using it as a reflex to escape discomfort.

Therapy for reassurance seeking, intrusive thoughts, and existential OCD

AI is not the problem. The pattern is. And therapy can help you change that pattern in a way a tool cannot. In therapy for anxiety and OCD, we work on reducing compulsions, building tolerance for uncertainty, and responding to intrusive thoughts differently using evidence based approaches. The goal is not to eliminate every scary thought. The goal is to help your system learn that you can feel safe without constant checking.

If you feel stuck in reassurance seeking, intrusive thoughts, or existential OCD spirals, you do not have to figure this out alone. Crescent Moon Therapy offers online therapy for women across Washington State, including Seattle, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Olympia, Puyallup, Auburn, Spokane, Vancouver, and many communities in between.

Schedule your free consultation to see if online therapy is the right fit.