{"id":67955,"date":"2025-07-16T19:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67955\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T19:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T19:37:12","slug":"how-chatgpt-could-be-making-your-ocd-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/67955\/","title":{"rendered":"How ChatGPT Could Be Making Your OCD Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

From time to time, we all have questions that boil down to Is this normal? Did I do the right thing? Am I okay? About two years ago, Kate \u2014 who asked to use only her first name for her privacy \u2014 started typing these kinds of questions into ChatGPT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has a guide for being human that shows you a manual of all the ways that are normal to act,\u201d she said. \u201cI guess it\u2019s like [I was] looking for that authoritative source that goes, \u2018Yes, this was certainly the right way or the wrong way or the abnormal way to act.\u2019\u201d Feeding it a scenario from her life, she\u2019d ask whether she could have misinterpreted something or if she did the right thing. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really answer the question, because nobody can answer the question,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Even though Kate knew she couldn\u2019t get the certainty she wanted, she would sometimes spend up to 14 hours a day posing these kinds of questions<\/a> to ChatGPT. \u201cYou want it to reaffirm, to add weight,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you’re 99% sure, you want it to make that 100, but it can’t because that’s not a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

This urge to ask for assurance again and again can amount to compulsive reassurance-seeking<\/a>, which is common among people with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. We all need some affirmation on occasion, but what makes compulsive reassurance-seeking different is that someone will linger on a bit of doubt trying to reach nonexistent certainty, according to Andrea Kulberg, a licensed psychologist who has been treating anxiety for 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople do it because it gives them the illusion of certainty,\u201d Kulberg said. By researching online or asking questions to a chatbot, you\u2019re trying to convince yourself that something bad won\u2019t happen, she explained. And while securing reassurance may offer a temporary bit of relief, it actually gives credence to the need to seek reassurance and can increase anxiety over time. Kulberg added, \u201cThe anxiety never says, \u2018We’re good, okay, you can stop reassurance seeking,\u2019 because it’s always followed by more doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are many avenues people use to compulsively seek reassurance \u2014 books, forums, Google, friends and family. But unlike AI chatbots<\/a>, these other resources don\u2019t prompt their users to keep going, which is one of the features that can make AI chatbots a perfect storm for individuals with OCD and anxiety disorders. \u201cIt never gives you one complete response,\u201d Kate said. \u201cIt always says, \u2018Would you like me to do this?\u2019 And I’m like, well, yeah, sure, if we’re not finished, if it’s not complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive wormhole for me,\u201d said Shannon, who can spend upwards of 10 hours a day asking for reassurance from AI chatbots<\/a>. (Shannon also asked to use only her first name.) She keeps several chats active, each reserved for a particular topic that her anxiety regularly hones in on. \u201cI’m definitely aware that it’s not healthy to do. I do try to avoid it, but I still find myself getting sucked in,\u201d she said. \u201cI’ll just think of something, and I’ll just feel that urge to go and ask AI about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occasionally, when Kate questions ChatGPT for hours about a single topic, the chatbot eventually tells her there is nothing else it can say on the matter. \u201cI think most people never get to that point where it goes, \u2018I give up,\u2019\u201d she said. But other than these moments \u2014 or when her phone battery dies \u2014 there are few breaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From time to time, we all have questions that boil down to Is this normal? Did I do…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[691,1736,738,210,517,48129,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-67955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-anxiety","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-ocd","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114864603017822781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}