Do You Excessively Seek Reassurance?

"People with anxiety issues tend to engage in reassurance-seeking behaviors. Although getting reassurance can help with anxiety in the short term, it makes it worse in the long run. It might be helpful to involve a loved one if they are involved in your reassurance-seeking behaviors. Are you deeply uncomfortable with uncertainty? Anxiety sufferers often have a hard time tolerating uncertainty, which can lead to catastrophic thoughts and unhelpful behaviors."

"Reassurance seeking often involves asking for validation, comfort, or information to reduce anxiety. For those who struggle with anxiety, it is often done compulsively or repeatedly. Examples of Reassurance-Seeking Behaviors Reassurance-seeking behaviors can take many forms. Here are some examples: A man with panic attacks who worries about cardiac problems repeatedly looks at his heart rate on a watch to ensure that it is not too high."

People with anxiety often struggle to tolerate uncertainty and engage in reassurance-seeking behaviors to reduce distress. Reassurance seeking includes asking for validation, comfort, or information, and commonly becomes compulsive or repeated. Typical behaviors include repeatedly checking heart rate, consulting the internet or AI about bodily symptoms, calling a parent for reassurance, constantly monitoring a baby, checking finances obsessively, scrutinizing social cues, or repeatedly checking locks. Reassurance often reduces anxiety short-term but maintains or worsens anxiety long-term. Involving a supportive loved one can help when they participate in reassurance behaviors, and addressing intolerance of uncertainty offers a productive target for intervention.

Read at Psychology Today