Millions of people use ChatGPT for help with daily tasks, but for a subset of users, a chatbot can be more of a hindrance than a help.

Some people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are finding this out the hard way.

On online forums and in their therapists’ offices, they report turning to ChatGPT with the questions that obsess them, and then engaging in compulsive behavior — in this case, eliciting answers from the chatbot for hours on end — to try to resolve their anxiety.

“I’m concerned, I really am,” said Lisa Levine, a psychologist who specializes in OCD and who has clients using ChatGPT compulsively. “I think it’s going to become a widespread problem. It’s going to replace Googling as a compulsion, but it’s going to be even more reinforcing than Googling, because you can ask such specific questions. And I think also people assume that ChatGPT is always correct.”

People turn to ChatGPT with all sorts of worries, from the stereotypical “How do I know if I’ve washed my hands enough?” (contamination OCD) to the lesser-known “What if I did something immoral?” (scrupulosity OCD) or “Is my fiance the love of my life or am I making a huge mistake?” (relationship OCD).

“Once, I was worried about my partner dying on a plane,” a writer in New York, who was diagnosed with OCD in her thirties and who asked to remain anonymous, told me. “At first, I was asking ChatGPT fairly generically, ‘What are the chances?’ And of course it said it’s very unlikely. But then I kept thinking: Okay, but is it more likely if it’s this kind of plane? What if it’s flying this kind of route?”

For two hours, she pummeled ChatPGT with questions. She knew that this wasn’t actually helping her — but she kept going. “ChatGPT comes up with these answers that make you feel like you’re digging to somewhere,” she said, “even if you’re actually just stuck in the mud.”

How ChatGPT reinforces reassurance seeking

A classic hallmark of OCD is what psychologists call “reassurance seeking.” While everyone will occasionally ask friends or loved ones for reassurance, it’s different for people with OCD, who tend to ask the same question repeatedly in a quest to get uncertainty down to zero.

The goal of that behavior is to relieve anxiety or distress. After getting an answer, the distress does sometimes decrease — but........

© Vox