Educational reference
About this symptom
This describes the behaviour that grows up around worry: checking, asking others whether something will be alright, researching a concern repeatedly, or avoiding situations whose outcome cannot be known in advance.
Each of these makes sense in the moment. Reassurance genuinely does reduce anxiety, briefly. The difficulty is that the relief is short-lived, the need returns, and over time the behaviour teaches that uncertainty is intolerable and must be resolved before one can proceed.
People often describe knowing the answer already but needing to hear it again, or checking something they checked minutes earlier. Others notice their world narrowing as more situations are avoided.
Because these behaviours maintain anxiety rather than resolve it, psychological therapies for anxiety usually work on them directly, gradually building tolerance for not knowing rather than eliminating uncertainty itself.