Artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT are becoming part of everyday life. People are increasingly using them to answer questions, solve problems, and learn about their physical and mental health.
For individuals living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), it is understandable that AI may also become a place to ask questions about their intrusive thoughts, obsessional doubts, feared situations, treatment, or uncertainty. Many people find themselves typing questions into ChatGPT that they may have previously asked a partner, family member, physician, therapist, or searched for online.
Although this may initially seem like a harmless way to obtain information or reassurance, many OCD clinicians are beginning to express concern that AI chatbots can unintentionally become another source of reassurance seeking. Research specifically examining ChatGPT and OCD is still emerging. Much of the current concern is based on well-established research examining reassurance seeking and compulsive checking, with AI representing a newer platform through which these behaviours may occur.
This article explores why using ChatGPT for reassurance can become problematic, how AI may fit into the OCD cycle, and what individuals can do instead.
Is using ChatGPT for OCD reassurance a problem?
For many individuals with OCD, it can be.
The concern is not that ChatGPT exists or that people occasionally use AI to learn general information about OCD. Rather, the concern arises when AI becomes a source of certainty, reassurance, or temporary relief from obsessional doubt.
For example, someone with OCD might ask ChatGPT:
- Does this intrusive thought mean I secretly want it?
- Can you tell me I’m not a bad person?
- Are you sure I didn’t harm someone?
- Does this sound like OCD or something else?
- Can you explain why I shouldn’t worry about this?
Although the answers may temporarily reduce distress and anxiety, many people notice that the relief does not last. Before long, they feel compelled to ask another question, reword the original question, or seek reassurance elsewhere.
In clinical practice, this pattern is often much more important than the technology itself. Whether reassurance comes from a family member, an internet search, or an AI chatbot, repeatedly seeking certainty in this manner may unintentionally strengthen the OCD cycle.
Why are OCD clinicians becoming concerned about AI?
Many clinicians are becoming concerned because AI chatbots have several characteristics that may make reassurance seeking through these platforms particularly reinforcing.
Unlike asking another person, ChatGPT is available at any time of day, never becomes frustrated, responds almost instantly, and will answer the same question repeatedly using different wording. It also allows users to ask follow-up questions indefinitely in an attempt to feel more certain or reassured. Because AI is available at any time, people may find themselves seeking reassurance far more frequently than they would from another person.
For someone experiencing obsessional doubt, this can create an almost unlimited opportunity to seek reassurance.
Although research specifically examining AI chatbots and OCD is still developing, these concerns are consistent with decades of research showing that reassurance seeking and compulsive checking often provide short-term relief while maintaining OCD over time.
The technology itself is new. The underlying OCD process is not.
What is digital reassurance?
Digital reassurance refers to repeatedly using technology to reduce obsessional doubt, increase certainty, or temporarily relieve anxiety.
Long before AI became available, people with OCD often sought reassurance through internet searches, online forums, health websites, social media, or repeated checking of information online.
AI chatbots represent another form of digital reassurance.
Rather than repeatedly asking another person for certainty, individuals may begin repeatedly asking an AI chatbot whether their fears are realistic, whether they have done something wrong, or whether an intrusive thought means something about who they are.
Repeatedly Googling intrusive thoughts may become another form of reassurance seeking for many people living with OCD. AI chatbots may function in a similar way when they are repeatedly used to reduce obsessional doubt.
In practice, the behaviour may look different because technology is involved, but the function is often very similar. The goal is no longer simply to learn new information. Instead, it becomes an attempt to reduce uncertainty, obtain certainty, or relieve distress. When the primary goal becomes obtaining certainty or reducing obsessional distress, digital reassurance may begin functioning like other compulsions and unintentionally maintain OCD.
The technology may be different, but the underlying psychological process is often remarkably similar to other forms of reassurance seeking that have been recognized in OCD for many years.
Why can ChatGPT become part of the OCD cycle?
ChatGPT can become part of the OCD cycle when it functions as a compulsion rather than a source of education.
One of the core features of OCD is the urge to reduce distress or resolve doubt as quickly as possible. Compulsions often provide short-term relief from distress, but they also teach the brain that uncertainty or distress cannot be tolerated without performing the compulsive behaviour.
Repeatedly asking ChatGPT for reassurance may serve the same function.
For example, someone may initially feel calmer after receiving an answer from AI. However, because OCD rarely remains satisfied for long, new questions often emerge.
- But what if ChatGPT misunderstood me?
- What if I didn’t explain it properly?
- Maybe I should ask again using different wording.
- What if another AI gives a different answer?
The cycle continues. It is not being maintained because the previous answer was inaccurate, but it is because OCD continues demanding certainty. Although it is natural to want certainty, repeatedly seeking reassurance is unlikely to provide lasting relief. Evidence-based treatments such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) help individuals develop different ways of responding to obsessional doubt without relying on repeated reassurance. While these approaches conceptualize OCD differently, both aim to reduce the behaviours that keep the OCD cycle going.
One of the central ideas in I-CBT is that people with OCD often already possess reliable information from their direct experience, but become pulled away from it by obsessional doubt. Treatment helps individuals reconnect with what they already know through their direct experience, rather than repeatedly searching for reassurance from external sources, including AI.
In clinical practice, many individuals are surprised to discover that OCD can use almost anything as part of its cycle. The specific behaviour often matters less than the purpose it serves. As long as the cycle continues, OCD is often given another opportunity to persist. One of the goals of treatment is helping individuals recognize these patterns and gradually respond to them differently.
How can I tell if I’m using ChatGPT as reassurance?
One of the simplest questions to ask is:
“Am I trying to learn something new, or am I trying to feel certain?”
Using ChatGPT to learn about OCD, understand a therapy approach, or clarify a psychological concept is different from repeatedly asking it to resolve obsessional doubt.
Another helpful question is:
“If ChatGPT couldn’t answer me right now, what feeling would I be trying to escape?”
For many people with OCD, the answer is uncertainty, distress, guilt, responsibility, or the fear of making a mistake. Identifying the emotion driving the urge to seek reassurance is often more informative than focusing on the technology itself.
Signs that ChatGPT may be functioning as reassurance include:
- asking the same question multiple times
- rewording questions until the answer feels “right”
- comparing answers across multiple AI platforms
- asking AI to determine whether an intrusive thought is meaningful
- asking AI to confirm memories or feared events
- feeling temporary relief followed by a strong urge to ask another question
- using ChatGPT because it feels more reassuring than sitting with distress or uncertainty
In practice, individuals often recognize these patterns only after stepping back and considering what they hope the AI will provide. If the primary goal is obtaining certainty, reassurance, or temporary relief from obsessional distress, the behaviour may be functioning much like other compulsions.
How is therapy different from asking ChatGPT?
Evidence-based OCD treatment is fundamentally different from asking ChatGPT for reassurance.
Although both a therapist and an AI chatbot may answer questions about OCD, their roles are very different. Therapy is not designed to repeatedly provide certainty or reassurance about obsessional fears. Instead, it helps individuals understand the processes that keep OCD going and develop new ways of responding to obsessional thoughts and doubt.
In clinical practice, many people initially seek therapy hoping a clinician will tell them that their feared outcome will not happen. While it is completely understandable to want this type of reassurance, effective OCD treatment generally takes a different approach. Rather than helping individuals repeatedly answer OCD’s questions, therapy helps them understand why OCD keeps asking the questions in the first place.
Although different evidence-based treatments conceptualize OCD somewhat differently, they share an important goal: reducing the behaviours that keep the OCD cycle going. Repeated reassurance seeking, including through AI tools such as ChatGPT, may become one of those behaviours.
One of the strengths of therapy is that it provides individualized assessment and treatment. Rather than offering the same response repeatedly, a therapist works collaboratively with the individual to understand how OCD is functioning, identify the processes maintaining it, and develop strategies that are tailored to their specific presentation and treatment goals.
Therapy also provides something that AI cannot: an ongoing collaborative relationship. Within the context of this relationship, reasoning processes are explored, experiments are created, and individuals learn how to approach their OCD with an adaptive set of tools and strategies.
How is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) different from asking ChatGPT for reassurance?
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals reduce the compulsive behaviours that keep OCD going, including reassurance seeking.
Rather than repeatedly answering OCD’s questions, ERP encourages individuals to gradually approach situations, thoughts, images, or sensations that trigger distress while reducing the compulsive behaviours that typically follow. These compulsions may include checking, reassurance seeking, avoidance, mental rituals, or increasingly asking AI chatbots for certainty repeatedly.
The goal of ERP is not to leave someone distressed indefinitely. Instead, treatment helps individuals learn that they are capable of responding differently to OCD and that compulsions are not necessary in order to move forward.
In clinical practice, reassurance seeking often becomes one of the behaviours addressed during ERP. As individuals begin relying less on reassurance and more on the skills they are developing in therapy, OCD often becomes less influential over time.
How is Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) different from asking ChatGPT for reassurance?
Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) approaches reassurance from a different theoretical perspective, but it also recognizes that repeatedly seeking certainty from external sources often keeps OCD going.
One of the central ideas in I-CBT is that OCD pulls individuals away from what they already know through their direct senses, lived experience, and ordinary reasoning. Instead of trusting this information, OCD encourages people to become absorbed in imagined possibilities and “what if” scenarios.
Repeatedly asking ChatGPT whether an obsessional doubt means something, whether a feared event might happen, or whether a memory can be trusted may unintentionally reinforce this obsessional reasoning by encouraging further engagement with the doubt.
Rather than helping individuals obtain certainty through repeated reassurance, I-CBT helps them reconnect with certainty grounded in their direct experience and everyday reasoning. As individuals become better able to distinguish reality-based information from obsessional doubt, the urge to repeatedly seek reassurance often begins to lessen.
Although ERP and I-CBT conceptualize OCD somewhat differently, both approaches aim to reduce behaviours that keep the OCD cycle going, including repeated reassurance seeking.
What should I do instead of asking ChatGPT or Googling my intrusive thoughts?
If you notice yourself repeatedly turning to ChatGPT for reassurance, the first step is not to criticize yourself. Many people with OCD naturally seek certainty when they are distressed.
Instead, it can be helpful to pause and ask yourself:
- What am I hoping ChatGPT will tell me?
- Am I trying to learn something new, or am I trying to feel certain?
- Would one answer truly satisfy my OCD, or would another question quickly follow?
Simply recognizing reassurance seeking is often an important step toward changing it.
If these patterns occur frequently, discussing them openly with your therapist may be helpful. Together, you can explore the role reassurance is playing within your OCD and develop strategies that are more consistent with your treatment approach.
Can I ever use ChatGPT if I have OCD?
Possibly, but the purpose matters.
Using ChatGPT to learn general information about OCD, understand psychological terminology, or prepare questions to discuss with a healthcare professional is different from repeatedly asking it to resolve obsessional doubt or provide reassurance. Even when using ChatGPT to learn general information, it can also be helpful to consult trusted sources, such as the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF).
Of course individuals do use ChatGPT for a variety of reasons, whether they are mental-health related or otherwise. ChatGPT can be a useful tool for many everyday purposes because it is able to summarize and organize information from across the internet in a quick and accessible manner. However, it is not designed to replace psychological assessment or evidence-based treatment, nor is it intended to determine whether a specific intrusive thought means you are dangerous or whether a feared event is likely to occur.
In practice, the important question is often not whether ChatGPT is being used, but why it is being used. If the primary purpose is obtaining certainty, reassurance, or temporary relief from obsessional distress, AI may be functioning much like other compulsions.
Like many technologies, ChatGPT is not inherently therapeutic or inherently harmful. The question is whether its use is supporting your treatment goals or becoming part of the OCD cycle. If you notice yourself repeatedly returning to ChatGPT to answer the same obsessional questions, obtain certainty, or reduce distress, it may be worth discussing this pattern with your therapist.
Conclusion
Artificial intelligence is likely to remain part of everyday life, and many people will naturally turn to AI tools when they have questions about their mental health.
For individuals living with OCD, however, it is worth considering not only what questions are being asked, but why they are being asked.
The concern is not that ChatGPT exists. The more important question is what role ChatGPT is playing in your relationship with OCD. When AI becomes a way of repeatedly seeking reassurance, certainty, or temporary relief from obsessional doubt, it may unintentionally become part of the OCD cycle.
The encouraging news is that treatments are available for individuals with OCD. Evidence-based approaches such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) help individuals develop different ways of responding to obsessional thoughts without relying on repeated reassurance. Although these approaches differ in how they conceptualize OCD, both aim to reduce the behaviours that keep the cycle going and help individuals regain confidence in their ability to respond differently.
At Forward Thinking Psychological Services®, we provide evidence-based treatment for OCD across Ontario and several other Canadian provinces through secure virtual therapy. If you have noticed that reassurance seeking—including through AI tools such as ChatGPT—has become part of your OCD, we would be happy to discuss our approach and whether our services may be a good fit for your needs.
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