Questions about reassurance seeking.

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I know reassurance seeking is common in people with OCD. Just wondering if it's also common in other anxiety disorders (I mostly find information about OCD)? Also, what could reassurance seeking look like? How do you know it's excessive?

I do it all the time. I'm always asking if I was ok, if I did this ok, if someone is mad at me, if someone is irritated, etc.

It's excessive when you cannot, absolutely not, and definitely not leave it alone - you HAVE to ask. And, all you do is think about it until you get your answer.

I think EstherJ's description was right on the money as far as what constitutes OCD-type reassurance seeking. Compulsive confessing and reassurance seeking have always been the bulk of my OCD. With me, until I can confess or seek reassurance over obsessions of me doing something "wrong" or "bad", I cannot function. I have an intense panic attack until I do the compulsion, whether I have to wait minutes or days until the compulsion can be performed. This intense anxiety and feeling of doom until the reassurance seeking has occurred is what you see in OCD.

All anxiety disorders, to some degree, involve reassurance seeking, but it's in a different way and not nearly as intense or "life or death" like in OCD. For instance, people with GAD may often ask for reassurance about their job or schoolwork as a way of decreasing anxiety over fears of failure, but like all of GAD worry, the reassurance seeking will be realistic in nature. Asking "Do you think I'm going to get an 'A' on my test?" is a lot different in nature than having to check over and over that you didn't do something "bad" that you KNOW you didn't do. OCD is all about doubt and an imminent fear of danger and doom. This isn't seen in the reassurance seeking of other types of anxiety disorders.

Let me take myself as an example (I don't know what's "wrong" with me yet). I have a list. It's a very long list in which I have written down all my behaviours and problems. I'm planning on giving the list to the psychologist/psychiatrist I'll get to see within three months or so. Lately I've been worrying a lot about the list and I've been very anxious about faking. I'm scared I'm faking and that makes me very anxious. I sort of know I'm not faking but my brain tells me I might be. So I keep reading my list over and over and over again in order to make absolutely sure I haven't told any lies or exaggerated things. It's really tough because I sort of start doubting myself and my memories and I sometimes worry I might be delusional (not saying I am, but I worry about it).

When I've done or said something I'm not sure is "right" I tend to worry about people getting angry with me. It will bug me until I ask them if they're angry with me. Also, I keep asking people if they're tired of me or fed up with me.

When anxious about my mental health or when I have questions about disorders I quite often write posts (here at WP for example) in order to get my questions answered and hopefully get my anxiety to go away.

Would you say those are things I do in order to seek reassurance? Also, do you reckon people with Social Anxiety Disorder engage in reassurance seeking?

Yes, that sounds very much like OCD reassurance seeking. I correctly self-diagnosed myself with OCD a year before I was officially diagnosed, and during the self-diagnosis period, I, too, was worried that I was "faking" and didn't really have OCD. Only someone with OCD would doubt they have OCD. I compulsively researched OCD, trying to make sure I really did "have it." The research didn't stop completely after my official diagnosis, either. Then, when I was given a pseudo-diagnosis of Asperger's by my former CBT/OCD therapist, I went through the same rigamarole until a while after I was diagnosed by an AS specialist. I also have OCD anxiety if I think I angered someone, until I check to "make sure."

As for the social anxiety part, I don't have social anxiety, so I can't really say if they do a lot of reassurance seeking. My good friend has social anxiety, though, and from her descriptions, it always seems like her fear is that SHE will feel or look stupid or embarrassed in public. The worry for her comes from being rejected or laughed at by peers. So, if someone with social anxiety has reassurance seeking behaviors, I would think the need for reassurance would be primarily focused on being reassured that THEY will not screw up in public and if people like and accept THEM, rather than focusing on other people. With most cases of OCD, the sufferer has an inner sense of overresponsibility and an excess of guilt. Most obsessions have some theme of possibly hurting or endangering other people. I think with non-OCD anxiety, the reassurance seeking is just that- reassurance that everything will be okay. But with obsessive-compulsive reassurance seeking, it goes deeper, with its sole purpose being to check that you didn't do anything wrong or hurt anybody in any way.

It's all so messy right now. I have no idea what's "wrong" with me. Just like I worry about "faking" I worry about being a hypochondriac (but focused on mental issues), which in my mind means that the professionals won't take my problems seriously and they'll send me away without helping me. Deep down I know that won't happen and deep down I know I'm not a hypochondriac. Or at least I think I know I'm not. See? I worry about it too much. My head is such as mess. I'm compulsively researching mental illnesses in order to try to figure out what's going on inside my head. It only makes me more anxious though.

I'm not sure I could have OCD though (I'm not really sure about anything anymore). At least I don't have any of the "classic" OCD obsessions and compulsions. Not the ones you most often hear about anyway.

Ha, ironically this is turning into some kind of reassurance seeking as well. Perhaps you've noticed.

I am the exact same way! My doc is so frustrated with me...it's like ever since I started trying to diagnose/figure out/help myself with therapy/doctors/ect, I've become obsessed with finding out what exactly is "wrong" with me and how to fix it. I constantly obsess over my symptoms, irrational phobias, ect. I can't stop reading about all kinds of disorders and I relate to many of them--social anxiety, ocd, add, borderline, schizoid, ect. But then I take a step back and realize I'm making everything worse and maybe I'm just delusional.

What does your doc say about it?

Sometimes I even worry I'm "faking" that I think I'm "faking". Sometimes I worry that I'm completely sane and "normal" which means nothing can be fixed, which means I'll have to feel like this until the day I die. I doubt myself and my memories and I second-guess myself a lot. Also, I'm scared of being delusional.